10/9: By Boat to Siem Reap: the Floating Villages

En route at 5am to get the boat to Siem Reap, i.e. where Angkor Wat is located.

Sunrise

A good view of our ferry - the trip took about 6 hours and cost $20 each.

Just realized I hadn't taken a photo of Happy and his tuk tuk we spent so much time in.

The woman and girl right behind me sat beside us at the circus the night before with the rest of their family.

The ferry is used for transporting passengers as well as goods; notice the huge bags on the front of the boat.

Delicious baguettes courtesy of the French influence in Cambodia.

Scenes from the ferry ride on the Tonle Sap River, the longest river in Cambodia.

The boat assistant was responsible for making sure the boat got safely under the low hanging wires sometimes strung across the river; he had to use the pole to "ride up the wire" so the boat could pass underneath.  This was a bigger problem than normal because the water was very, very high due to the unusually heavy rains.

Our boat stopped often to pick up and drop off passengers as well as goods.  Normally, people and goods came to our boat as opposed to our docking and picking them up at a pier.

Life in a "floating village" on the Tonle Sap - there are NO roads.

We were constantly amazed how the boat's captain knew which river channel to take as there were so many options along the way.  See the tiny bananas above?  As you may remember, I mentioned how short Cambodian bananas were in a previous post.

One of the few stores we saw on the river; accessible only by boat of course.

I loved the vibrant colors of some of the homes on the river.

We stopped at this "roadside shop/cafe" for about 20 minutes or so - the only time we could get off the boat.

How happy Steven looked for the first few hours but the ride seemed long after the third hour or so.

The facilities on board.

More people coming on board.

Laundry drying in the sun.

Saw a number of these cranes but no idea what they are.

Not sure how many boats pass by these floating homes; figure it can't be that often for people to come out and wave at us.

Loved the color!

The ferry coming from Siem Reap en route to Battambang - so about half way.  Before leaving Denver, our plan was to spend about $60 each to have a tour company take us on a 2-3 hour boat ride on the Tonle Sap from Siem Reap to see the floating villages - so glad we took the ferry instead of the bus down to Siem Reap.

Several hours in!

Even saw lots of political party signs on the river.

A beautiful wat on the river.

Prek Toal is known as one of the most famous bird sanctuaries in all of S. E Asia; however we saw very few birds - perhaps we didn't know where to look and what too look for as we we're not birders!

This young boy had used his motor boat to meet the ferry to pick up 2 women on board.

Taking the boat to school.  No school buses here!

Another political  party sign.

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One of the few birds I saw and was able to take a picture of.

Just some photos of floating homes I found interesting.

If I had to pick, I think one of my all time favorite DAYS on 88 day trip was this boat ride on the Tonle Sap as it was so different from anything I have done before in my life and we got to experience a way of life I had known nothing about before this.  Plus, it didn't feel totally touristy.

Another store.

The only church I saw on the entire boat trip.

Westerners giving gifts to children in schools, orphanages etc is very common in Cambodia - thus the sign above.

One school on the river.

These children were directly across from us on the boat for most of the trip - their mother is on the left. They played so quietly and beautifully together AND with not a toy in sight either.

At long last, our final destination is within view - the "port" of Chong Kneas about 30 minutes south of Siem Reap.

A lot of the younger and more adventurous travelers on the boat spent a good part of the trip on top of the boat - needless to say, not us!

Hadn't seen such red roads on the trip before this - reminded me of PEI in Canada.

Our first sighting of water buffalo.

  

Our lovely room at the Tanei Guesthouse in Siem Reap. complete with a pool - what luxury!  It cost all of $22 per night and included a made to order breakfast daily too.  Oh, and a kettle too which was SO nice after not having one on BB for several days.

Think there must be lots of French speaking Canadians visiting Siem Reap, eh!

Even though BB is the second largest city in Cambodia, Siem Reap seemed far, far larger to us.  This is a view of Pub Street.  We were there of course in the slow season so apparently few tourists then - Steven and I kept saying to each other how we'd have hated to be there in high season b/c, for us, there were plenty of Westerners there in the slow season.

Enjoying a nice meal, and no, not poutine, in Siem Reap!