Lake Tonle Sap, Angkor Wat

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We are there during dry season (Early Mar'09) and thus making the trip there even longer as what I was told. We booked our trip (US$14/pax) from Mandalay Inn after hard negotiation. Another way of going there is via tuk-tuk & thereafter buying the boat ticket from the centralised ticketing booth not far after the Pnom Krom Hill temple.

You can see lotsa floating houses, floating school, mosque, churches & even floating basket ball courts! along the narrow Siem riep river, & thereafter at the river mouth 9km away. from the inland terminal. During wet season (Apr-Oct) the lake expanded 9km inland!! & those river floating houses became lake houses!!

You will be brought to a restaurant cum souvenir & crocodile floating farm. The food is nice but pricey to South East asia standard!! US$4/plate of fried rice..That's horrible!!

Picture showing the terminal during Dry season overlooking Phnom Krom Hill temple (Yes need angkor Pass!)

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just did this trip yesterday,we used a company called tara riverboats and for $20 they picked us up at our hotel,we meet the guide,we had our own personnel boat ,we toured the flooded forrest,floating village and visited the croc and fish farm had lunch and drinks supplied on the riverboat and back to hotel,tour lasts 4 hours,we rang aroung first and found this the best valve by far,,,website is www.taraboat.com

just did this trip yesterday,we used a company called tara riverboats and for $20 they picked us up at our hotel,we meet the guide,we had our own personnel boat ,we toured the flooded forrest,floating village and visited the croc and fish farm had lunch and drinks supplied on the riverboat and back to hotel,tour lasts 4 hours,we rang aroung first and found this the best valve by far,,,website is www.taraboat.com

A nice and interesting trip is a boattrip on the Tonle Sap Lake to visite a Vietnamese Floating Village. A small boat will bring you to that part of the lake and there you can have a look on all the originallly Vietnamese people living in wooden houses, whigh are floating on the water by means of many bambou trees.

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Its was a fun trip, and an eye opener to real cambodian lifestyle. This Cambodian Largest lake is the main source of water for centuries which also links to most temples and palaces during the Khmer empire.

A cruise on Tonle Sap Lake was a mix of emotion, watching cambodia children having fun on water, get to see floating houses and schools, hardwork fisherman, and several floating markets around the community. Journey out in the lake feels like cruise on the sea.

Click for How to get on board

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The four of us arrived in Siem Reap on a Friday morning. After we had settled into our hotel, it was already too late to enter Angkor. On the recommendation of Lonely Planet Cambodia, we hired a cab (via Le Meridien Hotel) and arrived at the port for the floating village.
It's a new world to see. Tonle Sap hosts a myriad of water homes where its residences have built simple restaurants among the lilly pads, an elementary school with a caged basketball court attached, and a holy water church. My companions thought this was a spectacular part of Cambodia that cannot be missed.
However, if you have made plans to continue traveling to Battambang via slow boat, then I would suggest passing on this excursion for more temple exploration. The drowning forests and migrating birds are part of the six to eight hour journey.

Since this tourist village has got a platform one can get an impressive view over the entire lake. It was impossible to see the end and it appeared as a large sea right in the middle of Cambodia. For most of the year the lake is fairly small, around one meter deep and with an area of 2,700 square km. During the monsoon season, however, the Tonle Sap river which connects the lake with the Mekong river reverses its flow. Water is pushed up from the Mekong into the lake, increasing its area to 16,000 square km and its depth to up to nine meters, flooding nearby fields and forests. Hence the translated name Great Lake - an impressive site!!

Where one would least expect it one finds it - a tourist village! Since I could not communicate with my "captain" I only realized where I was after he signalled to me that I could get off and have a look. This tourist village offers souvenirs, drinks and even light meals.