Flooded Forest

In the middle of our tour through the floating village, we went to one of my favorite parts of the trip, the flooded forest. We switched from our larger boat to small canoes. There were two passengers, and a person rowing at the front and a small child (about 6-8 years old) steering and paddling at the back. The canoe with it’s visible holes through the wood, made me a bit nervous at first, but after freaking out (see pic) when we first got on, I relaxed and had a very pleasant journey. We were taken through the flooded forest in a line of canoes. It seemed like a ride at Disneyland, but it was better because it was real. I kept having visions of hippos popping their heads out of the water trying to capsize our boats or snakes dangling down from the treetops, but no such luck. I saw a few birds and that was about it. Since the water level was low, we weren’t eye to eye with the topmost branches, but it was still very beautiful. There were many plants growing in the water, I don’t know their names, but I think they eat them. At one point, all the canoes circled up and we sat there floating. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Then one of the boat drivers started singing a song. It was all so quiet while the melody crept around us and seemed sad but beautiful at the same time. Hopefully the video will play. When she finished, someone had the bright idea of following that up with a few verses of “Row, Row Your Boat.” Totally spoiled the moment for me, although I guess the kids and people on the boats enjoyed watching the foreigners sing.
Going through this flooded forest was one of the highlights of the trip.