We have been working on starting a boat service from Sambor Village Hotel to provide an authentic experience for our guests traveling on the Stung Sen River. When my father came to stay with us we decided that he was the perfect guinea pig for a trip down the Stung Sen to the southern end of the Tonle Sap Lake. We enlisted the help of a local boat driver, Phala and with Tettra as translator we headed off on the 70km journey to the lake from Kampong Thom.
On route we passed fisherman heading out for a days fishing, and small trading boats before stopping for a quick rest stop on the Tonle Sap floodplains where seasonal farmers grow dry season rice. There were hundreds of hectares of rice as far as the eye could see, all irrigated by small diesel engines pumping water into channels dug between the paddies. There were few permanent homes in this area as during the wet season the whole plain is two metres under water. It will be interesting to see when we do our rainy season trip in a few months.
As we neared the Tonle Sap, small stilted villages and floating houses became more regular. Local communities who make their living from fishing and wood cutting. As the population increased so did the number of small shops and river traders.
We got to Phala's hometown, a small floating village about 1km from the Tonle Sap and decided to spend the night with his family. It was a good sized town with all of the amenities you would expect from a Cambodian town. Wedding shops, cell phone shops, drink shop boat, petrol station, a school, as well as green grocers, general stores, police station, pagoda and a large floating restaurant that could be towed to the home of whatever lucky lady happened to be getting married.
After a short rest we headed off to look around the area. We visited a local Pagoda with some pre Angkorian archeological sites, and took a couple of motodop drivers to check out a little of the country side around Kampong Chnang. Then we headed back to meet Phalla and headed out in his boat to the lake to buy some fresh fish for dinner. Some enterprising Viets were buying and selling fish from the flooded bilge of their boat. Palla and Tettra took care of the purchase while Dad and I looked on in anticipation of a home cooked dinner. Sorry no photo of dinner, but as you can see there was plenty left for breakfast the next morning.
The next morning we headed back for Kampong Thom after buying some iced coffee and having a quick look at the immense Tonle Sap Lake. On the way home Palla stopped at several small communities and stores looking for snake meat. After a few stops we were directed back across the river to a family that had a bucket load. We ended up buying some extra snakes as well as a gift for Tettra's family.
A few weeks after our trip to Kampong Chnang, a guest staying at Sambor Village asked if we could organize a short trip on the river. Tettra called Palla in the evening and the next day at 2pm he arrived outside the hotel to take English angler Wegg, Tettra and I up river to look for some fresh fish.
The hotel chefs did a wonderful job with the meal and Wegg enjoyed his authentic Cambodian fish dinner.
We look forward to providing this service to guests who stay with us in the future. In addition to Palla's river trips to Kampong Chnang, we are also in cooperation with a local family who are preparing an 11 metre traditional wooden river boat for some local site seeing, and Tettra and I are buying a smaller fibre glass long tail for our own holiday trips and small group tours.
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