While spending my time in siem reap between hangovers and temples, me gem, seb and anth went to check out the floating village with new arrival to the room Sunil.

It took an hours tuk tuk drive out the city to cheong ness where the floating village was and after paying our admission we were put in motorbikes to get to the boats, weaving in and out on a muddy and bumpy road which at one point included cattle dodging as the docile creatures were drove at head first with the horn sounded to make them move. At the canal we hopped on the boat with a man and his son, obviously learning his fathers trade. The boat was pretty wobbly and we all felt a bit worried at first but it was fine. To start off with the father let his son actually drive the boat for a few minutes which was quite cool.

We started to ride down into the village and in all honesty I felt a little bit uncomfortable, some of the kids were nice and waved but the most part the adults would stare coldly at us or ignore us which would make you feel a bit awkward about taking pictures of them if they were looking at you. But I understand the hostility since we were tourists just coming through on our boats taking pictures of people from this village and intruding on there home life.

It was a massive eye opener though to see how these people were living, all the houses were pretty much high raised from the floor but everything was made out of wood, I didn't understand why they made their houses so high but I couldn't ask anyway. Each person living there seemed to own a boat and the only real trade they must have is catching fish. The village was bustling with parents looking after their children while a lot of the men were building their boats or attending to the fish they had caught.

Halfway through we stopped for food on a little floating restaurant which is the only was to describe it. A pretty cool but weird view as we ate food looking out onto this massive lake while every now and then you would see the natives walk through these sort of flooded rice crops tending to their duties.

After the food we went back through again and saw how things would happen during the evening, kids driving boats obviously helping their parents with the chores while children were swimming in the water playing. Some of the adults were bathing themselves in the dirty water. Putting water in the boat then using a cup scooping it over them to clean themselves but when you saw at the same time these people squatting over the sides of the boat and realising that they go to the toilet the same place they wash was crazy.

It was an interesting experience to see how this village lived, I really enjoyed it but its such a shame these people still live like this, and I can understand how they must feel being intruded by tourists outside their doorstep, literally too.