A Woman of Tonle Sap Lake
There was a woman that I saw once in Tonle Sap Lake in Combodia.
Lake Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. For most of the year, its size gets to 2,700 square km, but it can increase to 16,000 square km due to flooded water from Mekong river during the monsoon season.
This is Tonle Sap from Google Map:
I was enjoying the vastness of the lake with my three travel mates and a few strangers in a small boat. I’d never been to such a huge lake. It felt like we were sailing in the ocean. It was just a peaceful afternoon in Cambodia not only because of the weather and distance from civilization but also because of the placidity of the last day of our busy trip.
Then I spotted this women, out of nowhere, rowing out the huge lake in a tiny round tub.
In that tiny thing! I was struck by her strength, by her courage, by her labor, and by her everyday life that would make it an ordinary thing. All of sudden, I felt brutal loneliness. It wasn’t really from her being there all alone in the middle of a huge lake. It was from her desperation, human beings’ arduous effort to continue their life in vain and pain.
The joyful memories with my new friends, the plain lives that I would miss soon, the miraculous ruins of Angkor Wat, or the surrendered look of a helper kid who looked only 9 or 10 years old couldn’t really answer that loneliness.
When I stopped by my hometown Gumi, Korea after the trip, I heard the news that my uncle, my mentor, passed away.
I’m still looking for answers as we all are.
