Life on Water

Well it didn't take me too many days to be back on water.

The river boat ride from Siem Reap to Battambang takes about 4 hours in the wet season - and up to 10 in the dry season. It is dry season now, and I had a good 8 hours of time to admire Cambodia by water. But the setup was great!

The journey didn't begin very auspiciously as we were ushered into the smallest, oldest and most clapped out boat in the harbour. Unfortunately the big boats are unable to get through the winding river, which connects the two cities during the dry season. Therefore they had dug out a contemporary of the African Queen and stacked her too full of passangers. The engine noise was deafening and everyone was sitting on uncomfortable wooden benches with their backs to the river juggling for footspace. For eight hours? Not bloody likely said she, and promptly climbed onto the roof with the luggage and two fellow passangers. That's when the going got good.

The views were spectacular as we drifted past hours of floating villages. These villagers didn't build their houses on stilts as so many people next to rivers do to accommodate flooding and sudden water rises, but went one better and built their houses on pontoons, or just live on regular boats with barrel-like hoods. Little sun-browned kids seem to spend more time in the river than on the banks and squealed with excitement as they rushed to play with the waves of our boat - and no over-anxious parents were watching as groups of 3-5 year olds frolicked by themselves in the river. Here the water is as much a place to be as the land - adults and children alike wading into the river whenever they got too hot - often fully clothed. Going to visit your neighbours is also out of necessity done by boat, as are all other daily chores such as bathing children.

About half way we stopped for a quick lunch in a floating restaurant. Soon after that the floating villages stopped and regular river-side villages took over. The endless naked kids frolicking in the stream continued however - Cambodians are certainly making up with a vengeance for the decrease in the population due to the Khmer Rouge years! Kids abound here - they seem to outnumber adults by about three to one.

Around this point in the journey the river also got extremely shallow, and we ended on stuck on sand banks a few times. Luckily not stuck as badly as some boats, where the passangers had to get out and pull the barge free. Not that, apart from some reservations about the quality of the water, I would have minded a dip in some cool water by this time, since though a much nicer place to travel than the inside of the boat, the tin roof of the boat was warming up around noon in way that made me think of the play about a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

I also had ample time to investigate the various novel methods of fishing, which have been developed here. Maybe the development of these methods has been motivated by the heat, since most of them seem to involve the fishermen being at least up to their bellies in the river - much cooler than sitting on the banks all day.

Around 4pm I landed in Battambang, where I spent an enjoyable day yesterday, going around the surrounding villages by motorbike. Here I leave you with an image of my fellow roof-top traveller - oh, the hard life of a investigative journalist!