raft house


raft house
This one was a little different than the others we'd seen in that the huts weren't built against the shore. Instead, there seemed to be a raft-walkway that connected two separate islands, and the houses were attached to walkway in the middle of the water! One of the guides told us that this type of setup was used to catch fish in nets!
raft house
A view of the same village from further away so you can see the size of the mountains in the background.
raft house
Another raft house village.
raft house
We made our way back across the lake and docked our rafts. Before we set out on our hike back across the island...
raft house
On the way we passed another floating-hut village on the water. This one didn't have any guest houses and it was really cool to see that the "tourist" huts were pretty much identical to how the locals live.
raft house
And I use the term "boat" lightly. See those two things on the left? Those are the boats that we were going to be taking to cross the lake and get to the cave that we'd be exploring! They were actually rafts made out of bamboo with 5 HP engines tied to the back!
raft house
It only took us about thirty minutes to cross the island. We came out of the jungle and had to walk down a really steep trail to get to another "boat launch" area.
raft house
After we were finished goofing off with the the boat driver, it was time to leave the raft village...
raft house
After we'd finished lunch, we went back out on the docks and we ended up striking up a conversation with one of our boat drivers. Which eventually led to him insisting that he take a picture...
raft house
Meredith ran into a "snag" when she tried out the special "boat-driving hat."
raft house
...of us pretending to be the boat drivers! Hahah.
raft house
Here's a shot of the bench on the very back of the boat that we sat on during the ride out to the floating-hut village!
raft house
Around 1pm we ate a delicious lunch. Here's Mer with two of the other tourists (If I remember correctly, they were from Germany) enjoying some post-lunch fruit.
raft house
Drying off on the dock after our swim!
raft house
I like how that one mountain is shaped like a Smurf hat.
raft house
Check out the totally jungley mountains in the background. Can you believe that this place actually exists in the world? Even though I was there, every time I see these pictures I'm like "What? That place can't be real!"
raft house
The view of the guest huts from the water.
raft house
...WE WENT SWIMMING! Hahahaha. Check out the action shot of Mer jumping in for the first time.
raft house
...in the guest huts and then...
raft house
Then we changed into our bathing suits...
raft house
We hung out in the shade and relaxed for a bit.
raft house
Our guide told us that we were going to be hanging out here for a couple of hours to swim, relax and eat lunch and then we were going to hike across the island and then take a boat from the far side of the island over to a cave! Here's a pic of the big communal hut where our lunch was being prepared.
raft house
...ta-da! And we've arrived! Turns out these raft houses were build by the locals and you can totally rent them out and vacation in them!
raft house
...almost there...
raft house
Getting closer...
raft house
...closer...