Mekong River

Few years ago, I had a chance to take a boat along Mekong River and witnessed the villagers whose livelihood depended solely on the river. They catch fish, play with their buffalo, wash their clothes and take shower in the river. Their houses are semi-permanent - made of tin and bamboo – and normally without a door or window. Some of them reside on boats. These people are mostly Vietnamese immigrants who are welcomed in Cambodia but without a legal right to own any land. Sometime they are pushed away from one river bank to the other because of new building construction being started and the land has to be emptied. In the distance, as a contrast, you see a row of five-star hotels which accommodate foreign tourists who are willing to pay more for river view.