On Saturday Tohl took Mike and I to the river’s edge to explore the floating village on the outskirts of Siem Reap. Cambodia has one of the worst land mine problems in the world – with an estimated 4-6 million remaining from the decades of war that raged across the country. Because of this, land is very expensive so many families live on the river instead.
Here is where we started our journey.
Visa was our tour guide – he spoke great English. His family lives on the river and so we got a first person account of what life is like on the river. He one day hopes to get his license to be a tour guide – which cost around $4,000 – so it’s not an easy task. Most families live off of a few dollars per day here, the average income being $290 per year.
A floating basketball court!
Floating Catholic Church
We stopped at this floating market shop that also is a crocodile farm.
There are many different varieties of snakes that populate the river – none poisonous according to Visa, but good for eating.
Look, you can buy snake meat, crocodile meat, and wine to go with it!
We stopped at this shop to buy notebooks for the school that we visited next on the river.
The school has all of the younger grades in one class and Cambodian kids and kids from Viet Nam all together.
Floating shipyard.
It’s dry season now so the river was very low and muddy from all the agitation. When it’s rainy season (starting in a month or two) it gets so high that it raises up to the street. This picture gives you good perspective of how high it gets (see the house on stilts in the middle!)
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Great photos! Some photos are a bit scary (snakes and crocodile) but it looks like a very interesting travel. Enjoy!!