Monday, June 21, 2010

Vietnam and Cambodia on a slow boat down the mighty Mekong

Best wheel forward: Amy takes a rickshaw trip in Vietnam
20th June 2010
By Amy Watkins
Daily Mail Online

The morning mist rises off the Cambodian town of Kampong Chhnang as the kids wait for their 'bus', mum cleans up breakfast dishes in front of daytime TV and dad gets ready for work. Not really unusual sights: but they are among 4,000 people bobbing in this floating village on the Tonle Sap River.
Sampans groaning with ripe melons float by on their way to the busy quayside market, while the children clamber into a boat to take them to their floating school and the men repair fishing nets ready for the day ahead. The women use the river as a washing-up bowl; behind them a large TV hooked up to a car battery flickers on the open deck.
Waterways in Cambodia are still the lifeblood of the country. Chugging past us, fishermen tug nets into dangerously low-looking boats, while women scrub clothes and their children squeal with laughter and jump from the muddy banks, waving at us.

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