After Angkor Wat the number 2 destination for visitors to northern Cambodia has to be the floating villages of Tonle Sap Lake. The way it was described in the guidebook didn’t make it sound appealing at all and I almost gave it a miss, but I am so glad that I made the effort to check it out.
Most regions of Asia have a dry season and a wet. During the dry season Tonle Sap Lake is low while in the wet it can be VERY VERY high (and that is why many homes adjacent to the river are built on stilts)! This is due to the swelling of the waters of the Mekong which as the river expands in volume the waters push up into the Tonle Sap River where they meet, in fact reversing the flow of the river, and eventually into Tonle Sap Lake bringing with it tons of sediment and nutrients which feed into the lake and contribute to its incredible productivity.Tonle Sap Lake in late May (now) is low (despite daily rains) but there is still a hive of activity of boats, fishers, tourists, villagers etc. In fact the water was so low when I went out to see the lake the other day that boat captains needed to follow very narrow channels in the canal that leads to the village otherwise they would get stuck (which many did!).
At the floating village there was a school, fish farms, crocodile farms, and dozens and dozens of floating homes. The residents include native Cambodians but there also are many from nearby Vietnam.
As we were exploring the floating village a boat paddled up with a mom and a few kids. I couldn’t see what they were doing at first but as the boat approached I saw that two of the children had snakes draped around their necks. To be honest I was hesitant to take any photos as I would much prefer the snakes to be in the wild rather than kept in a box to show to tourists. Seeing the beautiful kids tugged at my heart strings and I did succumb. As soon as they left the snakes were put away and the kids grabbed their Barbie dolls.
