
2022.02.15
Tourist-Information
5 Best Sihanoukville’s Islands & Koh Rong

2021.12.20 Tourist-Information Guide to Exploring Tonle Sap Lake & Floating Village
When is the best time to see Tonle Sap Lake?
Ideas of floating villages for best travel experience!
Kompong Phluk Stilt-House Village & Mangrove is famed for its pleasant mangroves where you enjoy the rowing boat going closer to the lines of stilt houses arising from the water about 10m high then continue the canoe goes through the mangroves where you can catch beautiful photos and enjoy the serenity. Resume the boat excursion to visit Tonle Sap, learn about ecosystem, reveal lifestyle on the water and explore the surroundings. The village locates at the edge of Tonle Sap Great Lake which is widely known as the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, just about 22km (30-40 mins-drive) from central Siem Reap. Tourists can access Kompong Phluk by overland from National Road 6, pass Bakong district onward direct to Kompong Phluk village or it is accessible by taking a local boat from Chong Kneas floating village through Tonle Sap Lake, which takes approx. 1 hour or 1.30 hours depends on the weather. When is the time to see Kompong Phluk Village?
More about Kompong Phluk: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/travel-guide-cambodia/kompong-phluk-mangroves-stilt-houses-not-floating-village See tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/kampong-phluk-tour Kompong Khleang Stilt-House & Floating Village is the most extensive stilt-house community at the edge of Tonle Sap, renowned for its amazing clusters of high stilt houses and ideally admired by floating village. In 2-3 hours of boat excursion, you can visit both insights of interesting stilt houses & floating homes along with daily fishing/trading activities on rowing boats, learn about ecosystem, lifestyle rely on aquatic resources and observe how people make the lake as home. In the very dry season occurring from February to May, the surrounding of stilt houses is accessible on foot, more ground activities can be explored including vegetable farming, smoked fish making, fixing fishing-net/traps, visiting school, local market trading and so on. However, the boat trip is available for visiting floating village at the other side of Kompong Khleang but keep in mind that the boat will probably get stuck in the mud and you should get the latest update information when you plan to visit Kompong Khleang from middle March to May. See tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/kompong-khleang-floating-village Mechrey Floating Village
See tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/mechrey-floating-village-tour Chong Kneas Floating Village
Chong Kneas is remarked as the nearest floating community of Tonle Sap in Siem Reap, takes approx. 35 minutes by overland from central town and the boat excursion to visit the village and the surrounding is about 1 hours to 2 hours depending on your interest and if you have a local tour guide accompanying you, it will take an hour longer. The primary things to see are river life, fishing activities, selling goods & vegetables on rowing boats, floating school, market – overall it is quite similar to Mechrey & Kompong Khleang floating houses (except stilt houses). Moring, afternoon or late afternoon with sunset option are available per day and it is appropriate short day trip for those who don’t have much time to explore Siem Reap. A full day trip from Chong Kneas combines Kompong Phluk is also a custom-made if you’re really font of discovering Tonle Sap’s ecosystem and its rich biosphere. Chong Kneas to Kompong Phluk tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/tonle-sap-lake-tour-full-day Chong Kneas tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/tonle-sap-chong-kneas-floating-village Warning! There a lot of tourists have had bad experience on Chong Kneas floating village and many bad reviews about scam, cheating, hidden cost, pushing etc. can be found on TripAdvisor and on other giant travel communities. Ideally, Chong Kneas floating village is the last option for those who have a few hours for this trip and those who travel in the very dry season while other floating villages (Kompong Khleang, Mechrey etc.) are not interesting and not accessible due to the water level. However, you can obviously avoid the scam, hidden cost, cheating and pushing on purchasing things if you book the trip from the right place who provides you accurate information and especially you have to have a local tour guide accompanying you in the boat excursion from the beginning of the tour to the end. While being with a local tour guide, the boat-man daren’t push you to buy anything or even not ask you to pay extra for other services, you will feel comfortable and you only pay one price for your trip to Chong Kneas floating village. Is driver able to help with this? If you’re lucky and found a driver who is honest, informative and warn you on what a scam should happen there and he is willing to accompanying you in the boat trip, YES this should be FANTASTIC and very useful. Remember that most of drivers work with boat association to make extra money on selling boat ticket and so on, and most likely drivers will not accompany you because they have to take care of their vehicles while they’re awaiting for you during your journey to Chong Kneas floating village. Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary
When is it a good time to visit Prek Toal bird sanctuary? To avoid the disappointment, Prek Toal bird sanctuary can be only visible from middle of November to January when most of water birds including Greater Adjutants, Spot billed Pelican, Lesser Ducks, Comorans, Darters etc. are gathering to seek for food during the end of the breeding period before those migrate to other parts of Tonle Sap Lake. The best time to start is leaving downtown at 7.00am to Tonle Sap dock then embark a private local boat bound for Prek Toal. However, ensure that you should check for the latest update if you plan to explore the specialty of Prek Toal bird sanctuary. See tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/prek-toal-bird-sanctuary-tour Across Tonle Sap to Phnom Penh or Vice Versa
See tour sample: https://www.guidingcambodia.com/cruise-packages Table of Contents 9 Best Things to Do & See in Sihanoukville
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