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עברית
February 16, 2007
The day after the hospital I visited a fishermen floating village for a few hours. The village floats on a lake, thirty minutes drive from Siem Reap. I still had a soar throat but I wanted to do something that day. A tuktuk driver picked me in the afternoon for a 4$ fee. It’s a thirty minutes ride which goes through a bumpy dirt road and I didn’t want to do it on a motorcycle.
The way to the lake is mostly not interesting, although in some parts you can see green rice fields.
Floating fishermen village
Before you approach the lake, you have to stop at a cabin supported by the local police. You have to buy there a sailing ticket. The price for two hours is exaggerated, and it’s a pity that most of the money goes to the police and not to the poor boat operators. Price ranges from $10 to $20 per person. It depends how big is the group.
You sail in ancient noisy boats between floating houses on the water. I chose a small boat that was able to get through the huge traffic jam of bigger boats in the beginning of the sail. At some point the narrow passage opens and you reach a big lake. Some of the houses are far away from each other. There’s no connectivity to electricity, telephone lines or any other infrastructure. However, on some roofs satellite dishes are installed.
Cat fish and crocodiles farm
On the lake the main attractions are crocodile farms. There is a number of farms that combines a floating restaurant that has two or three floors, crocodile cage and a cat fish pool. Since it’s a restaurant you don’t have to pay an entrance fee. In the first place we stopped I saw many crocodiles loaded on each other and looked half dead, a cat fish pool who went crazy every time they feed them, and a fish display. In one of the aquariums there was a big poor turtle, and in others all sort of fish that got caught in the net. There was also a souvenir shop. The hosts simply asked visitor to buy something in return, at least a drink in return for the visit. From the top floors you can watch the area. They’re especially useful for watching the sunset.
Even though my captain, a young boy, asked me to stay at the same place until the sunset, I got bored quickly and we went looking other interesting stuff. We stopped nearby a floating church and bought some drinking cans from another boat sailing nearby. Some of the boats offer drinks and some offer food. Later on I found out that there’s not much to see around. There are some crocodile farms that look almost the same. Eventually we stopped in another farm.
In the second farm I went to the top floor to watch the view. Women who sell bananas are a frequent sight in the area. The high $1 price per banana is special for tourists so the desperate women try every way possible to sell them.
Last sail before sunset
We went on sailing from the second farm for another ride in the boat. The sun started getting down and it was my sign for last stop before going back to shore.
Sunset over the lake
Again I climbed to the third floor of the floating farm and ordered something to eat till the sunset appeared in the sky.
Back to shore
We sailed back to shore. Tiny huts of the fishermen are located there. Every family lives in a hut who appears to fit more dwarfs than humans. I met there one of the locals with whom I had a chat with on one of the farms before. He showed me his house and offered me to join him for dinner to eat the fish he caught that day. That moment I completely realized that the $20 I paid to visit that village will never go to its residents. It will probably support the lifestyle of the corrupted cops who run the place, just like the tuktuk driver described to me on the way.
This article was originally written in Hebrew. It was translated to English at a later time.
English
