That's me on my private yacht with the floating village in the background.
The terrain here is flat and jungle with a huge lake nearby called Tonte Sap - 150 kilometers (almost 90 miles) across! It was because of this lake that the temples and palaces were built here. Temp and humidy = mid-ninties - it is the end of their wet/monsoon season.
After settling into my room, it was too late to do any of the temples. So a "guide" asked me if I wanted to go see the "floating village"? I had no idea what this was - but it sounded interesting - so I decided why not. After a bumpy 45 minute motorbike ride, and paying a $15 park entrance fee, onto my own privately captained boat for a 25 min boat ride into what appeared to be mangrove - but this was fresh water!?
This gives you an idea of the many forms of floating residences there are - small, large, some with boat hulls some on pontoon like things. What cracked me up was how many TV antenna were present - at least 1 in 3 had one - look closely and you can see them in this pic.
So - kinda weird that after traveling a great distance from Vietnam into another country, the first "tour" I take in Siem Reap was to a Vietnamese village!? Guess that strange things happen during one's journies!
Turns out this floating village is a myriad of types and forms of boat houses on the lake forming a village called Chong Khneas AND its entire population is Vietnamese "lake squatters" which has been around for well over a century! They say that the VN never come ashore. They fish and farm fish, grow greens on floating gardens, and will grow some rice during the dry season on the edge of the lake. Evidently the Cambodian gov't gave up trying to deport them years ago! Btw - the inhabitants speak no Cambodian - and the village has 3 floating schools!
Tomorrow I hit the real thing very early in the AM. So, good night from Campuchia!
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