We packed up this morning because we are flying to Bangkok this afternoon. But before leaving we went to a floating village. We drove over some really terrible dirt roads to a boat pier where we got on a long tail boat, a type of boat typical in Southeast Asia, which uses a common automotive engine connected to a long propeller shaft that allows the boat to power through fairly shallow water. The driver took us to a village made up of houses built atop rafts. This area of the river was home to about 1,400 people. On the way we saw them moving a warehouse upstream by towing it with one of the long tailed boats.
We stopped at a house in the village to visit with a couple of locals. Their house was built on a raft supported by oil drums. An older couple lived there. The woman was 63 and worked as a midwife. She delivers 30-40 babies per year. She showed us the kit she uses to deliver the baby. It was very basic. Three weeks ago she delivered her twenty first grandchild. He was sleeping in a hammock. She was very vibrant and enthusiastic. Her husband was 68 years old and had worked as a fisherman. He is retired now and their children help support them. They currently have 10 children and 21 grandchildren. When they were growing up, all 10 kids lived with them in their small home. They had a wall of wedding pictures of all their children. Our tour company has a charitable foundation which helps provide basic necessities to indigenous populations throughout Cambodia and much of the world where they run tours. The foundation paid for this family to have a bathroom in their house. To supplement their income they raise crocodiles in the back of the house which they sold for their leather. As with this family, it seems that many other people have various odd jobs to supplement their income, sometimes tarantula hunting, sometimes having tourist at your home for lunch, sometimes raising crocodiles. Meeting them was impactful because in the midst of what we might consider extreme poverty they seemed vibrant and satisfied with the very simple life they led. A good lesson for all of us.
We returned to the dock, got back on the bus, and drove back over the terrible roads to a little town where we got on ox carts and rode around the village for 20 minutes or so. Simple lives, seemingly happy people once again.
It was interesting and similar to other little villages we had seen throughout Cambodia. It many cases it appeared that a prosperous family would live right next door to not so prosperous family.
After our ox cart ride we returned to the hotel where we had some lunch and then left for the airport. We said a goodbye to Vuhta, a really excellent guide, boarded a plane and flew to Bangkok.
We were met in Bangkok by Lin, our guide for the rest of the trip, as well as another traveler on our trip. We got stuck in terrible, terrible, Bangkok traffic. I think it took us two hours to get to the hotel. At the hotel Rick met the rest of our group for dinner and I was so tired I just went to bed!