We opted for a trip to Tonle Sap lake today, with a visit to a local village market en route to the Floating Village of Kompung Phluk. You could organise this yourself co-ordinating transport to the boat dock up stream, and then renting a boat and driver yourself from the hundreds happily waiting for your fare. That said, we chose the easier option of to joining a tour, which has the benefit of a local tour guide as well as the door to door pick up (www.beyonduniqueescapes.com $30 pp.)
The stop off at the buzzing country village market was a lively and fun encounter with the locals. The guide points out interesting stalls and will happily explain the local produce and barter with the traders on your behalf. It's a great insight into how local Cambodians live and what's on their dinner table. And they seem genuinely pleased to see you and for you to take photographs. Ever wondered how they safely get eggs home on the back of their scooters, when there are no egg boxes? Easy, crack them there and then and pour them into a baggie! There's no shortage of local snacks to try, and I'm now a big fan of freshly cut pineapple on a stick, rubbed down with a chilli and salt dip. Tonle Sap is the largest fresh water lake in the world so fish is a big draw of the market - most of the baskets still alive as they're unloaded. You can even find sea snake for your stir fry. Maybe not.
In the wet season the people of the floating village can get to the market by boat. But as its dry season, we had to take the minibus a few kilometres further up the makeshift mud bank road through the paddy fields to the temporary docks along the canal. Tourism has become a big part of the floating villagers life, and there are hundreds of boats stacked almost on top of each other. Once aboard and moving upstream, the first two buildings you see will really quite shock you. The police station and village school are suspended twenty metres in the air on stilts. Both have huge ladders rising up to reach the platforms. It's incredible to think that in just a few months the water levels will rise so much that the kids will simply arrive by canoe and hop aboard the school deck.
As you move further down, the scale of the village is jaw dropping. Hundreds of homes float high above the water on stilts. There are people everywhere, all in the water on any kid of vessel that will float. Life really does revolve around the lake. We even saw school kids doing their homework on canoes. The homes are colourful makeshift cabins, but big enough to house families with as many as five or six kids. Husbands spend nights out on the lake fishing, whilst the women seem to do just about everything else, normally on a canoe, and with a young babe in their arms.
At the end of the village, there's a floating taxi rank to change from the large boat to a smaller canoe for a paddle through the mangroves. The canoe trade looks a fiercely competitive business, with women jostling for position to make sure you take their canoe over the next one. And of course their kids are on board too! After gently winding through the forest, there is a welcome stop on a floating restaurant. It's a heavily fish based menu where you get to try that sea snake you saw at the market if you want. Or maybe you'd prefer crocodile! Well, you could if you wanted to, but we settled for drinks on this occasion. After that, you hop aboard again fora quick spin to reveal the full extent of the huge lake - it's so big, you'd think you'd reached the ocean. Then it was time to turn about and head back through the village, which is no less impressive the second time round.
We were back in the centre of Siem Reap for just after 1pm, and dropped into Kerala Indian restaurant for a dosa and daal, which were very tasty.
We'd had another incredible day, and even if I'm open to exaggerating, surely the best start to a holiday you could hope for. We opted for a bargain basement massage before dinner, at just$7 an hour, and whilst it didn't come close to the Frangapini spa from yesterday, it was still a great pre dinner treat after a hard days sight seeing! After two nights of Kymer Curry for dinner we went for pizza later down the main alleyway at Little Italy, and whilst the food wasn't outstanding, the location more than made up for it.
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