Holiday in Cambodia Part 7

Welcome back to our Holiday in Cambodia series. We last left our 3 heroes as they came to the end of thier exploration of the ancient Angkor temples. Haveing daylight left and not wanting to waste it they asked their trusty guide for ideas on what to see next. He said they should go see the floating village. We rejoin our protagonists as they board the boat.

The area around the docks did not look very promising. There was construction surrounding us (im not sure what for) and the water was stained with the mud. Although we were on a lake, this part of it was a long skinny bay and seemed like a river to and from nowhere untill we entered the lake proper. along the shores were many houseboats. At first I thought that this was the 'floating village' and was mildly disappointed.

As we neared the end of the bay a small boat, which looked like a canoe with an outboard motor attached pulled along side our boat. A little girl was standing in it with a basket full of soda while her father drove the boat. Then she lept, soda in arms, onto our boat to sell it to us. We were all duly impressed. Steve and Johnny were impressed enough to buy soda from her.

We were boarded by another kid not long after. We had to turn him down however, despite his impressive jumping from boat to boat.

By this time the lake had widened and we saw what looked like a village on the far shore. But the lake is too big and we shouldnt have been able to see the shore....That was the floating village.

There were actually two villages, one for Cambodian citizens and the other was made of illegal Vietnamese immigrants.
We floated into one of the villages. It was compleate with houses, gardens, convenience stores, gas stations, and even a resturant/gift shop which we stopped at to look around. While we were there, we saw they had a fishery full of catfish and an area that they raised alligators in. A young boy paddled up in a large basin and had a snake around his neck. It was adorable, but he was charging for pictures.

We didnt eat at that restaurant, however, it was turtle meat night.
After the boat ride, Panna took us to his favorite turtle meat shop. It took a while to prepare, but it was quite a treat when it arrived. It was as if just the shell had been removed and all the innards cut up and cooked. The legs and head were still there also. Everything on the plate was edible and tasty. I would compare it to that of frog legs.