tonle sap lake, siem reap to floating village, minivan taxi driver

We travel to Tonle Sap, South East Asia’s largest fresh water lake. The lake's size and volume vary significantly through the year, depending on whether it is the wet or dry season. We will take a boat along the lake and see many of the floating villages and people who call the lake home.

Kampong Phluk! A commune and village in Siem Reap Province in northern-central Cambodia. It is a village built on stilts on the Tonle Sap. The name means "Harbor of the Tusks". The community largely depends on fishing for survival, spending Cambodia's wet season fishing...

Kompong Khleang! However, the people’s life here is not easy. In dry season, Tonle Sap water flows into Mekong River. In rainy season, the lake water level rises up to 12 meters and extends over 20,000 km2 areas, larger than 5 times with dry season. Resident will be faced with both physical and economical challenges with many floating houses here which are tenuous to cope with extreme weather conditions.
 
Most houses in the fishing village are bamboo huts with only one room, the people’s life here is very miserable and misery. In dry season, the houses stand precariously on bamboo poles which are firmly plugged into the lake. Whenever flood comes, people can only use wooden boats to move around Kompong Khleang among stilt houses of selling goods, schools and health facilities, even having temples on stilt houses.

Mechrey! One of the small unspoiled floating villages, nice and less touristy spot for those who like to feel beautiful atmosphere and the nature. It is not located far from the Siem Reap town, drive along road number 6, it takes approximately 30 minute (25km). After the drive took off the main street, the journey provides charming views of rice paddies, see cattle as well as farming activities in the rice fields before you reach at the boat pier. Mechrey is the floating community based on tourism, offers such nice sightseeing along the channel where your sights are being attracted by interesting daily life of activities, floating houses, kids playing in the water, visit a mall floating souvenir shop, the crocodiles and active Buddhism pagoda. If you take the boat cruise further, you will see the Great Lake of Tonle Sap, well-known as the largest freshwater lake in the Southeast Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997.

Chong Kneas! The floating village at the edge of the lake closest and most accessible to Siem Reap. If you want a relatively quick and easy look at the Tonle Sap, boat tours of Chong Khneas are available, departing from the Chong Khneas boat docks all day long. The boatman will probably point out the differing Khmer and Vietnamese floating households and the floating markets, clinics, schools and other boatloads of tourists...

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