Siem Reap - Kampong Phluk Floating Village and Tonle Sap Lake

The trip was a long way from the temples and about 1.5 hours each way in the tuk tuk on mostly very bumpy roads.

I will consider giving Leng some more money even if just to cover extra fuel costs.

My trip was a private trip … I am sure that I could have gone on a tour with a group cheaper … oh well lesson learned.

So I find myself on a boat very similar to the one I went on for the Mekong Delta Floating Markets Trip. Similar school chairs but these ones are bolted down to the floor.

It is the dry season so the houses on stilts are well above the water line and do not appear to be a floating village.

I am not complaining … I knew that this is how it would be in the dry. I still wanted to see it.

There is even an official looking building but most are just slums. It looks like they have a pretty tough life. One of the fishermen was excitedly showing me a sprat that he had caught.

I have seen you tube videos of the floating village but I was surprised how big it was … it went on and on. I don’t know what I expected but I was surprised by both the rubbish and the poverty.

Once we pass all the floating village we are in the country side, where we see more fishermen, for a short time before we enter the lake.

The lake is very big and I can not see across it. There are some restaurant buildings out in the middle of the water and we head to one of them.

Our boat pulls up at the restaurant and I go onto the floating restaurant come shop. There are quite a few locals on board resting on the floor and children playing.

They have live crocodiles in a cage but I thought that the cage was too small so did not focus on that. Many items on the menu included crocodile and they had crocodile memorabilia for sale also.

I ordered a small bowl of fries $5 USD. The boat trip was $50 USD. There is a sign on the boat asking tourists to tip the boat driver … does he not get some of the $50? The business manager is now asking me to buy books and pens to help local children and grumbles when I say no. My driver also wants extra money for bringing me here … the whole experience is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Everywhere I look something is broken and there is rubbish everywhere. I can’t help but feeling that they need to stop asking for hand outs and get off their arses and do some work. I have had other travellers say how lovely it is that they are so relaxed … maybe just a bit too relaxed.

We then head back via the floating village. The driver did ask if I wanted to go for a walk but I declined as it was filthy and more people would probably just have their hands out.

I did tip my driver as he was a nice boy but I really did feel that the trip was a government rip off as it was a government run trip that I was on.

After I met back up with my driver it took 1.5 hrs to get back to my accommodation.

We have an early start tomorrow as we are going to Angkor Watt for sunrise. I have decided to keep my driver on for the last day … just to save having an argument.

I did not see any birds either.