Life on the water

---

We have left Sean at home with Alexander. Agata has gone to Brussels for a course and we are in Siem Reap for a few days. The temperature, in the late 20s, is very pleasant.

Our first venture out was to a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake, the second largest freshwater lake in the world. We have arrived when the water levels are at their highest and it goes from covering roughly 2700 sq kms to over 10,000. No wonder we thought the landscape was flooded when we flew in right over the top of it. At this time so much water rushes in from the connecting Mekong River that the current is reversed.

It also meant that we didn’t have to drive so far as the village came closer to Siem Reap. As the water recedes the whole village moves downstream with it, including the school with its floating basketball court/playground, gardens, shops and crocodile farm!

Instead of Walking School Buses, there are floating ones with small children in charge of getting their school mates home safely in canoes. I don’t know how they train tiny children not to fall in but there were plenty of them playing quite happily on small decks which were just extensions of the open-fronted houses. A lot of household activities are carried out here. It seemed hammocks are used a lot which makes sense as the buildings are not very large. While some looked a bit rickety others were quite new. Naturally fishing is the main industry although income from tourists is increasing.

The drive there and back was very pleasant through rice paddy fields. The guide explained how some growers can get two crops a year. The first has the plants neatly transplanted in rows by hand but for the second crop the seeds are just scattered. Water buffalo can be seen resting quite happily in the muddy waters while the white Brahmin cattle graze on small patches of grass.

---

Photos

Up the canal
Looking out the front of our ‘canoe’.

Frames of buildings
Which will be re built when the water recedes

Open air crematorium
There is a Buddhist Temple nearby