Floating Villages and an Ox Cart

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We only have a half day left so this should be a relaxing morning just traveling around sightseeing, right? WRONG! Going with the spirit of this active vacation we made use of every moment of our last few hours.

Our guide saide we were going into the countryside to see some rice farms and villages. Then we pulled up to these 2 rickety carts pulled by water buffalo! In Thailand we stopped on the side of the road one day to watch a group of water buffalo from 50 yards away. Now I'm going to be sitting behind one's rear end.

We climb into the cart and were told to sit sideways but since I was at the back, I just hung my legs out the back. We rode for about 20-30 minutes, not sure, over farm access roads, very muddy with LOTS of ruts and big holes! Course the roads for cars in the countryside of Cambodia are all made by red clay, muddy in rainy season and dusty in dry season. We saw village homes on stilts that we thought were for flooding but our guide said most the people had come from the forest so the stilts were used to keep wild animals out at night. We passed by a huge flock of ducks being paraded into the rice farm water pool and Ernest started salivating. But our guide said they are not for eating but being raised for their eggs.

At one point in the rickety cart, we passed by 3 or 4 women on the actual road and they started laughing hard. I don't speak Khmner but it wasn't hard to tell the were saying some version of "stupid tourists".

After getting off the carts and gathering up our dignity while rubbing our rear ends, we crawled back in the van and went to a dock to take a small covered motor boat up the channel toward the largest fresh water lake in SE Asia. The rainy season and level of water determines where you get to catch this boat and so we had to ride a little longer due to the high water.

After a few minutes we arrived at a floating village, literally, called Mechrey. These people live off the lake and water so their houses actually float on the water and rise and fall with the water. Even the school. The only thing not floating is a Buddhist temple built on a little hill so it doesn't flood. The people here grow fish and crocodiles; yes, crocs. About 2,000 people live this way. They have tvs but they are battery powered. They are defintiely used to being a tourist stop since there were places we could dock that were stocked with souvenirs. We passed 2 other tour boats as we were headed out, but not the Chinese. They went to the other side of the lake that way. Whew!

We ate some lunch and had some extra time before going to the airport so we went to a silk farm. I went to a silk factory in China and the cocoons were white. Here, and in Thailand, the cocoons are yellow. This is the reason the silk is of better quality than China. What was unusual about this farm from the others I'd seen in both China and Thailand, was that is place controlled all the production, growing the mulberry plants, harvesting the worms, maintaining a portion for future reproduction to all stages of silk preparation and weaving. It is all done by had in much the same manner as it's been done for many centuries. I asked the silk farm tour guide about it and he said that they don't automated because they don't want to take jobs from the people. So their process is very painstaking and labor intensive, therefore more expensive, but it's more important for their people to have work.

By then we had to go to the airport for our flight to Bangkok and shortly after to home. We of course got the same full service meal and free beer for the hour flight we got on the way out of Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok with just enough time to go back to the hotel, get some noodles, got to our favorite 90-minute massage place, clean up and head back to the airport to start our 21 hours of flying back home.

Again, this has been the best organized tour I've ever taken. We had some much fun with things to see, do and learn. The Thai people are very laid back, you don't hear horns blowing over much in their ridiculous traffic, they don't rush around and always greet with a smile and bow. The Cambodians are still adjusting to their constitutional monarchy trying to get their political parties straight and their economy in order. Workers are paid about $2 a day but that is not mandatory. Their currency is so hyper-inflated that they feel weathier with US dollars so everything is priced that way. We did some some local currency at 4000 riel = $1 and I have to say it made us feel a little weathier to hand a waiter a 10,000 bill for tip.

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Photos

Floating village
raising crocs

Floating village
growing crocs