Floating Villiages

Jessica writes:
On Saturday, we spent another several hours with Ponheary on a boat trip to the floating villages on Tonle Sap lake in Siem Reap. Even though we expected a certain amount of poverty, the setting shocked us. For generations, these families have lived in floating villages, each year floating closer to the mountains during the rainy season.

Pollution from trash and motor boats has continues to diminish the number of types of fish. The trees surrounding the villages are where the fish lay their eggs during the dry season. In order to make money, the Cambodians here take the baby fish and sell them to the Vietnamese - thus again disrupting the life cycle of the fish and limiting their food supply. Suppoesdly over the past 30 years, they've lost a couple hundred species.

The small shacks they live in are made of any materials they can come up with. While the creativity and resourcefulness is apparent in some, the sight is still staggering. Children come up in boats and ask you for $1 to take a picture of them. The number of kids begging was unbelievable. Some parents even give their children snakes to attract tourists to them. We fell for the cute little girl on the left before we learned the economics behind it. The sad reality is that if tourists continue to pay them, they will continue to beg, decreasing the probability that they will actually end up working for a living. According to Ponheary, it used to be much worse, however tour companies are attempting to educate tourists and this had actually made a postitive impact.

Some tourists who previously visited the Floating Villages have decided to go a step further. A floating school was paid for by the Vietnamese, a new school house with a playground was donated by some Japanese tourists and Korean tour boats can be seen all over the place. I can't recall who paid for the floating basketball court.

Along the road leading to the village, makeshift huts are lined up along the road. Most are on stilts and look rather precarious. Children and adults cross planks no more than 2 feet wide to get into their homes. If someone were to fall, the drop might be more than 20 feet. Scary!!

We didn't stop along the road to the floating village. I'm not sure that I could bear it. The poverty was very upsetting. Honestly, I didn't realize what an affect it had on me. The naked children everywhere continue to run around with smiles on their faces. If only they knew that life could be different. The knowledge and hard work that it would take to get them there would inevitably destroy their innocent happiness. Worth it though. Definitely worth it. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the cycle is anywhere even close to ending.

And Dad, yes, of course I cried.

(We filmed a short video of the road to the villages and will upload it later because it's a HUGE file).

(more photos)