Day 18 - Sunday 17th September

Last night, Joyce, our ship's hotel manager had told me that there would be good photo opportunities this morning - particularly temples - when the ship sets sail at 6am along the Mekong River. So I set my alarm for 5:30am and was on the top deck soon after 6am.

There certainly were interesting sights but many of the buildings were hard to photograph because they were either a long way away or partially hidden by trees. At least I was able to get some shots of the sunrise.

After yet another nice buffet breakfast, we needed to be ready at 8am for our excursion. By this time, the ship had moored at a small village called Kampong Tralach. The main destination for the excursion would be the Oudong Temple.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the morning was the first leg of the journey because it was an ox cart ride. A series of ox carts were waiting for us on the river bank near the ship. Each cart had two oxen and a driver.

We sat on the cart one behind the other. I sat at the back of the cart with my legs dangling over the edge. Suzy sat behind me with the feet on either side of me. We were both facing backwards looking at where we had been.

It was quite an adventure. Our procession travelled through the nearby village and then along rural roads. Many local residents waved to us as we went by and children ran along side us trying to sell us things such as flowers. A policemen on a motor bike oversaw the procession.

Although it was a bumpy ride at times, we managed quite well. A few people had opted to travel in a ricksaw rather than taking the ox cart ride. I'm glad we took the ox cart because it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yest another fabulous memory from our holiday.

Our guide , Lovy, later told us that oxen used to be a very common method of transportation in the past but is now not used very often. I also realised that the animals we'd often seen in the fields on the side of the road had sometimes been oxen rather than cows.

After about 30 minutes, we reached a village called Wat Tralach where we climbed off our carts and boarded buses for the next part of our journey to the temple.

Today was a public holiday and a long weekend in Cambodia and so there was a lot of traffic on the road. The bus trip normally takes about 40 minutes but it took us well over an hour and it was about 10am by the time we reached the temple.

Along the way, we passed through several villages that were very busy with markets along the sides of the road. It was difficult for the buses to get through the villages with cars, motor bikes, tuktuks and bicycles going in both directions. People were spilling onto the road around the markets.

The Oudong Pagoda is apparently the largest pagoda in Cambodia. There is a large central building with several smaller building around it in the grounds. There is a rectangular lake next to the temple with large monuments on the perimeter and in the middle of the lake.

Before entering the temple, we needed to take our shoes off. We weren't allowed to wear hats and so most of us had left our hats in the bus. Instead our guide had encouraged us to take one of the umbrellas from the bus to protect ourselves from the sun and the heat.

Inside the temple, there was a large Buddha at one end. The walls and ceilings were painted with religious scenery. Two monks were sitting on the floor on one side of the room. We were invited to sit on mats on the floor in front of the monks.

Our guide gave us a brief introduction to the ceremony before the monks chanted a blessing that lasted for about 5 or 10 minutes. Towards the end of the ceremony, the monks took flower petals from the golden bowls in front of them and scattered them over the audience.

Next we were shown around other parts of the grounds. Children with trays of jewelry followed us everywhere we went trying to encourage us to buy from them. At the end of the tour, we noticed one young lad who had a very large wad of bank notes in this hands.

During the tour, our guide told us about the nuns and the monks. The monks wear golden robes whereas the nuns wear white. Believe it or not, there are male nuns as well as female nuns. Nuns are allowed to be married.

He introduced us to one of the nuns who was about 80 years old. She was probably the smallest adult I've ever seen (apart from dwarfs). Her head was shaved and she didn't seem to have any teeth.

The buses were waiting to take us back to the ship but this trip only took about 15 minutes because the ship had moved to another village called Prek K'dam while we were at the temple. We were back on board by about 11:45am and the ship set sail again at 12 noon.

We put on a load of washing in the ship's laundry before going to the dining room at 12:30pm for a buffet lunch. Today the chef had prepared a leg of lamb. The scenery was the same as we'd seen earlier because we were heading back the way we'd come past Phnom Penh.

At 3pm, we went on a tour of the bridge with the captain. He showed us the impressive array of electronics on the control panel. He also handed us a sheet giving technical information about the ship. For example, the ship is 85m long and 12m wide. The ship's maximum speed is 11 knots.

Surprisingly, the ship has a flat bottom that is only 1.5m below the water line and so the ship can sail in water as shallow as 2.5m. Most of the time the river is much deeper than this. While we were in the control room, the depth was 14.5m and the river can get up to 25m deep.

The captain told us that the distance from the village we just left to the next destination was 150km and so we'll be sailing all afternoon and evening. He expects to be dropping anchor at 1:30am. I guess that means we'll be woken in the early hours of the morning by the noise of the anchors being dropped.

Suzy went to an Asian cooking class at 4pm. At 5:45pm, we went upstairs for drinks around the pool as the sun set over the river. Tonight's port talk also included information about our disembarkation on Tuesday morning,

Dinner was another example of fine dining. Great food well presented. We could have attended a trivia night at 9pm but decided to go back to our cabin instead and get ready for bed after another long and memorable day.