Battambang - Cambodia
6/5/05
A minibus picked us up at the hotel at 5:40 A.M. drove to the pier through a dirt road crossing some interesting villages. The houses were made of bamboo, all on stilts on the side of the dirt path. There were made of only one small room (2x2) with no door where entire families where living with no belongings besides the cooking ware. The kids under five years old were running around naked.
Because we were only at the beginning of the raining season the level of the water was still low and thus the pier was a bit far; so the drive took around one hour.
At the pier we moved to a tiny boat that took us to Battambang in an eight hours trip. There were at least 10 other passengers including tourists and locals squeezed in the small compartment, two Spanish guys even travelled on the roof of the boat as there was not enough space. The trip lacked in comfort, but undeniably it compensated in sights.
First we went slowly through the harbor of the village, where trading was going on, then we crossed a floating village that seemed out a National Geographic documentary. The houses are all within the margin of the river and the water was turned into an avenue.
Here the people not just look different ...
... they live differently.
Fishing is, obviously, the main activity of these families. They have developed a technic to fish that uses a bamboo crane system.
The river has hundreds of these all long. There is a big fhishing net under the water that can be lifted by the bamboo crane at any moment catching the fish.
When we reached the Tonle Sap Lake the boat speeded up and the trip turned into a splash festival. Our backpacks got quite wet too. It was quite surprising to see floating houses in the middle of the lake far from any coast. The lake is 160 kilometers long and 36 kilometers wide.
On the other side of the lake we entered again another river, the Sangker River, with similar villages.
The boat stopped in these villages picking up more passengers and also their goods. We could not believe that there were still able to fit people on the boat.
In some points the river was completely covered with Water Lilies and we had to go very very slow.
We crossed many villages along the trip and the houses on the river bank were also very basic. There were also many kids playing around naked and they always waved to us from the river bank.
We made a stop for lunch in a stilt house on the water, but we didn't have the courage to eat after seeing that the dishes were being washed just next to the basic toilet that flushes all the waste into the river. Not only do they use that very same water from the river for washing dishes, but also to bath, to wash their clothes, in summary it is their only source of water.
We arrived in Battambang around 3 P.M and were received by a group of hotel hawkers, so it wasn't really difficult to get to the hotel as they all offer a free transfer from the pier to the accommodation.
We had lunch at the hotel and walked around in the city. The place is completely different to Siem Reap, as it is not so touristy and much easiear regarding hassling and beggars.
This is the second biggest city in the country.
A minibus picked us up at the hotel at 5:40 A.M. drove to the pier through a dirt road crossing some interesting villages. The houses were made of bamboo, all on stilts on the side of the dirt path. There were made of only one small room (2x2) with no door where entire families where living with no belongings besides the cooking ware. The kids under five years old were running around naked.
Because we were only at the beginning of the raining season the level of the water was still low and thus the pier was a bit far; so the drive took around one hour.
At the pier we moved to a tiny boat that took us to Battambang in an eight hours trip. There were at least 10 other passengers including tourists and locals squeezed in the small compartment, two Spanish guys even travelled on the roof of the boat as there was not enough space. The trip lacked in comfort, but undeniably it compensated in sights.
First we went slowly through the harbor of the village, where trading was going on, then we crossed a floating village that seemed out a National Geographic documentary. The houses are all within the margin of the river and the water was turned into an avenue.
Here the people not just look different ...
... they live differently.
Fishing is, obviously, the main activity of these families. They have developed a technic to fish that uses a bamboo crane system.
The river has hundreds of these all long. There is a big fhishing net under the water that can be lifted by the bamboo crane at any moment catching the fish.
When we reached the Tonle Sap Lake the boat speeded up and the trip turned into a splash festival. Our backpacks got quite wet too. It was quite surprising to see floating houses in the middle of the lake far from any coast. The lake is 160 kilometers long and 36 kilometers wide.
On the other side of the lake we entered again another river, the Sangker River, with similar villages.
The boat stopped in these villages picking up more passengers and also their goods. We could not believe that there were still able to fit people on the boat.
In some points the river was completely covered with Water Lilies and we had to go very very slow.
We crossed many villages along the trip and the houses on the river bank were also very basic. There were also many kids playing around naked and they always waved to us from the river bank.
We made a stop for lunch in a stilt house on the water, but we didn't have the courage to eat after seeing that the dishes were being washed just next to the basic toilet that flushes all the waste into the river. Not only do they use that very same water from the river for washing dishes, but also to bath, to wash their clothes, in summary it is their only source of water.
We arrived in Battambang around 3 P.M and were received by a group of hotel hawkers, so it wasn't really difficult to get to the hotel as they all offer a free transfer from the pier to the accommodation.
We had lunch at the hotel and walked around in the city. The place is completely different to Siem Reap, as it is not so touristy and much easiear regarding hassling and beggars.
This is the second biggest city in the country.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 8:10 AM
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