Today it was on to Battambang – by boat!!! As we exited our hotel I had to take a shot of the sign in the elevator. Looks like they are treat durian fruit as serious as bringing in weapons!!!!

Today would be another boat ride as we headed across Tonle Sap by boat. Six hours from Siem Reap to Battambang!!

We wouldn’t be the only ones out there . . .

. . .  but we had our own boat!!!

The first hour or two there was quite  bit of water traffic . . .

Then we ran into the river community that lived on house boats . . . this one looked pretty nice . . .

. .  some looked like they needed a little work but I bet it was all the owners could afford at the time . . .

. . . looked like most people earned a living by something to do with the water, mostly fishing. This was a big derrick device that had  a net stretched across the boom in front and was let down into the water. When it was time to bring up the catch  . . . it was all about lever action and a fulcrum point!!!!!

Lots of color on the houses . . .

About 5 hours into the trip it was time for lunch. Nak had brought  box lunches!!!

Hand made boxes that contained lots of goodies!!!!

Unfortunately for me I had come down with a case of ‘Travelers-You Know-What’ a couple of days earlier. I had taken the anti-biotic the travel nurse had prescribed and would take it for 4 more days.  Whatever went  down came right out again. So . . . the only thing I had was the water and  the rice that was packaged in the banana leave in the lower left corner of the lunch box.

These fisherman moved their house and whole operation to wherever the fish were biting!!!

Here is a better view of the fishing contraption with the net still attached to the front boom.

. . . these folks must have needed to worry about flooding during the rainy season.

Quite the community . . .

. . . not sure what they did for fresh water??

Here’s the kids, with their uniforms on, coming home from school . . by boat!!!

This young guy may not have been allowed to use the motor, which is a long haft with an open spinning propeller on the end. You can see the prop in the boat because the motor is turned 180 degrees from the operating position.

This looked like a mosque, and it was the nicest building along the river. First of these I had seen.  AND . . . I  had only noticed one Catholic Church. Christians are definitely in the minority here.

Boys having fun . . . and probably taking a bath at the same time.

At one point the river was getting too shallow for our boat and Nak radioed ahead to get us two smaller boats to continue our trek up stream. Here is the motor of the one I was on. Everything out in the wide open . . . no safety guards on this baby.

Finally after 7 hours we landed at the closest point we could get to Battambang. There was quite a little fishing outpost along the river here but the people looked happy!!

From the beach we had an hour ride over terrible roads in two vans. Normally during the wet season the area we ere driving though is covered by 5 feet of water!!!

It felt good to get to the Stung Sangke Hotel in Battambang.