Leaving Angkor Wat and the other temples behind, we had a brilliant 7 hr trip along Tonle Sapp lake and river to Battanbong. Had our own boat to walk around and laze on, whilst watching the fascinating lives of a very different culture.
There are over 1100 families living in floating villages along its banks - the lake varies between 1.5m to 12m high according to the dry and wet seasons – we were in the dry season and only just got along the river – the next Explore trip will be going by bus, so will miss out on a great experience. The water was pretty muddy and polluted, but people were washing clothes, bathing and being cremated – a pretty basic existence even for the 3rd world.
The water in the river flows in 2 directions, to and from the lake and the Mekong Delta according to the seasons and the people live in houses that can be moved anywhere as the water rises and falls. Half of them looked like they were ready to collapse into the water, but some were well constructed and there were lots of houseboats, which looked a bit like gypsy caravans on a boat. There were floating temples, schools, police stations and shops – all of village life, but on the water.
This is how Witherslack Community shop will look if it keeps on flooding and raining in the UK!
Just-in-time deliveries to the local shop
One of the many large scale fishing nets, with smaller net baskets all along the river banks. The families live off fishing with 200 species of fish and supply Cambodia with its main source of food, along with rice. As well as fishermen (and women and children) there were also loads of fishing birds – kingfishers, fishing eagles, cormorants, egrets, herons and bee-eaters. So lots to keep our binoculars busy. 
Graham got to drive the boat – a bit!
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