Beyond My Scale

Floating Village, Tonle Sap, Cambodia, December 2024

Looking at a map of Cambodia, it’s impossible to miss the vast patch of water in its center. That’s Tonle Sap Lake – the largest freshwater reservoir in Southeast Asia. I grew up near a lake, in the countryside, so I couldn’t resist the urge to visit this “beating heart of Cambodia,” as the guidebook poetically described it.

Apart from the steady hum of the engine, everything at first seemed dreamily calm. Muddy yellow water, blue boats, narrow canals lined with reeds. Here and there, children waved from the shore. But soon, the landscape began to shift. We entered a floating world.

Houses on the water. A church on the water. Dogs barking from the roofs of boats. Chickens on rafts. A shop with shelves swaying with every wave. Children playing football… in the water. In the dry season, these homes must be three stories high. Here, people have made the water their home—literally.

I watched from the boat, trying to grasp this reality. For a European, it feels almost abstract. I found myself judging—sadly, anxiously. But in truth, I have no right. That’s just my internalized value system, one that measures well-being in square meters and wall sockets. They use a different scale. I don’t know what it is—but the children are smiling, and the people are kind. That’s enough. I don’t do politics.

Each of us has our place. That’s how the world is arranged.
I’m grateful for this experience—and I encourage everyone to keep expanding their own scale toward tolerance, sensitivity, and understanding.