Cambodia: Floating Village

During our first day in Cambodia, we visited the floating village on Tonle Sap Lake, which is the largest lake in Southeast Asia and a UNESCO Biosphere site. This lake is unusual because the water flow changes direction twice a year, so the lake expands and shrinks according to the seasons. In the dry season it's about 1,000 sq. miles and during the wet season it grows up to 6,000 sq. miles!

We took a tuk tuk everywhere we went in Cambodia, even to visit a temple an hour and a half away and to the airport with all our luggage! A tuk tuk is a motorcycle with a passenger trailer. Some of our best experiences were riding on the tuk tuk because it allowed us to see so much of the houses and people.

Here we are riding in our first tuk tuk to the floating village. It took about 20 minutes to get there, but we loved every minute of it!!!

Traveling in our tuk tuk.

Gas Station: This was shocking...this is their gas station!! On the side of the road, people have small stands set up with water bottles filled with gas. Since almost everyone travels around in tuk tuks, they don't have the need for large gas stations, though we did see one while we were there.

This woman is filling up our tuk tuk with gas from the water bottle.

Riding to the floating village was so much fun and really gave us an insight to how people live in Cambodia. We saw many straw huts built on stilts along the side of the road.

We also passed many rice fields. We especially liked this one with the water lilies.

During our ride, we encountered a herd of cows walking down the middle of the road!

Here they come! haha...We also saw wild goats, chickens, monkeys, and of course dogs and cats.

Video: Here's a video of us on our way to the floating village.

Floating Village:

We made it to the floating village and rented our own boat with 3 boys who took us around. Two of the boys were about 15 and they were the drivers, another was about 8. It wasn't uncommon to see kids this age practically running their own business, such as selling t-shirts and souvenirs, etc.

We started by going down the river first heading to the lake.

We were going at a nice speed until we heard our motor starting to make weird noises. Apparently part of a fishing net was stuck in the motor and we were pulled over on the side of the river for a bit while the boys jumped in the water and tried to free it! We just sat back, relaxed, and watched the other tourists and local people ride by on their boats. It was funny watching the other tourists take pictures of our boat as they passed.

We made it to the floating village! Over 2 million people live on and around the lake, and it's a mixture of Cambodian and Vietnamese.

Frank with the floating village in the background.

A floating straw house

People on their boats

Our driver told us that the sticks seen near all the floating houses are used as their anchors.

This man was carrying many large baskets that are used as fish traps.

A Visit to the Floating School:

We decided we wanted to take a visit to the floating elementary school and thought it would be nice to bring something to give the kids. So we stopped in at a floating convenience store to buy some snacks.

convenience store

A closer look inside the convenience store

Snacks to give the kids!

Here's the school.

The kids swarmed us as we were handing out their snacks. Since there's only one school, as many as 60-80 children of all ages can be in this one classroom! We felt so bad for the teacher (seen next to Melissa)

The kids were so adorable!

It was their free-time, so some were jump roping, talking, and climbing on the desks.

Melissa with some of the younger students.

The children get to and from school on these boats.

Our driver told us that at school, the children study Cambodian and Vietnamese, but they can learn English at this Catholic church that is next to the school.

Next Stop- Fish and Crocodile Farm:

We also visited a fish and crocodile farm in the floating village.

A woman with her babies outside the crocodile farm. If you look closely, the toddler next to the mom has a snake wrapped around her neck!

A boy with a live snake!

A few of the many crocodiles they have caged in...they raise them until they are big enough, then they kill them for their meat and skin.

Korean Restaurant and Kindergarten:

This is a Korean floating restaurant! We were pretty surprised to see this. In the city, we noticed many Korean restaurants as well. Also, the Cambodians seemed to be really interested in Korean music and TV shows. We even saw a new paved road called "Korean-Cambodian Friendship Road," that was donated by Korea.

Here's a Korean kindergarten we passed while going back into town.

We left the floating village and headed back into the town of Siem Reap...check out more of our blogs about our adventure in Cambodia!