Day 211 - River Rats

Today we began our great Cambodian over water excursion with a side trip to Battambang. Battambang itself, despite being Cambodia's second-largest city, is sort of a pointless dusty town, but the boat ride there is reputed to be one of the prettiest in the country. Though the boat was about as comfortable (and nearly as crowded) as an Indian bus, it was still a day well spent.

The boat departs from the floating village adjacent to Siem Reap. From there it zips across a small section of Tonle Sap Lake, really more of an inland sea. Even going across a tiny portion of it, we were out of sight of land in short order.

The rest of the trip is taken on the Tonle Sap (I think) river, which varies in width from quite wide to scarcely more than the boat. The first section of the river goes through a national bird sanctuary where we saw storks or cranes, egrets, herons, and parrot green kingfishers among others. In addition to all the wild birds along the banks, we had a very special passenger on our boat. A local man flagged us down, then climbed aboard with his fighting rooster. I don't know how good of a fighter he could be though - he was extremely friendly and curious about the boat. He spent most of the trip hanging around the cabin entrance begging for - and getting - bits of baguette from the captain, and pats from the nearest passengers.

Frequently the boat motored past floating villages. These are entire communities floating in the river. Everything from church to school to pigsty gets its own pontoon float. The markets are mobile affairs of ladies in heavily laden boats paddling from float to float. Everyone has at least a few boats - a motorized fishing boat, a barge of some sort, and little wooden boats for getting around the neighborhood.

Sometimes the floating villages lived in tandem with houses built on stilts. Other times, there were whole communities made up of stilt houses. A few of the stilt homes sat on sturdy bamboo legs. Most, however, perched precariously on little more than crooked twigs, giving them the appearance of ungainly spiders stumbling drunkenly into the river.

Everywhere was evidence of the flood cycle that governs river life. From the homes built to rise with the water or to stand above it, to rubbishy 12 feet up in the trees, to rater lines worn into the banks. Also evident was the incredible poverty of the region. Children often ran about naked. Those with clothes, child and adult alike, often wore ill-fitting, torn, and stained garments. Amazingly, everyone was incredibly friendly, despite their desperate straits. The Khmer ladies that joined our boat really wanted to talk with us, despite having no English, and fretted over a Brit girl who was feeling ill. All the children smiled and waved from the banks, and showed off doing flips and dives in the water. I may have said this before, but it bears repeating. It seems that the countries we have visited that have the least stable political climate/history produce the friendliest, most optimistic, and helpful people. Perhaps it is because the main troubles are with the government, and the majority of the people wish to distance themselves from that. Perhaps it is because they have witnessed the worst that humans can do to one another, and wish to disprove that history. Whatever the reason, the Cambodians (and earlier in the trip the Nepali) have been among the most generous and charming people we have met anywhere in the world. It really helps to be surrounded by such lovely people in a sometimes challenging place.

We did not arrive in Battambang until nearly 5PM. By then we were too tired to do any sightseeing - OK, as there is not that much to see here. We did however find the choicest street stalls in town and had a delicious dinner of spicy noodles, steamed buns stuffed with meat and duck eggs, and a little piece of dried beef. The stall selling dried beef also offered little roast birds and fried silkworm grubs. I don't know (nor am I sure I want to know) what the little birds were, but I suspect baby egrets. Best of all, our exceedingly tasty - and baby egret/worm-free dinner cost less than $3 total. And that included a plate of spicy noodles for a wheelchair-bound street man.