Up and out of the room for breakfast before setting off again. Yummy crepes stuffed with freshly shaved coconut and nuts, along with some of the usual stuff. Matt and I get to eat breakfast upstairs today:
and this is where we spend most of our time on the boat. It’s open and breezy and the view is excellent.
Around 11, we dock and Matt and I get out to board a little wooden boat with a grinning, grizzled, partially toothless old man in the back.
Our paddles are wicked short, but gamely we help with the paddling. In this smaller boat (I complain a little we didn’t get one of the ones with a woven cover, delicate flower that I am under the blazing sun), we head into the really small canals that our boat can’t enter. Even closer view of the happenings I listed before.
At one turn, the canal becomes covered thickly with vegetation (lily pads? Made me think is the floating island in the Life of Pi because sometimes so thick couldn’t get a paddle through). This goes on for a bit and it’s a struggle to continue on.
Finally the old dude ties up the boat and jumps off, signaling he’ll be back. Great! He does return, we turn around and head back from whence we came. Since our boat was expecting our exit elsewhere, we have to paddle down the bigger canal for a ways until we find it. All that work! I’m glad to be back perched up in my nest to laze away the day.
Behind the one-house deep row along the river were large rice-paddy fields:
Women waiting for water-taxi:
Women paddling with their boats filled with piles of clams:
We lost our chef right before stopping for our paddle – he hurt his foot. Lucky for us, because the new chef is so much better. Some fried fish, dal and sauteed veggies for lunch, then back to our viewing spot.
Cool dude punting his boat along:
Boats getting a tow across large lake area:
Hang out reading and playing cribbage until we dock around six, and dinner at eight. Totally awesome dinner! Little fried chicken pieces (we can never tell what parts they are because cut so randomly), slivered green beans with coconut and spices, caramelized onions with sautéed carrots, rice, stewed tomatoes with onions and spices, and fresh lime soda. Mmmmm good.
A little rummy 500 and it’s back to our bed after such an exhausting day! Back on land tomorrow.