Oh, the Places You'll Go!: February 2011

A Mother and her 3 Children Rowing Home

Way, way, way back in November, Will and I were lucky enough to take a trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia with his dad and stepmom, Neil and Monina. All of our friends in Malaysia had recommended this place to us and hailed it as one of their all-time favorite travel destinations, not only in Asia, but in all the world....and most of these friends have seen a lot more of the world than we have, so we took them for their word. And I for one, am so glad we did. Siem Reap had to have been one of the most amazing, eye opening experiences of my life. Everything about it just seemed so....well, ancient for one thing, but almost magical...or mystical..or maybe both (or maybe neither but I'm having a really hard time trying to come up with a proper adjective that could describe something that's so powerful, yet so peaceful all at the same time....so if you have an adjective for that then please insert it here). If not, then yes, this place was ancient, magical, AND mystical. Trust me. :) Anyway, we started out on Day 1 by taking a 45 minute car ride north of town (I'm saying north here without really having any idea whatsoever which direction it was exactly, but when all else fails, I say go north). So here we are, "north" of town and we're weaving and winding our way down dirt roads, rice fields, and swamp land for what seems like, well, 45 minutes, until finally we come to a stopping point where our guide led us the rest of the way on foot down to a little make-shift dock to board the boat for our tour of the floating village. Now I didn't really have that much experience with the whole floating village concept before this trip, but it's literally what one would expect it to be: a village that floats. Except that, it wasn't entirely what I expected it to be because I've never really expected villages to float before, but after seeing it first-hand, it all made perfect sense to me. It was an entire community of people, of grandparents and moms and dads and kids and babies, living and working on the water. Their houses were built up on stilts over the water and they somehow managed to survive only on the things they could catch, kill, or grow in the waters beneath them or in the swampy shores beside them. There was even a floating school where children paddled their way to class every day on their own rafts or in family boats. It was common to see families rowing their way from one house to the next, maybe in exchange for goods, or maybe just to play and visit and pass the time. These were people far removed from modern day conveniences like electricity and plumbing and television and computers. Instead, you could see the kids playing marbles or throwing rocks after school, and parents would be casting lines or nets in the water, hoping to reel in something for dinner. They were just living on the water, miles and miles from civilization and seemed perfectly happy with what we consider to be the "simple" way of life, but in reality, is far, far from it....at least 45 minutes or so "north" anyway!