On our last day cruising the Mekong River before heading off to Siem Reap for two days of exploration at Angkor Wat, our National Trust Tours group visited the remarkably intact traditional Khmer village of Angkor Ban. Because the Khmer Rouge used the houses in this community for residential and storage purposes, it is one of the few villages that survived destruction under the regime. The remoteness of the area helped the villagers maintain more traditional ways while their friendliness to those of us visiting made it one of the favorite stops on the tour.

During the three-hour tour, we stopped by the local monastery for a water blessing by the monks before we visited with local families and farms to see how the locals live. One generous homeowner gave us a tour of her traditional home, set up high on stilts to avoid the floods of the river. Inside we walked on the traditional bamboo floor and explored the family and private spaces.

Afterwards, we continued to an English language primary school, where we met the children, helped them in reading English, and learned about a typical school day.

It was a magical way to end our time on the Mekong Princess, our home for the past seven days.

Enjoy the images from this portion of our visit.

More to come…

DJB

Image of a row of traditional houses in Angkor Ban by DJB