We met some Americans from Kentucky who are over here doing some humanitarian work with orphanages and they suggested we take a trip to the floating villages.
Wow, what an eye opener to see the extent of poverty just outside the city about 10km. You can see in the photo the hut/shack/well...their homes that are packed with families, I guess the average is 6-7 children per household. They live on Tonle Sap, the biggest freshwater lake in southeast asia and luckily they are sustained with the available fish and floating vegetatin around them.....well most of them....but there were many at the pier when we left that appear to be very hungry and you are bombarded with children begging. The children in the canoe above are the luckier ones and can afford to [pay for school, they are on their way home for lunch...start at 7am-11 and back from 1-4pm.
As we drove away from the area in taxi...children were actually sprinting after us shouting "1 dollar please" because they had seen us give some of the children dollar bills and sweets, it really would make you cry.
Its a pity that there is no social service system in the country nor any government assistance for the poor so they are truly helpless. Made you feel very guilty going back to our nice hotel after that, however luckily tourism has brought quite a bit of money into the country, its too bad there is so much corruption so it does not always go into the right hands!
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