The Floating Village of Cambodia

Cambodia news
03/04/2010

Whether residents choose to dwell here, or they have no other choice but to live in this place, I am sure they still find life’s fufillment in this floating village. The community is complete with a department store, a Catholic church whose cross marker draws a contrast in the sky, a general market, a school, a basketball court, a barangay hall, fish and crocodile farms and others like a medical clinic or hospital or food stations and others which might have escaped my eyes.

All these...floating. A concrete highway is alongside this floating village. There are vast unoccupied land areas that appear to extend up to the horizon, yet these people prefer to stay here. They have their own reasons. I saw a couple of foreign journalists recording scenes and people’s activities here.

The floating village, very unique in perspective, draws very many foreign tourists every day. Residents speak English, and foreign tourists understand them well despite errors in pronunciation, tenses, or agreement of subject and predicate. Majority of the Cambodians, even toktok drivers, (counterpart of our tricycle) sound to be efficient tour guides. They can identify places, markers, events and elaborate stories attached to them.

The floating village is a unique residential area. Children who are too small to paddle a banca use their hands to propel an aluminium basin which serves as their transportation. Even grown ups sell their ware in floating aluminium basins. Some bancas are converted into floating stores that go from house to house to sell many things. We can compare them to our sari-sari store.

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