Just want to share an interesting sight that intrigued me on a recent trip to Tonle Sap lake ,Siem Reap Cambodia...a floating mosque.
The lake though was a disappointment to me. It was highly polluted and the abject poverty indeed tugged your heart.
As the boat tugged along the channel towards the lake, a various array of activities can be observed along its banks as the village folks with all their houses(or ram shacks rather..) did their daily chores.
I saw besides the mosque, floating churches and schools.
People came to Siem Reap more to visit the Angkor Wat and the remnants of this ancient civilisation and of course this was part of our must see itinerary.
I cant though help noticing the cultural and facial features similarities of the Kampuchea people and the Malays.
Indeed there was a certain ethnic group called Champa that i believed are Muslims, i met one at the halal KFC and he spoke decent Malay!! hmm interesting.
What are my thoughts as i left Siem Reap? While i still marvelled at the remnants of Angkor Wat, the Bayon temple and the "Angela Joline' Lara Croft movie based temple,Ta Phrom...i was left more intrigued and sad on being told of the ravages and devastation that the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot has inflicted on Cambodia during their short regime in 1975 to 1979.
In just 4 years around 2 millions people were tortured and massacred(the right word!) and it may not have gained the notoriety of 'Auswitch" of world war II but the detention and interrogating place called S-21 was a horror place of torture and "cleansing" of almost similar magnitude. A human mind left to its own device as history shows and as recent as during this tragic era of the Pol Pot regime can conjure and undertake the worst form of brutality and unexplained ruthlessness. I believe the present Khmer populace are still living to terms of this legacy of real tragedy and brutality.
The Khmer's being the people who much earlier has spawned a wonderful and rich cultural civilisations as depicted by the remnants of the Angkor Wat certainly did not deserve or expect such a shameful legacy of the killing fields as recent as 1975..... As i left the place though i can sense a sense of optimism of the youth as shown by our tour guide who take up night studies while working during the day.
To Siem Reap...i came only wanting to visit the Angkor Wat but left sensing a more pensive mood and empathy of the sufferings that the people must have endured during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Back to the floating mosque, i had a conversation with the Imam ,he too can speak some rambles of Malay and according to him there are around 80 Muslim families living within the Tonle Sap lake floating villages .
As i sensed the wobbliness of the mosque as boats passed by,.."excuse me, can they anchor the mosque?"
" Angkor(anchor) Wat(what) ?"..ha ha pardon the pun again!!!
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