Open water - Floating village on the Tonle Sap lake, Cambodia

Sep 18 Floating Village

A half early start today to go see a Floating Village on the nearby Tonle Sap lake. The Tonle Sap is the largest lake in South East Asia and changes it's size dramatically from wet to dry season each year. Making a lot of villages actually move their positions around and boat piers move along. The recent floods make the floating villages even more interesting to visit. There's a few floating villages within a daytrips reach of Siem Reap. The closest one is supposedly horribly touristy, the third one is over two hours Tuk Tuk ride away so we opt for the middle choice. The Floating Village of Kompong Phluk, 45 minute Tuk Tuk ride from Siem Reap and a bit by boat. Fine enough for a half day trip and not on the route to any temples. Angkor enthusiasts may not believe this but you can be totally templed out after a day. Maybe with a day or two break I could continue with more of the billions of temples in the Siem Reap area but for now I am happy that we found another great thing to do. The drive to Kompong Phluk is scenic, especially once we leave the main road and drive along a – nicely maintained – dirtpath to the boatdock. There are houses everywhere with people eating, cooking, sleeping, building new houses. Kids are playing in the streets or swimming in the canals. Most of the small houses have been built on stilts to protect them from the water in the rainy season but the smaller wooden shacks are all on the ground. The area is very much alive. There are street vendors with fruits and small stacks and every few hundred meters there's a petrol pump. Meaning a guy is standing next to a table that has an assortment of Whiskey bottles on it that are filled with different types of petrol. You pay by the bottle and fill up your Tuk Tuk or motorcycle. Actually very efficient, I like their style.

The Tuk Tuk ride is $ 15 for the full day to Kompong Phluk and return, which is a good deal when you split it threeways. The boat ride to the floating village is another $ 15 and there is no bargaining with them at all. It's extremely quiet, there's no other tourists here at the moment and judging from the empty parking lot there's not many on the lake either. But still, full price for every one. The five of us – Markus decided to go hike to a waterfall with underwater inscriptions – get a private boat and head out on the huge lake. It takes about 20-30 minutes to get to the village although you can see first isolated houses before then. All houses are built on gigantic stilts and transport is by boat only. Already the small children navigate their way around very efficiently. There are floating fish ponds, vegetable gardens and lots of other floating devices to keep their firewood and everything else dry. We even see a floating chicken and pig stable. So it seems there's nothing that you cannot get floating either. The boat passes slowly through the village giving us a look at the life there. People seem truly happy going about their day on the water. I feel it's really scenic here and if you would like to get away from it all I even see one sign for a guesthouse.

Our boat stops by a makeshift bar where we transfer to a smaller boat which takes us through a flooded/sunken forest, for another $ 3 per person. The sunken forest is pretty cool and we can also watch how some locals jump around monkeylike to cut down some firewood and their efforts to keep it as dry as possible. Marcus and Vilma are driven around by two small kids that have little trouble navigating the narrow passages but enlighten the trip with singing along the way. The mummy is cruising with Joonas, Nina and me and knows her way around pretty well. Singing and cruising along we chill taking in the ghostly looking trees. I try to imagine how this looks like in dry season. Apparently even Tuk Tuk's can drive out here then. The trip ends at a small restaurant on stilts in the middle of nowhere and our boat-driver already waits for us there. Since we got treated to nice Cambodian singing we tip the lady and her kids and you can see their faces light up. I do not think that they get much of that $ 3 we paid, so a little goes a long way here.

We are offered to eat there but the prices are inflated and it doesn't look that trustworthy. After quickly telling us that they can lower the price by $ 1 each dish we decide to give it a go and order some food. The food is prepared a few wooden planks down by ladies sitting on the floor peeling shrimp and gutting fish. Looks fresh to me. All vegetables are freshly cut and a gas stove is used to heat it up. It does take some time for the food to arrive but damn, this is sooooo delicious. My small shrimp salad is so big and so full of shrimp we share it all. And it tastes absolutely fantastic. All the other dishes are really good too. Well, never judge a cook by the facilities, you have no idea which wonders can come out there. Too sad this place is a bit remote to say the least. I would totally return here for dinner, lunch, dinner and so on. I can still taste it a bit in my mouth. Or so I hope. Best shrimp salad to date and I am sure it will remain the one in the most original location.

Another original is the restaurants toilet. It's actually just a wooden plank, so leading right into the lake. Bonus points for hygiene. No smell and it's really clean. Much nicer than most squatters and many western toilets I've seen but points for originality. When it comes to the bill I do decide to actually pay them the original price on the menu and not the one dollar if they gave us. And man was that a good decision. After noticing it the girl actually runs back in the kitchen, shows the money around and jumps happily in the air. Now I would love even more to come back here. And maybe even bring a translator, I would love to hear some stories about living in floating villages. Unlike Siem Reap where every kid that can talk, knows a bit of english, here unfortunately you have to make due with the good old sign language.

The boat heads farther out and after another few minutes we finally reach Tonle Sap lake. All the ride before was actually just floods during rainy season and with only reached the actual lake now. It stretches out as far as the eye can see in all directions and reminds more of an ocean rather than a lake. We are offered the opportunity to jump in and some other Cambodian tourists are already splashing around in their life jackets or having their feet hang in the water. Being unprepared – no swimsuits, no towels – we just opt to take the scenery in instead and head back. Another wonderful sight of the peaceful village and we are somehow back in civilization hopping on the Tuk Tuk to Siem Reap.

Really thrilled we made the trip out here. There is no souvenir shopping, no floating markets but a great glimpse into village life which I truly enjoyed.

Back in Siem Reap a short drinks stop until we head for shopping. We wander through the Old Market and the Central Market and I end up buying a lot. Including an oversize handbag in which I can carry all the stuff back to Bangkok. Somewhere in the middle of shopping Marcus disappears, but it being Siem Reap we run into him hours later. Quick shower break after all the shopping and the reunited six of us set out to dinner. This time its adventurous. Grilled various meats including frog, snake and crocodile. Didn't taste bad at all. But their grilling sauce made everything taste very similar anyway.

After the dinner part goes shopping, part goes drinking and Joonas and I set out to get a blind massage. Apparently blind masseurs can do it way better. With them loosing their seeing sense they focus much more on feeling what's wrong with you. And of what I've experienced I can totally agree. My one hour traditional massage – for $ 5 was simply great. I felt very rejuvenated and relaxed. The blind masseurs really did a good job. Luckily we did see that small sign that leads you into a scary looking alley do their job.

The others also had some retail therapy and we meet again for cocktails in the Bar behind the Night Market. Since they close fairly early another trip to the Pub Street keeps the atmosphere going. The Pub Street also closes comparatively early (was it one or two am?), maybe so people can rise and shine early for the sunrise...