On The Water
In all countries of South East Asia there are thriving and comprehensive street markets where individuals and families sell a comprehensive range of products and foods both day and night. Such markets occur wherever there is space to set one up including on the water.
Water, rivers and inland-water also constitute a means of transport, a place to live, and are utilised for the celebration for festivals, amongst other things. Some people actually live on the water.
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Damnoen Saduak Floating Market near Bangkok is well known both by locals and visitors and consists of a maze of narrow khlongs (canals), where wares are sold both from the banks and notably from the small narrow boats. Hot food is available from these ‘floating kitchens' on which cookers, boiling water, the requisite pots and pans, and a wide range of food ingredients are carried. Damnoen Saduak was actually the name of the canal dug in the reign of King Rama IV. It was built to connect the Taachin River in with the Mae Khlong River in Samut Songkhram Province.
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Near Siem Reap in Cambodia is a collection of three floating villages totaling somewhere between 2000 – 3000 residents. Named Kompong Phluk, meaning "Harbour of the Tusks", the buildings are built on stilts to cope with the varying water level of the Tonle Sap Lake upon which they are constructed. Under the Khmer Rouge regime, soldiers burned down floating village homes and moved families to work sites. After the Khmer Rouge, families began returning to the area to resume their lives as fishermen. The community largely depends on fishing for survival, spending Cambodia's wet season (May - October) doing just this, although many residents now also earn money from Tourism. The area has the largest mangrove forest in the region (called the flooded forest) as it is under-water for part of the year.