I had this idea to 'plan not to have a plan' on my Asia trip. In this instance I didn't know what the plan was supposed to be for our ride today. So when our guide let us know that we were not riding at all, I was like 'oh? then what are we doing?!'. HA! We took a slow boat to siem reap ... and when they say slow, they mean slow.
We snaked along the river that at times was so narrow one of the boatmen had to run to the front and use a paddle to push us away from the river bank. We slowly drifted along, passing poor villages that live along the river. The villages are dependent on the river - there are no roads in this area - everyone travels by boat. Not only that - the river is their life source. They fish in the river with simple nets. They bathe in the river, drink from the river, wash their clothes in the river... and the water is brown, muddy, dirty. Their houses are built in the water - floating on big logs or steel barrels. If it rained too hard and the river overflowed they could become instantly homeless. If it didn't rain enough these people would not be able to live.
I stared at the villages .. and I counted my blessings and said thanks for what I have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4jmcEmDtjY
The boat ride was 9 hours. I got bored. Really bored. I was dehydrated because it was hot - but I didn't want to drink anything because there was no restroom. But I didn't complain- I have no right to. Its impossible to compare my life to people in these poor villages. They have real challenges to face every day when they wake up and I don’t think they are complaining about how hard it is to “survive”. There was a clean restroom at the port when we got in. A young poor girl chased me to my stall to make sure I had toilet paper. And as I walked out I said “akun” and gave her all the money I had in my wallet.
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