the river - tonle sap

The Tonle Sap is a combined of lake and river system in Cambodia. The capital- Phnom Penh is just west of the 4-way river intersection, which is called the Chattomukh ("Four Faces"). From the northwest and northeast, respectively, flow the Tonle Sap and Mekong River (12th longest river in the world, flowing from China, pass Thailand (known as chao praya river) to Laos, then Cambodia). These waters merge and split into the Basak River and the Mekong, which flow southeast to the South China Sea.

What is so unique about Tonle Sap is that the flow of the river will changed its direction every autumn when the monsoon rains are too great for the Mekong to carry, and it floods a large area of Cambodia. This flood even reverses the flow of the Tonle Sab River, northward to the Tonle Sap which can expand to ten times its normal size.

Tonle Sap - a river that provides a livelihood to the indigenous people - the ethnic Cham minority and Vietnamese river people. The Royal Palace was built at the 4-way river intersection to oversee Cambodia. It was an important intersection in the past as the river was their main mode of transportation. Tonle Sap, a river that consumed 5 Singaporeans hungrily. A river that I sail down during my visit there in June, A river where my tourguide at the age of 5 after liberation from the Khmer rouge and losing contact from his loved ones, swim, bath at, loiter around before the new government drove along the river to 'collect' all orphans to provide them with a better living.

taking in the scenery on the boat.
Children swimming along the river happily

The river was calm when the 3 of us sail down. I didn't know it can be so vicious. Felt rather sad about the dragon boat tragedy. Perhaps it could be due to the fact that I did some dragonboat early this year and having visited the river.. it just add on to it. Somehow, it brought back years ago memory whereby my instructor ask me and Lyn to do a capsize in a canoe at Kallang river. Under his watchful eyes, both of us did it. You have to be very alert, know how to swim out of ur canoe, sense the current (note, ur canoe upon capsize will flow with the current also, you need to swim faster or swim in another direction else u get the risk of knocking into your capsized canoe) and onto the water surface. Imagine the capsized dragonboat, the strong currents and the pontoon.

may the families of the victims find closure as time goes by. a sad tragedy.

geographical info of tonle sap taken from USGS website