Siem Reap, Cambodia Day 87
Another sluggish start to the day so our tuk-tuk driver ‘Kedi’ suggested we do some other site seeing instead of the temples. We headed off to the Floating Village of Chong Kneas, being the end of the dry season the water level was not very high so there where a few points where we nearly ran aground. We had our own long tail boat to take us around the sites, the village was amazing the houses are just very rustic houseboats. The wet season is approaching so a lot of the homes were being towed into the canal area by long tail boats to shelter from the rough weather out on the lake.
The village has just about everything to be self sufficient – mechanics, shops, schools, basketball courts etc all floating on the water. The village is mostly sustained by catching and selling/trading fish, a lot of the families have fish farms. You could also see some smaller pontoons that housed pigs and chickens. We stopped off at one of the shops to buy some pencils and notebooks for the school kids then delivered them to their teacher and had some photos taken.
Also during the trip we stopped off at ‘’ that housed some crocodiles (the lake used to have loads but now they have all been killed off). They also had a live snake that you could hold – if anyone has had a snake around their neck before you will know how I was feeling when Lee took my photo!! The thing I was amazed with was how strong they were when they started to move around. We spent 1.5 hours puttering around the village and saw all sorts of village life, it was very interesting and I think well worth the trip.
After the floating village Kedi took us to Artisans d’Angkor which is a centre for arts and ancient crafts. Quote ‘Artisans d’Angkor promotes the fair, sustainable development of Cambodian arts and crafts with benefits to rural communities. It provides training to young Cambodians, enabling them to rediscover lost ancient talents and make a living from their skills while working right in their home villages. It has created over 1,000 jobs, of which 624 involve craftsmen. Twelve workshops are currently operating in Siem Reap province. Since its establishment, Artisans d’Angkor has pioneered a new social policy in Cambodia with guaranteed levels of pay along with social and medical benefits. The craftsmen have formed an association known as Artisanat Khmer, which holds a 20-percent share in the company.’
Another branch of Artisans d’Angkor is the Silk Farm, where you get to see the whole process of making silk. They show you right from the mulberry trees that they feed the silk worms through to making the fabric. The outer layer of the cocoon makes raw silk and the inner layer is used to make fine silk and they way they harvest the thread is amazing. The afternoon was really great and we also got to see everyday life around the town as we were motoring to our next destination, I think that sometimes that is the best part!!
We went out with Betsy, Jude and Rob to the Night Market and then pulled up a seat at one of the street stalls for dinner.