We visited a poor fishing community situated on the currently-dry bed of the Tonle Sap Lake. I can not remember the name of the village but our driver (a very friendly man from our guesthouse who told us all kinds of useful and informative stories, such as why cows sound like they are saying "more" and "no more", why dogs lift a leg when doing their business and why dogs sleep in the streets....trust me, you don't want to know!) said it was known as stick village - due to the houses all being built on high stilts. Each year, at the end of the wet season, the the Mekong River floods and the Tonle Sap Lake fills up, flooding the village.
The houses have been built so high up to prevent them being flooded, but the inhabitants are effectively flooded into their homes for about three months a year. If anyone wants to go anywhere they have to row, including to the local pagoda and primary school. The villagers are all very poor, they make a subsistence living off fishing and growing crops in the lake bed when the water is low. Some of the houses are very sparse, even missing entire exterior walls. It was sad to see people living such a tough life, yet the villagers all smiled and waved at us and the kids, especially, were so excited to see us and came over to give us high fives and hold our hands.
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| A typical house in Stick Village. |
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| A local woman. Checkered scarves are worn on the heads or around the necks of many Cambodian people as a kind of unofficial symbol of ethnicity or nationality. |
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Looking out over Stick Village. All of the grassy area will be under water later this year.
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Stuck in the mud in Stick Village.
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