Chong Khneas is a collection of houses and stores built on primarily bamboo rafts (some other materials such as barrels and styrofoam are used to a lesser degree) that is moved several times a year due to the varying levels of the lake during the rainy and dry season. The main income for the families is from fishing.
We traveled to a canal to take our boat out and visit. The road was made of compacted dirt and was quite bumpy. The tour company I travel with, Grand Circle, helped finance the building of the road so the villagers could have easier access to the town to sell their products. It is now a toll road so they can collect funds to keep it maintained.
Paying our toll
Boats lined up ready to transport the villagers and tourists out to the village.
We could see a lot of activity during our ride. Men were fishing and boats were buzzing about transporting people and cargo.
A girl washing her hair.
There were several different types of houses and some looked fairly well built while others you wondered how they were still floating.
There was even a floating school. Theses boys were having fun jumping in the water.
This is a family store that we stopped to visit. They gave us permission to go through the house so we could see how they live. Very basic lifestyle. They use car batteries for lights and there is a charging service where they come and pick up your battery, charge it with a gas powered generator and then return it.
The living room/ bedroom
The kitchen area
Dishes on the back stoop to be washed
This young man had a horrible infected sore on his knee. Our tour leader, John, put some salve on it. There are no medical services available to the villagers unless they travel to town(probably a 2 hour trip) and then there is the issue of being able to pay for it.
We also stopped and talked with this family about living on a floating house. They were rapidly dipping small fish in the water to help remove the scales.
They were making rice flour cakes.
Mending a fishing net
There is a temple built on the shore so the people have a permanent place to worship.
Looked like a community group meeting was going on.
Our tour guide said that some can't afford a house yet so they live in these house boats.
This is a floating garden complete with banana trees. They tug it along with them when they have to move.
It was definitely a lifestyle that I have a hard time imagining how they survive.
After we left the floating village we went to an agricultural village. There we climbed aboard a cart being pulled by water buffalo. The carts are used to transport cut rice and other vegetables from the fields. It was quite a bumpy ride as we slowly followed the wheel rutted dirt path.
That concludes our first day in Siem Reap. Tomorrow we start visiting the ancient temples.
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