Chong Kneas Floating Village in Cambodia

The Beautiful Sacred Lotus!

A Ride out to the village of Chong Kneas in Cambodia – Brought me to tears!

Our buddy Morgan was busy with his shoot for the local orphanage today, film crews and his family arriving later that night so Ronnie Trev and I decided to take a ride out into the countryside to visit the floating village of Chong Kneas.  Its hot today, but once on the bike with the wind blowing thru your clothes it felt good to be on the bikes again, only 10km away, so a short ride, we ride past the most beautiful fields of pink lotuses, millions of them, Cambodia seems to have the market captured on these wonderful plants.  The yellow pod in the middle is what they collect and eat,  its a fruit.

Farming Lotus

Imagine this being allowed at home!

We arrive at our destination, as far as we can go by road anyway and then have to continue in a boat, there are hundreds of boats waiting to take you to the floating village and not very many tourists, at $20 each a trip for 1 ½ hrs its was quite pricey .  Big machines everywhere working on the river banks trying to widen it as it has become very shallow with the changing rains of the monsoons, this would never be allowed at home.  Our guide said that when the lake gets high and rougher in the rainy season and encroaches on the houses nested on the river bank then they up and move them to higher ground, I cannot imagine moving these homes as they seem very fragile in the first place.

Captain Ronnie takes the helm!

Where do you think the outflow goes?

You have to see it to believe it, this village is quite large and is very dirty, the fecal count in this water must be very high, green slime sits swirling around the top of the lake, an environmental nightmare.  As you go past the houses you can see inside them, anything from shops selling food, clothes, supplies of all kinds it really is a floating village, we even saw a satellite dish on one house.  We stopped off at the floating shop to buy some supplies for the local orphanage, picked up a case of noodles and some fun erasers for the kids and off we went to deliver them.  On the way in I mentioned to the guys, that the boats coming back from the village the people seemed a bit somber, no one was smiling and I thought it odd, Ronnie piped up and said perhaps they saw something that made them feel that way, not giving it any more thought we kept going up towards the village.

Can afford fags but not rice? hmmmm

These two little girls seemed to be the only ones with clean clothes?

We pulled up to the orphanage, from a distance it seemed some of the kids had uniforms but as we got closer i noticed that they didnt, they were all pretty grubby.  We tied up and climbed aboard, I got the video camera rolling and took some footage, wow what a behive of activity, I guess it must have been lunch time as all the kids were sitting around eating their rice and fish, some even fighting over it, it seemed like they were starving which confused me as i noticed a huge pile of food bags in the corner of the room so don’t know what those were for?  Being closer up now I could see that yes some kids had uniforms on but don’t think they had seen a washing maching for quite some time.  The kids seemed quite aggressive, fighting with each other and it made me sad, i saw some girls linking their arms together which was cute but some sitting alone crying too, two boys got into a scrap and pulled at each others hair, over food I think (see utube for the video).  All in all I didn’t get a sense that these kids were very happy, I couldn’t help wondering what would become of them all, i felt a bit cynical but I couldn’t get my head around what they were all doing here, were they really orphaned or was it just a gathering of the village kids for the tourists?  There seemed like very little organization, kids were throwing garbage into the river and Ronnie and Trev tried to tell them but they didn’t understand so they went up to the “teacher” and tried to tell him but he was no better than the kids, perhaps it was all “staged” for tourism?

This little guy had
 a strange
 film over one of his eyes!

Yum, fish and rice!

                                                                                                                                          

I don’t know what I expected, Im not even sure if this floating orphanage is a good idea, if they’re orphans then why stick them on a 20 x 20 barge why not move them to the country where at least they can run free in a cleaner environment and be in nature, trust me this river, swamp was not a good environment.  The water is so disgusting that although they do swim and wash in it I’m sure it’s not healthy, a few little guys has the weirdest looking eyes like they were filmed over and rolled into the back on their heads, I’m sure babies are born with some weird defects here with all this pollution.

Very serious little fellows.

I noticed a small boat come closer and then another, mothers with babies begging for money and food, one boat had a mother and two babies in it and the other had a mother with two babies and two toddlers in it, i couldn’t help think “why” why do you have all these kids, what for, it’s not fair to them or you.  It makes me want to bring cases of birth control to this country, they say there is a high mortality rate for babies in Cambodia and I can see why, this is such a horrible environment for them in some of these places.

I think back to my babies and the environment they were brought up in so very different and the joy I felt being able to provide that for them, out here there is no hope of these mothers improving things for their babies.  I am convinced like so many other countries that their governments are corrupt and that the money donated or raised by others that is meant to improve the lives of the people dosn’t ever reach them.

I don’t have the answer other than education, perhaps we need schools for adults as much as for the children.

We left the orphanage, and when you look at these pictures I took you can see what I’m talking about.

Where will she be in 10 years?

So many serious kids.

Next was a visit to the fish and crocodile floating farm,  as I looked down at the fish, in again this dreadful water and pen, then the crocodiles looking like dried up fish, one with a rope tied around it, in a pen no bigger than 6’ x 8’,  I started to feel quite sick to my stomach, all of it was too sad for me, I said to Ronnie I have to go I think I’m really going to be physically sick to my stomach, so I rushed down the stairs and lept back on our boat and burst into tears, it hard to explain how I felt, just so completely disgusted and sad and hopeless.

Waiting to be made into a handbag.

Posing for a picture with a snake??
anything to get a small amount of cash

After having a drink of water and us finally get back under way back to the bikes I sat there thinking to myself why dose this effect me this way, I think with the kids being so unhappy, scrapping with each other and then seeing the mothers with 4 children under 4 just made me think “whats it all for” why and how is this ever going to be better for these people and why don’t they stop having babies that they cant take care of, cant afford and it seems don’t want or care about?  Morgan said, "the main problem with the world is "over population", our world cannot sustain it", and I think he is right!  It made me think about his work he is doing in 10 charities and 10 countries,  in this one village it had it all, orphanage, poverty, huge environmental issues, animal cruelty, everything he is out here raising awareness for.

The world is falling apart out here and yes there is a lot of good going on but no-where near enough, the sd thing is the corruption where the foreign aid never seems to reach the people, what is the answer I do not know but I definitely think that we have to educate these countries on "birth control".

Finally, just before we left, this little girl climbed 
onto my boat and made me feel better with her 
big smile and beautiful eyes.

Mothers so busy begging.
How many kids fall in