I was so excited. We
were going to Kampong Phluk, another floating village on Tonle Sap lake. We had to travel much further on the lake to reach the village. Tracy had been invited to lunch by a local
Cambodian, Sot. It was his family house, and we were all going. I was thrilled to be included. Of course, we had to bring the food, as a
local family could not be expected to feed all these foreigners!
The men in our group were pleased that we had bargained successfully and got a good price. But we soon realized that we were on the slowest boat as everyone else whizzed past us, and then we discovered that we had a time restriction and would have to leave Kampong Phluk as soon as we got there. A few phone calls back to the manager were required and we had to pay more!!
The houses in this floating village were all on stilts, no houseboats here. It was laid out just like a normal village. There were main traffic routes, and then smaller side roads, and little alleyways. Sot’s house had a side road out front, and an alleyway out back where the neighbours were much closer. Both entrances had ladders down to the water. The front one, had two additional landings on which animals were kept, a pigpen and a chicken coop.
The house was fairly open plan, but with sections that could be divided by curtains, and there was one area that was more permanently enclosed, but I’m not sure what it was used for. The floor inside was solid planking with a few gaps – not like our school house! Outside on what I am calling the front, there was an area that was used for general living, with a couple of hammocks, and the kitchen. The kitchen had a different flooring, which was more open to with lots of gaps to allow scraps and rubbish to fall through to the water below.
This is a photo of some of the neighbours.
After lunch, we went by boat to a jetty area where all the Cambodians hang out on the weekends. It was really strange, like the first stage of a big building, just the beams. So people would perch on and hang off the beams, and dive into the water. We weren’t that brave. After all the village wasn’t that far away, and we were aware of what was being thrown into the water!
We ran out of petrol on the way back, but this wasn’t the
problem I thought it would be. Someone
appeared very quickly with petrol in a plastic container and sold us enough
petrol to get home! Apparently this is normal.
The left over shrimps came home with us. I was perturbed as they had sat in the sun for a large part of the time, and were covered in dust from the ride.
The left over shrimps came home with us. I was perturbed as they had sat in the sun for a large part of the time, and were covered in dust from the ride.
When we got home, we were too exhausted to go out. Had toast and peanut butter for dinner –
definitely didn’t want the shrimps. Claire
would have been horrified. She had calculated
exactly how many slices we were allowed to eat each day, and we were most probably
eating our breakfast!
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