Floating Village

Day 3 (9th March 2008)

We had arranged for our tickets to the Floating Village + lunch @ Tara boat the night before. Everything has been arranged by our guesthouse, from the tuktuk driver to the taxi driver and the boat hire. As in ganun sila ka efficient and helpful.

The drive through to the Chong Kneas village dock was uneventful. It took us almost an hour to get there by taxi, good thing our taxi driver also doubled as the tour guide and was pointing out all the different sights and the history of the area. At least it wasn’t a monotonous one hour as he was doing a running commentary during the whole trip. When we got to the dock area, we passed by some shanties dotting the road --- as in tagpi-tagping mga bahay kubo talaga! Although meron naman ding ganito sa Manila but for a “probinsyana” like me, this is hard for me to see. Its not naman na I am espousing only the positive side of living in the provinces pero we are insulated kasi from seeing the manifestations of poverty like these shanties kasi in the province kahit pinakamahirap na magsasaka will have at least one-bedroom bahay kubo which will boast of a separate kusina, sala and kuwarto!

Before we get depressed more, we’d better head on to the Floating Villages. Actually, there were 2 villages na we visited. The first one was the Cambodian fishing village. The houses just seem to float through the water. The whole community lives there. The more colorful one is the Vietnamese village. During the Vietnam War (1959 – 1975), a lot of displaced Vietnamese fled to Cambodia to escape Saigon & Hanoi and later on stayed permanently in the country. Di ba meron din tayong mga “boat people” (I don’t know if it’s a politically-correct term to use) sa Palawan who have been here for more than 25 years na although they don’t have citizenships pa rin and are considered “state-less”.

They have a floating church and we even took a photo when we passed by and they were having a mass. If you want to buy something you just hop into a small dinghy and go to the nearest store. The whole village really is in the water at take note, hindi sya connected to a land mass. As in lumulutang lang talaga sya! When I pointed out a school, our very informative guide told us, “yeah, when the water level is low during summer, the school will also move farther and will move back once the water level is up”.

Since we took a slow boat in going around the Tonle Sap River (a tributary of the Mekong River), it was a truly scenic ride. We passed by some kids swimming in the shore banks (di ko ma-imagine eh super clay yung kulay ng tubig!). The typical barter boats were also plying the waters. Nagtitinda ng kung ano-ano like snacks & drinks tapos mga vegetables and fruits naman yung iba.

The big disappointment of the day is really the Tara boat. Akala ko pa mandin kung gaano ka ganda yun and I was envisioning already the dozens of mga ka-papa-han na makilala namin doon but waaaaahhh……. Diyosko! It was boring and we almost dozed off to sleep kasi pinatulan na lang namin ni Ganda yung mga nakasabit na duyan at the back of the boat.

Part of the itinerary was a quick stop at the Crocodile farm. Yuck! kadiri talaga tingnan yung crocodiles kasi when you take a picture of them siempre you really focus the camera on them, feeling ko parang tinitingnan ako ng mga buwaya, baka hinihintay siguro na mahulog ako doon!....eeeeewwww…

Anyways, after dinner back at our guesthouse, we planned on hitting the different disco spots in the city pero ayun ang nangyari inumaga lang kami nagbasa ng blog ni Brian Gorell (I think everyone has heard of him by now!) http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com/

Siempre pa nakalimutan ang disco dahil mas grabe ang tsismis sa blog ni Brian!

Oh my God, we almost forgot, we have a date with Rochelle and the Pinoys! Buti na lang talaga we still went (half past 12midnight na) kasi nakakaloka ang pagkain. Ang intro pa --- “o kain na kayo, hwag mahiya” --- so unmistakably Pinoy! Merong dinuguan, crispy pata, pancit, puto, atbp. At the rate we are going (or stuffing in our mouths!), hindi na ako magkasya sa aking size small tshirts nito! Hehehe

Salamat po sa inyong lahat! Iba talaga ang Pinoy! Mabuhay tayong lahat! I love being Pinoy!