Taking a trip down memory lane this week to our second time in Cambodia and a visit to lake Tonle Sap in 2009.
Tonle Sap is an amazing and huge freshwater lake in the heart of Cambodia. It supports a large community of people who live on its banks, in stilt houses built high to cater for the rising water and in floating villages in the middle of the lake.
These children were taking the boat home from school. It’s a bit different to the bus I used to catch to and from school.
This pic is from a visit to Kampong Kleang, which borders the lake, in May during the dry season. The water was really low and the boat we were in was churning up mud and barely able to get out past the village and onto the lake.
I’m hoping to get back there at the end of the month and see the difference. And I’ll bring you more detailed information about this amazing lake, some of the issues affecting it and the contrast in wet and dry season.
Have you visited? Or did you have an interesting way of getting to school? Share your story with us in the comments.
Bruce Bougourd says
Yes, there is such a contrast. There are some Chinese graves half way up a bank near to the shore. They didn’t realise when burying them that during rainy season they would be under 20 feet of water. incredible contrast.
Sam Walker says
I didn’t know about the Chinese graves Bruce. Interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing it with some water in but it’s still not as high as it has been in previous years. It’s been quite a dry wet season.
Nina says
Hi Sam, I love the photo of the school kids, what a novel way to get to school. It’s funny but this did trigger dormant memories of my school trips. We lived in a village in switzerland on top of a mountain. all the school kids from the village would get picked up by the school bus, which was a little yellow mini-van with a big duck sticker on the front. We’d pile into the bus and get chauffeured down the mountain to the next village where the school was. In switzerland kids go home for lunch, so we did that bus trips four times a day!
Sam Walker says
Hi Nina. Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like an incredibly scenic journey to school that you had. We had a big orange school bus, which seem to be common in Western Australia but not in other parts of the country.
Marissa says
Wow, those are amazing photos – I can’t imagine getting in a boat to go to school every day. I am not a fan of water… Thanks for sharing your experience.
Marissa
Sam Walker says
Thanks Marissa. I love the water and grew up around water. It has been such a big part of our lives. But not to get to school. I think the school these kids went to was probably part of the floating village so it would have been out on the water as well.
Fabiola says
Those kids going to school on a boat got me thinking. It’s funny how on the surface we may seem different, but we are all actually very much the same- kids go to school, parents try to make a living. It’s the same all over the world.
Sam Walker says
Yes, it is Fabiola. At the heart of it, it is all about people working, living, loving and going about their everyday lives. And I bet being in a boat is the norm for these kids while catching the school bus like I did would be quite a novelty.