The thermometer already accuses the 28 C

6: 30 in the morning. The thermometer already accuses the 28 C. The day rises on Phnom Penh. A light mist cloaks the Royal Palace, a real jewel of khmer art. At this time, the frenetic capital Cambodian, located at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, has not yet reached its climax... Smooth, the RV the Marguerite is detached from the Sisowath Quay. At the helm, Hai, Vietnamese captain, impeccable white shirt and smile unalterable. Soon, the khmer characteristic landscape of rice constellées sugar Palm scrolls before our eyes. Cockpit offers a lookout mesmerizing to watch the banks of the River, witnesses of rural life: houses precarious straw and Tin on stilts clinging to the banks and under which bask Buffalo of water, long procession of children going to school in their white blouse, skirt or blue shorts, fishermen aboard flimsy craft under their netsas many static scenes, orchestrated by the regular show of pagodas arising in a dense vegetation of tamarix, cashew and other mango trees. An hour and a half later, the vessel lays anchor, time for a short stopover at Koh Chen, a river town in the shadow of the bridge in Prek Kdam, freshly opened. The village is famous for its local crafts based on the work of the copper and silver but this stop will be marked by the meeting with Mr Um its tuna, Professor in retirement. To improve its purposes of months, the septuagenarian alert and affable provides courses of mathematics privately in an outdoor classroom in his garden. Resolutely francophile and francophone, it gives free lessons from French students soon rule three assimilated. "Yesterday, we studied the letter F", welcomes the teacher. On the Blackboard, all letters the following sentence: "Who is flour", translated into Cambodia. No better Ambassador than Mr Um its tuna in a country where the French language is loss of speed!

The RV the Marguerite resumed its advance. Built in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, one in the spirit of the colonial years, the 70-metre boat lists 46 cabins. Everywhere, from floor to walls, decoration is based on a range of local precious wood to give an overall harmonious. Sunset approach. Not a breath of air. While the Sun Red, it revels in the pool on the sun deck. Since the Bank manages the buzz of the monks in prayer. A kind of time suspended before switching in the mysteries of the night...

6 h. The best time to take the measurement of the River. The atmosphere is such that the first coffee in the bar of the upper deck takes a particular flavour. Poussifs bins are the shuttle between the two sides in a noria of sampans pétaradants engines. The approach of Kampong Chhnang, the Tonlé Sap is divided into multiple arms. Natural phenomenon unique in the world, between Phnom Penh and the same city, the River reverses its course twice year. In early June the pressure of the Mekong River, which begins its flood, is such that it reaches reflux Tonlé Sap to great Lake which then quintuple its area. Access to the largest Cambodian river port by a canal with hyacinth of water, water lilies and other lotus. A canal which leads to a real city on the water. Along the shore, floating houses raised on bamboo rafts spread over more than five kilometres. In the heart of a phenomenal bubbling, which is running into hundreds of boats, arises, sometimes a school wedged between the stall of a craftsman and a hardware store... It will not go before. The multiplication of electric dams on the Mekong River-side Chinese, and a record drought, Ricochet, prohibits any navigation on Lake Tonle Sap. Memory of Cambodian, the water of the richest reserves of fish in the world has never been as low. The time has therefore come to initiate the return to Phnom Penh...