MangoVine
Adventures in East Asia
Tonle Sap Lake, Fish Market, Crocodile Farm and a Floating Village
10 December, 2009Thursday
On our fourth day in Cambodia, we took a (comparatively expensive) day out to see a floating village and the Tonle Sap Lake, and the Beng Melea ruins. Both were the furthest destinations from Siem Reap that we visited and we got to the floating village after riding in the open air tuk-tuk for one and a half hours (driving at over 50 kmph).
We chose to go to a distant floating village as opposed to one that was closer since it would be apparently less touristy. The result was a "quieter" experience, though devoid of any buzz, hustle and bustle that comes with a tourist destination.
Once at the floating village, we took a boat that traveled through the village to get to the wide expanse of the Tonle Sap Lake and then back again. Seeing the Tonle Sap itself was just like looking out to sea, it was that big.
We past plenty of stilt houses, a few other boats carrying tourists and locals at work collecting fishing cages, transporting goods or other activities. We saw quite a few kids who we waved at to get a shy smile or wave back. Here's what we saw during our time there.
This boat was collecting cages from the river.
At this more elaborate construction, we saw monks wandering around.
This was the village petrol station.
This floating house below even has its own floating spirit house!
Fishing Market
We were told we would visit a fishing market and so expected one of those busy scenes where lots of boats would be congregating, selling a variety of goods from their boats. In fact, this was it.
And perhaps these boats as well. This point was close to the expanse of the Tonle Sap, at the mouth of the river and I assumed it was the most convenient place for fisher people to bring back their catch fresh from the lake to sell to villagers.
The women prepare their instant noodle lunch.
I think this floating house needed its ballasts seeing to.
Crocodile Farm
Before we got back to the start point of our river journey, our boatman stopped off at a crocodile farm. We had to climb up onto one of the floating village houses and walk over to the top of some concrete-walled enclosures to see them.
I kept having visions of falling through the platform and down into the jaws of a waiting croc.
There were two separate concrete enclosures with about forty crocodiles in each.
Apparently, the farm breeds the crocodiles to adulthood to sell on to other countries like Thailand. Possibly to zoos or for making handbags.
As well as the enclosures, there was a cage with baby crocodiles.
This entry posted in : Attractions. Cambodia. Tourism.
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In February 2009, Mark and Linh moved from the UK to the Far East to spend 16 months living in Hong Kong and traveling around East Asia. This website documents their journey.
Find out more on the MangoVine About page.
There are 435 entries on MangoVine.
East-Asian places visited so far:
Hong Kong (Throughout 09)
Vietnam (March 09)
Tokyo (May 09)
Macau (June 09)
Taiwan (July 09)
South Korea (July 09)
Singapore (September 09)
Malaysia (September 09)
Thailand (December 09)
Cambodia (December 09)
China (April 10)
