Cambodia: The floating villages of Kampong Lounge

 After my adventure in Siem Reap I needed some time to relax so I travelled by boat to the city of Battamberg (i'll talk more on that later). We travelled by boat down the Mekong River, one of the largest lakes in South East Asia. We past brightly coloured house boats filled with people trading, washing, fishing and relaxing.

I took a bus to the nearby floating village of Kampong Lounge and after arriving by motor bike I was soon traversing the waters of the lake. The houses were ingeniously set up to be homes, businesses and fully floating boats. My overnight home turned out to be a mixture of hotel, barbers and local store. It was also the home to many dogs and two deeply mischievous Macques.

Now as reinforced by my time at Cat Tien I had come to the conclusion that monkeys should not be kept as pets and these little bastards confirmed this suspicion by proceeding to steal my glasses (and get aggressive when I made to get them back). After some bribery involving banana however we managed to successfully retrieve them. Even though they didn't look that badly treated it was still heart breaking to see them put on such short chains, unable to get the exercise they needed (or probably even the correct diet that would be good for them).

I spend my day relaxing, reading, people watching and taking a tour of the lake that took me past a rather impressive floating cathedral and allowed me the opportunity to stop to take tea with a group of wedding guest waiting for a service.

By night I sat out on the prow of the house and watched the lake become a sea of lights, floating serenely in the night.