After eating, as soon as we headed toward the old market, our tuk-tuk driver of yesterday came by. Ever since getting here, Jay has really wanted to go to the “Floating Village”. As it’s not far, we agreed to a price of just $5.
Both on yesterday’s long trip and today’s shorter one, it is interesting to see how people live by driving past the houses and neighbourhoods. It is surprising how quickly the new scenery become familiar. Most of the houses are on the second storey with the first floor just up on sticks or pillars. This keeps the living quarters dry during flooding.
The most peculiar phenomenon is the annual enlargement of the Tonle Sap Lake. It can increase 4.5 fold during the rainy season. That’s now. The change in the biosphere is amazing. Both flora and fauna have to adapt to areas being underwater for half the year. The village we took a boat to was made up of boats and floating houses. I have, of course, seen old movies about Vietnam but seeing folks up close living out their lives in such different circumstances is quite amazing.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned in our travel experiences is that people have an amazing capability for adaptation. People do change clothes, abodes, and beliefs to fit their circumstances. I often hear from a particular type of intelligent but misguided person that they think “people are all the same everywhere”. These statements are simplistic and wrong. These mushy sentiments are usually heard from well-meaning people who have, themselves, been nowhere.