Cambodia hass definitely been hotter than Vietnam, though that may be because we’ve been on open roads. Long dusty, bumby stretches leave us coated in red and dry of throat. As in Vietnam, people call out ‘hello’ as we ride by, chilren running to wave or touch the foreigner’s hands. They spend their days in the shade under their stilted houses. I assumed that the stilts implied regular flooding, but Polo told me that’s a secondary consideration. The primary reason for getting the houses off the ground is to get closer to the gods – the more affluent the family, the higher the house. Shade for family, motorbike and livestock is a happy bi-product.
We stopped at a river where a local man fished with a net while his sons did somersaults into the water and dove off each others’ shoulders. The fish he caught were tall and flat like an angel-fish and small enough to belong in a goldfish bowl, but they were clearly intended as food. He practised his English with us while he worked. For a country that lost all its educated people thirty years ago, they are doing well.