Cambodia: floating village

Us on the boat

There's a place on the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia where there's a floating village. The whole village is built on stilts above the lake, with lower levels that are tethered to the stilts, to adjust to rising water levels. In the rainy season, the water is much higher than during the dry season, so the lake levels change drastically.

The whole village uses boats as the form of transportation. There are houses, temples, a sheriff's office, restaurants, hotels....a full village. And all of these places are accessible only by boat. Some of them back up to a road, but during the rainy season, the roads are mainly washed out, so they're not a primary form of transportation.

The washed out road and bridge.

We hired a little shallow-bottomed 8-seater motor boat to take us on a tour of the village and the lake. We saw houses and villagers and fishermen. We also saw pigs living in wooden crates a few feet above the water. And houses you access by ladder from a boat that have a HUGE flat screen TV and television antenna on the roof.

While touring around the lake, we saw underwater forests, floating restaurants and a couple of fishermen selling fish from their boats. The boat had big coolers of ice and interested buyers would paddle/motor up to the fisherboat and pick out their fish. The fisherman would pack up the fish and some ice into a plastic bag and off you would go with your fish. 

The boat

Once we got in the boat, out on the lake, we had a lovely time. But the getting to the boat was another (slightly traumatizing) adventure.



After our impromptu "very strenuous" hike, we ate lunch (delicious, of course) and then got in the car to travel to the lake. I was wet, cold and a little tired, watching the rain hit the windshield and watching people work the rice paddies on either side of the roads we were traveling. By this point, we were at least an hour outside of the city of Siem Reap and in truly rural, agricultural Cambodia. As we traveled along, I kept my eyes out for wildlife: I saw stray cats, chickens, cows and WATER BUFFALOES. If you have never seen a water buffalo, go do it. They are such cool animals. They're shaped like cows, but bigger, thicker and with WAY cooler horns. 

The boats

 As we're passing fields of water buffaloes, the road is getting narrower and narrower. Until it's one lane, unpaved, rutted, muddy clay. And there is a river on one side. And it does NOT look like we are getting close to a lake. Or a boat dock. We continue on this road for a good 20 minutes until we pull up next to some (not gonna lie: rickety-looking) water craft. We get out and board a craft. Which proceeds to have engine failure. So we get out and board another craft. And enjoy our tour of the lake.