The road to my friend Nop Kong's house was a single gravel lane just wide enough to allow one motorbike to pass in each direction. Along this road are all kinds of houses, ranging from simple thatch huts to brick and stucco French colonial structures. In the inset picture is a very simple small hut built four feet off the ground on stilts. Flooding is a constant problem in the farmlands since they are largely rice fields.

More elaborate thatch huts are built high enough that the family can store equipment and even cook underneath their sleeping and living quarters. Families often put aluminum or tin roofs on their houses as they earn more cash by selling their rice.

As families prosper they panel their houses with wood and add glass to the windows. Wood is ideal for these houses since wood allows for ventilation both throubh the walls and through the floor. The thatching also allows for ventilation, though it also harbors friendly farm animals like mice, rats and geckos who keep the mosquitos down.

The most modern buildings are the French colonial brick and stucco buildings which while air conditionable and sturdy are also hot and prone to flood damage while the houses built on stilts simply stand in the water until the floods subside.