Riverkids Project

A group of kids on their way back from school (the ones in blue pants or skirts with white shirts). The school here was an occasional Vietnamese school on a boat, which has apparently since closed in a rent dispute over where it was moored.

This is a comparatively prosperous place further down the riverside, with wooden buildings (or legs msotly against flooding) and a little bit of a market in the middle.

This is one of the eroded sides of the penninsula/island bits where a lot of the fishing boats moor. There's a zig-zag path made in the side of the cliff which can sort of be made out here - a rope is anchored up to help people climb up. In the dry season, it's okay, but when it's raining this side becomes pretty impassable. I was told there are frequent accidents.

That's me and my youngest peering into a floating fish trap. It was absolutely teeming with fat fish being fed with watermelon rinds that day.

Okay, I wouldn't want to drink the water, but it is pretty lively with fish and fairly clear, at least compared to Singapore's murky water! Kids jump in and out all the time.

The nicest boat house I've seen so far, it was moored out over several floating platforms and made for a lovely roomy place for a large family. There was a bit of a garden out the other side and a bathroom area set aside. Note the school uniform hanging up!

The riverside has been steadily redeveloped with the riverside people being pushed further and further away. There's a promenade road nearby which is packed at night, with two funfairs and a lot of the riverside kids work there at nights, selling snacks, balloons and so on. The really grim stuff tends to happen further away.