Today we took a trip out on the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia, apparently the largest in South East Asia. We were told that this is where we would see the poorest people in Cambodia, so we collected as many things as we could from the hotel to be able to give to them. As we headed out on the boat, we past the floating villages with houses, small stalls and people fishing, and you could see how basic their conditions were. In the dry season, they have to move their houses to a different part of the lake where the water is higher so they don't damage their homes. Once you get out of the mangroves, the lake really is huge! It looks more like a sea!
There was a young boy on the boat, I assumed he was the captains son. As I sat down and was taking pics, he came up behind me and started to massage my shoulders. bless him...he's been trained well! I gave his a dollar tip and he was on the next person. Our first stop was a floating platform with a small market and restaurant. I must have missed the memo as it was bizarrely also a crocodile farm! I didn't realise this until I was walking over them on what was pretty much just a few planks of wood! Needless to say, if anything happened, I would have fallen in to a pit of crocs!
After here, we stopped at the local primary school which was again just a few huts on some floating rafts. Talk about our hearts melting! These kids were just adorable! All smiling and saying hello. We went in to one of the classes and spent some time with them, handed out our goodies and it was just so nice to see their faces. They were probably like 'oh hear we go again, some more shower gels and shampoos!'. They all sang us a local song, so we sang one back. The only one we all knew was Happy Birthday so we randomly sang that. I bet not many groups come in and do that one! It was a great experience and makes you realise how lucky we are.
