Floating Village, Siem Reap

After calling it a night around 730PM the night before, we woke around 4AM for our first full day in Siem Reap….Less than ideal, but no point in dwelling on it, let’s go! At 7AM we went down to the open air dining area at the GG (Golden Gecko Villa) half expecting our “free breakfast” to be a little bowl of cereal, or a slice of toast…..Nope, fresh fruit, cereal, yogurt plus a croissant or baguette sandwich with egg and ham (the girls subbed in peanut butter). It was great. The tuk-tuk driver we had arrange the night before met us at 8am…. Off we were to see the floating village.

It was a surreal feeling….the 4 of us, only a matter of a day or so removed from February in TO, travelling across the Cambodian countryside by way of tuk-tuk. We drove past cattle that wondered onto and off of the road at random. Lisa remarked at how skinny they were….Past beautifully green rice fields, and countless “hamlets”…for lack of a better term…rural road side towns, with but a few shacks, all offering either gas, or food, or who knows what.

Eventually, we got to the river. It was only a foot or two deep at that point, but nevertheless, boats were tied up one after another with zero space between them. We were talked into renting a boat that was large enough for 4 families, citing safety first (they saw me coming from a mile away). Although we are trying to be as frugal as possible, we didn’t mind the $40USD cost in the end. Besides, the driver drove us for maybe 3 or 4 hrs.

So, off we went, and as we proceeded the water slowly got deeper and deeper. The shore was lined with fisherman after fisherman, gathering their nets before collecting it’s contents, then tossing it again. A real look of what life is like for many Cambodians. We saw a pair of brothers who I would guess are about Ellie and Isabel’s age, naked, knee deep in the water, fishing net in hand. All kinds of traps, and “cages”, or enclosures which held various things including crocodiles.

Next came the stilted shacks, probably 25 feet above the water. Shack after shack. They are used as both retail shops, and of course, living quarters for those who own them. February being pretty much the very low/dry season, the river was very much down. This of course, left the wooden ladders leading up to the shacks exposed. This excursion would look altogether different in the wet season.

We didn’t stop, we just kept going, smiling and waving at the children as we past. The local women all stopped what they were doing when they saw Ellie and Isabel. They see tourist of all kinds every single day, but I got the impression very few were as young and as cute as our girls.

We made it to the mouth of the river that lead into quite a large lake. On the lake were a few floating structures. One was a tour place where we could rent kayaks, to paddle through the mangroves (we passed on that). The other was a restaurant, so we checked that out. Our tuk-tuk driver, who joined us on the boat, instructed us to order drinks only, nothing to eat. I was way ahead of him on that, lol. It was pretty clear where all the sewage from all those shacks was going…straight into the river. With it being the peak of dry season, and the river so low…..it just seemed kind of obvious. So the girls had a gigantic coconut, with 2 straws, and lisa and I split a can of beer. The girls were excited to see the cages at the side of the restaurant. One had a few crocodiles in it, the other, a giant boa constrictor.

After a while, we headed back to the GG to try and figure out our internal clock situation…