The Tonle Sap lake is the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia. Over three million people live on and around the bank of the lake. Tourists in Cambodia like to take boat rides on the lake to see the floating villages. Apparently, this has turned into a zoo filled with boat loads of tourists. Caley and I decided to opt for a little less touristic (but still very touristy) visit to Kompong Phluk. Kompong Phluk is a cluster of three villages and is along the Mekong River which empties into the Lake. The houses are built on stilts and during the wet season they are surrounded by water.
Floating Villages along the Mekong River
Kompong Phluk village
We road a tuk tuk from our guesthouse the “tourist port” in order to get on our boat. The tuk tuk ride took about 45 minutes and it was cool to see a more rural Cambodia compared to Siam Reap where we had been staying. When we reached our port, a lady ran up to our tuk tuk and took a photo of us. We then each had to pay $20.00 USD for the boat ride ticket! The boat ride was awesome and we had a great “driver”named Sai. Sai clearly had fun escorting us two ladies down the river! He also let us drive the boat as well as sit in the front of it.
Village we drove past while on the tuk tuk
Rural Cambodia
At the end of the village we got ushered into the “restaurant” and “mangrove” area. In order to ride through the mangroves, we had to pay an additional $5.00 each! Even though we felt we had paid so much already, we decided to just do it. The mangrove was so relaxing peaceful and was neat to see. We then paid more money to eat lunch but I was starving and had to eat.
Mangrove boat ride
Sweet woman
After lunch, we road the boat for a couple more minutes and entered into the lake. The lake was absolutely amazing and I was blown away by the size of it. We were able to hang out on the lake as long as we wanted and did not feel rushed at all.
Tonle Sap Lake
Caley and Sai on the lake
As soon as we arrived back at the port area, the lady that took our picture in the morning ran up to and tried to sell it to us $4.00. All in all I enjoyed the whole experience. It was neat to see the homes on stilts in the water and our little adventure was fun. However, it felt like we were being taken advantage of and being forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money. We ended up paying
$18.00 = Tuk tuk
$20.00 = Boat
$5.00 = Mangrove tour
Later we leaned that some tourists have been forced to pay even more for the boat and that the drivers actually make commission off of us. I would have enjoyed the whole experience more if we didn’t feel like we were being taken advantage of.
