However, there are 700,000 homeless people wandering here. They have no identity and nationality, and they can't go ashore for a lifetime, so they can only stay in the water for a long time.
Who are they, where do they come from, why are they forced to settle here, and how do they survive in an environment without land?
This time, he was invited by Zhu Xi, a studio partner, and went to "Tonle Sap Lake" to buy seafood with Wang Yang, a fellow villager.
Leo and his party walked around for a few days and finally set foot on Tonle Sap Lake. At first glance, Tonle Sap Lake is sunny and sparkling, like a holiday resort.
Leo turned on the SLR and pressed the shutter on the lake. The beating light made him feel that there were still many beautiful scenery worth exploring.
This is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. On the lake, boats are floating, and houses with vegetation are built sporadically, which is the home of Tonle Sap Lake people.
Zhuzi's friend Wang Yang met the Lao Wu family while fishing in Tonle Sap Lake and occasionally passed by Cambodia. He will come and have a look. This time, he and Leo took the post together.
Boarding Lao Wu's boat, Wang Yang and Lao Wu exchanged pleasantries. Lao Wu is thin and tall, and his skin is tanned. He is only in his thirties, but he looks very old.
Although Lao Wu is only in his thirties, he already has six children, four men and two women. Here, not much.
Although the "floating village" has a population of 700,000, the medical and health conditions are extremely poor, and the average life expectancy is only over 50 years old. People believe in the idea of how happy they are to have more children. After all, the more children there are, the more labor there is at home.
Looking from the boat, you can often see children of several years old rowing alone and floating in the water.
Wang Yang introduced Leo and Zhu to Lao Wu, who was extremely enthusiastic and kept them at home for dinner. So Leo and Leo boarded the Lao Wu's hut.
Although the sparrow is small, it has all aspects. The hut is divided into two rooms. Cooking outside is near the lake, and people live in the back room. Leo and Zhu distributed the gifts they brought to Lao Wu's children, and the children jumped with joy.
Wu Congrui is Lao Wu's youngest daughter. The little girl took the rabbit doll that Leo brought him and whistled at it for a while. She had a good time.
The whistle of "Du" sounded from time to time in the room, which made her second brother and third brother tired and chased her mouth.
At the dinner table, fish and seafood account for the majority. Fish and shrimp are sashimi, and hot and sour fish soup is spicy, just to dispel the heat of the scorching sun. The smell of citronella neutralizes the fishy smell of fish and tastes unique in Southeast Asia.
Such a sumptuous meal is not common in the Lao Wu family. Several children of Lao Wu licked their mouths and dared not clip them. Several children were not allowed to eat until after dinner.
Leo looked at this scene and felt a little sour in his heart. After dinner, he took out the compressed biscuits he took with him and distributed them to the children. A small piece tastes bad and hard, but the children are very novel.
Especially from Rui, I broke off a small piece and put it in my mouth to suck a little. I don't know what delicious taste she tasted, but she looked up and smiled.
"Is it delicious?" Leo asked him in the authentic Vietnamese he had just learned.
She smiled and played in circles, looking very happy.
After dinner, the afterglow of the sunset filled the whole lake. Leo watched today's movie and was not very satisfied. He always feels shortcomings.
At sunset, Leo and Lao Wu chatted: "What country are you from here? Nobody cares? "
Lao Wu lowered his head: "Yes, our ancestors were Vietnamese troops, and we didn't withdraw to Vietnam that year. Stationed in Cambodia, Cambodia didn't want us after the war, and Vietnam wouldn't let us go back. Everyone wandered around and settled in the village here. "
Leo nodded. "Never thought of looking for land creatures?"
"I haven't thought about it, but where to go? We don't even have nationality. We are expelled everywhere, and only water can't control it. "
It's dark, there are no lights here, and people live the simplest life, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Leo is on Lao Wu's fishing boat, watching the stars fall asleep.
A few days after arriving in the "floating village", Leo and Lao Wu caught fish together and fed them to pigs and ducks. Today, Lao Wu will take Leo to the "floating village" for the fair.
Markets are big ships, clean and tidy, with special goods on them. There are oil paintings depicting the scenery on the lake, pamphlets recording local customs, characteristic hand-painted wooden basins, handbags and various kinds of wool.
There is plenty of space inside, but there are not many people. This is a market specially set up for tourists. Locals seldom come to buy them and have no money to spend.
Leo bought some special beads as souvenirs.
On their way home, they met a child with a python around his neck. The children looked at Leo eagerly, hoping that they could give them some money.
The thick python hangs around the thin neck, which is out of proportion. Leo was trying to take pictures, but Lao Wu stopped him.
