Floating villages at Lake Tonle Sap – A guide to travelers

Floating villages at Lake Tonle Sap – A guide to travelers

Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, is also known as Boeung Tonle Sap. Here you can see a variety of wildlife, amazing local communities, and the floating villages. These floating villages that must be a part of any ​Cambodia tour package are of great interest to any tourist traveling to Siem Reap. It is a fantastic experience to watch people living in floating houses, look at floating schools, and dine at floating restaurants.

It is a massive lake with 250 kilometers in length and 100 kilometers in width and is strangely only 10 meters at its deepest. Apart from the floating villages, there are also stilted villages where the houses rest on tall, thin stilts that keep the people dry in the rainy season. On your ​Cambodia holidays​, do visit one of these fantastic floating villages at Tonle Sap Lake.

Let us have a look at some of the floating villages that travelers can explore from Siem Reap.

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Kampong Phluk

Kampong Phluk is located 30 kilometers from Siem Reap and can be visited on a half-day trip. The local people survive by catching fish and shrimp and grow some crops on the land during the dry season.

It is more of a working village, and there are no activities to do here. People are involved in their work and are in no way concerned with tourism.

It is great fun to see people involved in their daily chores while you are in your boat; however, it is not suggested at all because they are in no way benefitted from the tourism industry. Instead, you can go around the mangroves in some of the small boats available here. There are a few floating restaurants that you can visit both for experience and supporting the local tourism industry. â—?

Chong Kneas

It is the closest village from Siem Reap with a distance of only 16 kilometers. The floating houses are moved depending upon the water level in the lake. It is the boat terminal for Phnom Penh and Battambang.

There are many Korean restaurants here that serve the significant Korean tourists visiting the village. It is the place where rice scams take place. The boat tours do not belong to the local community, and they

are in no way benefitted from the tourism revenue. Therefore unless you are traveling to Phnom Penh or Battambang by boat, there is nothing much to do here. ●

Mechrey

Mechrey is a floating village 25 kilometers from Siem Reap and around halfway to Prek Toal, which is the entry point to the Prek Toal Bird reserve and is also a floating village. The people here are dependent on eco-tours and fishing. The tourism industry here is at a nascent level, and many means, as can be seen in other villages, are being put to use here in Mechrey, like advising the tourists to buy rice for the local orphans. While this is a very kind and helpful thing to do, however, the help may not be going to the needy and maybe benefitting the wrongdoers. Instead, it is better to donate through a reputable organization. If you plan to visit the village on your ​holidays to Cambodia​, it is suggested to go through a well-recognized tour operator. ●

Kampong Khleang

Kampong Khleang is located approximately 50 kilometers from Siem Reap. It has a population of around 6000 that dwell in floating, stilted houses and other buildings as well. The houses are moved around depending upon the water level in the lake. The local people are involved in the boat services and

therefore benefitting from the tourism industry. Many tour operators conduct tours here that include a visit to a sticky rice-producing village and the local market. It is a good idea to join a regular tour organizer on your ​Cambodia tour package to visit the village. Another way of visiting the village is arriving here by tuk-tuk and then taking a boat, which allows you to be flexible with the timing.

You may always want to visit a floating village on your ​Cambodia tour package​. Therefore, it is advisable to join a reputed tour operator who will take you through the entire journey to the floating village. The tours take you through the daily life of the locals, while some creative tour operators may organize a sunset dinner excursion.

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