Out and About
on Vicky Dyer (Cambodia), 11/Apr/2011 12:43, 34 days ago
Floating homesWhilst still working hard to learn the language I am also exploring as much as I can. I've taken a boat trip to a river island, visited Wats and attended a local ceremony where young people performed traditional dance. I think the best way to give you a taste of all this is to post photos so I hope you enjoy. The Mekong boat trip took us past a variety of floating homes. Some are very basic whilst others are well furnished with TV. One family even keeps pigs. On the island there is no electricity and homes are very basic as you can see. Water is pumped from the river. During the dry season this river does not flow very fast and is not very clean - to put it mildly!!    Farming is done by hand or using oxen. The main produce is tobacco and the fields went on as far as the eye could see.Women and children strip the leaves and prepare them for drying.When the work is done, the families enjoy sitting together on a Cambodian bed to drink tea - or maybe the occasional rice wine!A local NGO, run by monks to help disadvantaged youth, was having an opening ceremony for a new room and we were invited to attend. It was a lovely evening of traditional music dance and food.