Battambang to Siem Reap, By Boat

This boat ride, from Battambang to Siem Reap, is so far one of the highlights of the trip. It was beautiful...and ended up being an hour shorter than we'd expected, which is nice when you're sitting on the rooftop of a boat for 7 hours, completely exposed to the sun. Plus, let us all be grateful for technology these days - as our little iPods and our sweet dance moves made the trip go by even faster.

Would you check out the width of that river? That little helper out front had to get out a paddle at times to push us off the side banks. In fact, we're lucky it's wet season, because we've heard that in dry season, the trip can take up to 12-15 hours and passengers have had to help push the boat up the river and tromp through the mud. Glad that wasn't us! Also, whenever we would come around a bend in the river, we'd have to honk the horn, for fear that we might run into the locals on their little paddle boats...and there just wouldn't be room enough for the both of us!

Anyway, the best part about it was just seeing all the agricultural lands and the way people really live out in the country. There were several floating villages that we passed through. Apparently, these people couldn't afford to buy land, so they built their "homes" on the water. The structures are built up on stilts so that the water sits below, and then they use boats to transport themselves from here to there. Or, they've just built themselves a boat - that's covered - and then it's their home and their transportation. Crafty, huh?!

Along the route, we had to drop a few people off, which meant that our boat driver would just honk the horn, and someone from the riverbank would come paddling out and pick up their mom/sister/uncle/friend. It was great! And there were several women that we dropped off who unloaded bags full of fresh produce and goodies. It was as if one woman each week made a trip into Battambang to shop for the community. It was quite cool.

Throughout the ride, I was also just in shock with the color of the water - check it out below, pretty brown, huh? Well, this is the water they use to wash their clothes in, to bathe in, to wash their food in...and if you look closely, you can see 2 little heads popping up in the water...all the children (no matter what age) are playing in the water all day long. They love it - and don't even think twice about it's murky color.

As the boat pulled into the docking station, we were all absolutely swarmed with tuk-tuk and moto drivers, just pleading with every passenger to be their mode of transport. They are so aggressive and excited, and so in-your-face, that it's sometimes hard for me to have patience with them. Luckily, our hotel from Battambang had arranged our transport and Mr. Kha sat waiting for us with a sign reading our names. We stepped off the boat with ease, through the floods of drivers and shouting, hopped in the back of his tuk-tuk and bumped down the road to Siem Reap.

It was a day for me to note how extremely fortunate I am to have a roof over my head, the ease of transportation and clean water at my access. There were several homes/huts lining the roadway into town that we saw families of 5 or 6 living in. Their bodies are piled amongst each other on the hardwood floor or kicking it in a hammock - but these people's entire homes are seriously the size of an office cubicle or a small bedroom. I left the day and the river impressed with how they live their day to day - it's quite incredible, and quite different from how I grew up - that's for sure!