Day four - Kampong Luong

  I blanked the margarine at breakfast. After, I met a resident monk whose Buddhist name is shortened to Vera.

 He told me he was 80 years old, originally from the USA and has been roaming in this part of the world for decades. He has his own quarters at the Garden Guest House, lives a simple life with his many cats and Japanese antique furniture.  

I waved goodbye to Vera and we headed off for today’s adventure to a floating village called Kampong Luong. 

In the rainy season this is all under water. That building in the distance on stilts is a temple! 

 I was keen to see this floating village.  And see it we did!  We hired a boat for US$13 and set off . Here are some shots of the village: 

Well, it was a deep experience seeing how people live and operate floating on a lake. A hard life. The future of such places must be tricky not only from climate change but also for the government to manage. But it is a busy village with fish farms and typical town services.  An hospital, school, …an array of shops and businesses - I’ve attached a video in case you want to see more.

And it was a shallow experience when we discovered first hand how the lake is only knee (or ankle!) deep. Why exactly were we wearing life jackets???  

Our boat suddenly became stuck on something big under the water. Our captain (…Brian says he is pretty sure he wasn’t registered as a captain) tried this and that to move us but in the end he had to get into the water and lift us off the lump and untangle the propeller. He put on a big smile for us, but I suspect he had to dig deep within himself for that! It was a mongrel getting us off the submerged lump… we got stuck twice… 

We finally made it back to shore and headed back to Kampong Chhnang. 

We thrilled the restaurateur from yesterday by returning. She gave us the air conditioned dining room that I suspect is usually reserved for special occasions.  Once again, we were her only customers.  And once again the food was the best… I want her to teach me. Next time. 

We searched for a pottery place with an abundance of pots to see, but found only this one person place. Her two little children were resting on a hammock there too. 

The potter was amazing!  I videod her shaping the pot. A skill. 

We were all ready for home. The floating village had taken it out of us all.  We nodded off along the way.  Once back in Phnom Penh we said our goodbyes to Dila, such a safe, competent driver in this land of relentless criss-crossing, weaving road moves and … pedestrians! I haven’t yet seen a collision.  Clever, sensible, practical driving. Impressive!

For dinner and live music we went to a bar called Craft.  I left my phone at home so no pictures to upload here. The singer was country, the food was western (I had sausages, sweet potato fries and coleslaw) and the owner stopped at our table to see how we were finding the place. We all gave it the thumbs up.  Sally - music teacher at the international school with Brian - joined us.  It wasn’t a late night for us but I think Sally was set to stay on for longer. Brian said being out on your own is not seen as abnormal here and is a pretty safe thing to do. So that is yet another great thing about Cambodia!