Tonle Sap Lake villages on stilts

On the way to the Tonle Sap Lake, we can see so many villages on stilts on both sides of the road we travelled.

















Tonle Sap Lake is an important commercial resource, providing more than half of the fish consumed in Cambodia. In harmony with the specialized ecosystems, the human occupations at the edges of the lake is similarly distinctive - floating villages, towering stilted houses, huge fish traps, and an economy and way of life deeply intertwined with the lake, the fish, the wildlife and the cycles of rising and falling waters.

Chong Khneas - floating village in Tonle Sap Lake, Siem Reap

CHONG KHNEAS - Floating Village






















































Chong Khneas is the floating village at the edge of the lake closest and most accessible to Siem Reap. The boatman pointed out the differing Khmer and Vietnamese floating households and the floating markets, clinics, schools and other boatloads of tourists.

Chong Khneas, while interesting, is overtouristed and is not as picturesque and 'unspoiled' as floating villages further from Siep Reap.

Our trip stopped over the touristy floating fish and crocodile exhibition with a souvenoir and snack shop and the Gecko Environment Centre, which offers displays and information introducing the ecology and biodiversity of the lake area.

Boats in the Tonle Sap Lake

Tonle Sap Lake in Siem Reap, Cambodia

























The Boeung Tonle Sap (Tonle Sap Lake) sits only about 15km south of Siem Reap town. We took the boat to cross the lake and you can see that all types of boats and ferries use the lake to bring tourists and locals alike to the villages at the edge of the lake.

Visit to Tonle Sap Lake ( Boeung Tonie Sap) in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Tonle Sap Lake in Siem Reap, Cambodia




We took the boat from here, the beach



Our boatmen, preparing us to climb up the boat



Our youngest boatman, I wonder whether he has a licence ?



The Tonle Sap Lake







The wave .. very strong !







We visited the Tonle Sap Lake ( Boeung Tonle Sap) in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in a private boat which cost us US$20 each. If you follow the tour with the big ferry with a tour company, it would cost only US$10 each with lunch.

Cambodia's Great Lake, the Boeung Tonle Sap ( Tonle Sap Lake), is the most prominent feature on the map of Cambodia - a huge dumbbell shaped body of water stretching across the northwest section of the country.

In the wet season, the Tonle Sap Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, swelling to an expansive 12,000 sq m . During the dry half of the year, the Lake shrinks to as small as 2500 sq m, draining into the Tonle Sap River, which meanders southeast, eventually merging with the Mekong River at the 'chaktomuk' confluence of rivers opposite Phnom Penh.

But during the wet season, a unique hydrologic phenomenon causes the river to reverse direction, filling the lake instead of draining it. The engine of this phenomenon is the Mekong River, which becomes bloated with snow melt and runoff from the monsoon rains in the wet season. The swollen Mekong backs up into the Tonle Sap River at the point where the rivers meet at the 'chaktomuk' confluence, forcing the waters of the Tonle Sap River back upriver into the lake. The inflow inundating the surrounding forested floodplain and supporing an extraordinarily rich and diverse eco-system.