"Don't shoot, you'll be entangled in these children." Lao Wu explained.
Leo nodded and put down his camera.
On their way home, they met a ship carrying goods, which is a real place where local people buy and sell goods.
There are spices, toys, salt, clothes and other daily necessities on board. Lao Wu stopped the boat and bought some salt with Burmese currency, which is what their family lives on.
Later, Lao Wu took them to the fish market. This is the largest market in the "floating village", where the fish caught by every household are traded.
It is not only rich in variety, but also extremely fresh. You can find many novel fish at low prices.
This is Wang Yang's world.
He will leave tomorrow, and Wang Yang won the fish today and went out to resell it.
I saw that he skillfully picked and bargained in the local language. Leo doesn't know Cambodian, and the pillar is only a few simple words. While waiting for Wang Yang, they looked around and saw a little girl looking at them with a python on her back. They chatted with the little girl.
The pillar stammered to the little girl, "Did you come by yourself? What about your parents? "
The little girl looked at him in ignorance: "The fish seller over there." She pointed to a fishing boat in the distance.
"Aren't you afraid of carrying such a big snake?"
"No, it's my friend. Do you want to touch it? "
The pillar was a little scared and smiled awkwardly: "No need."
The little girl looked at them for a while, pointed to the camera on Leo's chest and asked, "What is this? I can always see someone pointing it at us. "
"This is a camera." The pillar explained. "That is, just like looking in the mirror, you can draw your appearance at a glance."
The pillar explained clearly, and the little girl nodded and shook her head, puzzled.
Leo saw that she was interested in the camera and took out the cookies in her bag to exchange with the girl. Let the pillars translate.
"This is some food. My uncle gave it to you. Can you ask my uncle to take a picture? "
The little girl looked at the food and pushed it away.
"I can let you take pictures, but can you tell me what it's like outside? The teacher said it was big outside, but I haven't been there. Mom and dad don't know what's outside. "
Leo paused for a rare moment and then said, "OK".
They sat in the bow and described to the girl "what it's like outside".
"There are mountains, large tracts of land, and wheat fields that will turn yellow in autumn. There are tall buildings and trains that can take people anywhere. There are lights at night, bright to 100 stars, which can illuminate the whole village, so people will sleep very late at night ... "
The little girl is so confused that she can't even imagine what they look like.
With the help of international organizations, local schools have also been established here, but only Chinese and mathematics are taught. Children's curiosity about the outside world is completely insatiable.
When he left, Leo took a picture of the little girl, with lakes and mountains in the distance, fish market nearby and a simple little girl with stars in her eyes. Her skin is dark, but she is full of innocence and yearning.
The next day, led by Wang Yang, Leo and his party left Tonle Sap Lake.
Before leaving, Wang Yang said that the area here is four times that of Singapore, but the fate of people here is worrying.
On the night of leaving, Leo and Zhu only brought the necessary food and water, and gave the rest of the dry food and daily necessities to Lao Wu's children.
Lao Wu rubbed his hands uncomfortably: "How can this be done? How can this be embarrassing? " . Boss Wang came to buy our fish and helped us a lot. "
Wang Yang pushed Lao Wu's hand away: "You're welcome, Lao Wu, keep it. They still have these things. "
They all know in their hearts that these things are nothing to Leo and them, but they are extremely rare to the Lao Wu family.
On the way back, Leo looked at the film in the camera.
Lakes and mountains, lively fish market, floating huts, dark "floating village" people and so on are not very satisfied. Leo stopped with his finger when he saw the little girl. He felt that he had found the taste of the Tonle Sap Lake he was looking for.
Now, in the little girl's eyes and words, he seems to understand that the key to fate will not be in the hands of others, but in his own hands.
We can't choose our birth, nor can we choose the opportunity of life. However, this does not affect our curiosity about the world. Isn't it brave to write this semi-propositional composition of life hard?
Finally, Leo named this group of photos: "Born in the sun."
In recent years, many people have gone to some hard places, trying to spread advanced civilization and convey local difficulties.
But later, when I saw those people who lived so hard still smiling brightly, I found that even if they lived in poverty, they still couldn't stop people from living in the sun.
When we extended our warm hands, those people also passed on the resilience of life to us without reservation.
1. Analysis of the relationship between land landscape change and human activities in Tonle Sap Lake Basin, Cambodia: Huang Ziyong, Wang Junde, Zhang Yubin; China rural water and hydropower, No.4, 2020
2. The real Tonle Sap Lake "house boat"; Wang Xiaoman; World culture 20 18 1
3. The sorrow of Tonle Sap Lake; Chen Wenwei; People's Justice 20 17 15