So August 17th, 2015 has finally arrived... Been planning our inaugural cruise about Ama Dara since November 2014 and now - Lake and River water levels are down - bus trip is up...
Mr. Son - our Ama Waterways Cruise Director gathered and processed everyone in the lobby of the Sofitel with a minimum of effort and stress. We were all assigned to one of four colors - blue, yellow, green, and orange - which corresponded to ribbons on our bags and the bus we would be boarding for the 5.5 hour bus trip from Siem Reap to our low water boarding area at Prek Dam.
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| Gathering in the Lobby |
The buses were comfortable and each had their own Ama Waterways tour guide to fill us in along the way - talking about the various areas, how it was growing up in Cambodia and stories shared from their parents about the bad times in Cambodia.
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| The countryside along the way was very pastoral |
Along the way we were introduced to the term "Happy House", as in "We will have Happy House stop in 2 1/2 hours..." We were also introduced to "Road Massage" and finally to the concept of dust white outs on the highway. Happy House as you might have guessed is the Cambodian term for comfort stop. Our first stop was at a road side cafe - gave us our first view of the Tonle Sap Lake.
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| Tonle Sap Lake as seen from our first Rest Stop |
I think that Road Massage and White Outs are very closely related. We had been warned that the road got a little rough - which was absolutely true. Seems like road work in Cambodia proceeds at glacial pace or not at all. One side of the road would be paved; the other would be dust, dirt, and pot holes and with the amount of traffic on the road throwing up the dust, there were times when you literally could not see 10 feet in front of the bus - since we were right behind the driver and could see what he (couldn't be) was seeing, this is not an exaggeration. We couldn't believe it the first time it happened so we didn't get a picture - after the first time, we had the camera ready - this picture doesn't do justice to what it looked like because you can still actually see the bus in front of us.
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| This looks more like a Brown vice White Out |
After another 90 minutes, we had our second stop - aka the Spider stop. After a good amount of Road Massage, the line to the Happy House was plenty long. Once everyone was done, the Fear Factor Follies began...
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| Crickets, Tarantulas, Assorted Bugs anyone? |
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| Several passengers and one of our guides had a snack |
About 45 minutes later, just as the sun started to play hide and go seek with a few rain clouds, we caught our first glimpse of the Ama Dara, moored bow first on the river bank. This was our first indication that river cruising on the Mekong will be a little different than on the Danube or Mosel in Europe.
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| Ama Dara moored on the bank |
As soon as our buses pulled up, the embarkation party and celebration began with a celebratory Dragon dance to chase evil spirits away and guarantee us smooth sailing. Our gang way is actually extended from the ship directly onto the river bank - no pier at all - mooring lines were attached to trees along the river bank. Worked really well but our crew had to work pretty hard to pull the mooring lines through the trees and reeds to get them attached.
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| Dragon Dance |
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Ama Dara gangway
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Our sail-away was smooth and we headed north on the Tonle Sap...
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| Brown Water cruising... |
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| Sun Deck was a great place to watch our sail away |
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The natural beauty of the Lake and River at sunset
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After our obligatory life jacket and emergency procedures drill, we all gathered in the Saigon Lounge for our Welcome Aboard greeting. We had colorful local dances, the Captain's introduction of his crew, and a personal welcome by our host, Ama Waterways CEO, Rudy Schreiner. After the festivities, it was time for our first dinner aboard and a restful night's sleep anchored mid-stream on the river.
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| Welcome dance by Cambodian troupe |
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