Waterworld: The Floating Village of Kompong Phluk, Cambodia

Get ready for a lot of pictures because this place was full of colorful reflections of water-based society. Similar to the Uros islands in Peru, residents of Kompong Phluk live in homes surrounded by the water from Tonle Sap Lake. However, these homes are built on massive stilts, so technically they are not floating like the Uros homes. 

Cambodia has two seasons: rainy & dry. Late in the dry season, all the water featured in the pictures below is completely gone and people must ascend to their homes on tall bamboo ladders. It's so dry that the village can be accessed by car. Then the rain comes and fills the streets. We visited at the very beginning of the dry season, so the water was at its highest level.  

Our tuk-tuk driver drove us about an hour to get here. We hired a private boat for USD$20, which took us out to the village. Then we paid another $5 per person to take a guided row boat tour so we could see the village up close. This was the best part! 

On the way there our tuk-tuk drove through flooded streets. We had to lift our legs to not get wet!

On our boat!

This is what a typical boat looks like. The driver controls the motor with a string around his foot instead of a pedal or shift bar.

On the outskirts of the village we saw both lone shacks and concrete homes. 

After about 40 minutes we entered the village and our trip got a lot more interesting (and colorful)!

Those are fishing nets on the right. The main source of income here is fishing and tourism.

Like any village, they have public services:

The village school

Health Center

Temple

They even have a guest house for visitors! Maybe we should have stayed one night.

After passing through the village's main drag, we stopped at a little 'floating' cafe. Here you have the option to purchase a canoe tour for $5.  The women and children drive the canoes and they take you through the smaller waterways that are not accessible by the bigger boats. This way you can see the village up close, which we found more interesting. I think it's also interesting for the villagers, as they often took a moment to check us out (especially the young ones). Two worlds were floating by each other and we both wanted a closer look. 

Our canoe guide

Her son sat in the back and navigated. He was probably about 4 years old.

Trees help with storage. Look closely and you'll see a bike hanging in the tree.

Our guide brings us down one of the side waterways.

Next she brought us through some sort of mill.

Check out the "street" sign on the tree :)

Our last stop on the canoe tour - a restaurant. We had a few beers here and met our boat driver to continue our tour.

That is our canoe driver and her son going back to the village.

After our canoe tour, we had a few beers and chips at the floating restaurant. We then left with our original boat driver to see the sunset over the lake. There was another boat carrying a couple from Beijing. Sure enough, they kept waiving and smiling at us and taking pictures of us! While we watched the sunset, the Beijingers' boat driver - a 15-year-old kid - came to our boat to chat since his passengers didn't speak English. We learned a few interesting things from him:

• Most don't make it to high school. They don't see the point in staying in school when they can be working and earning money. 
• Cambodians marry around age 16 or 17 
  
• A boy who want to marry must prove to the girl's parents that he is capable of caring for her. The boy must pay for the wedding - a huge event for the entire community - which usually costs about USD$5,000. That is a LOT of money in Cambodia. It's no wonder they drop out of school to work when they are young!

Here are a few photos from the end of our boat trip:

We said goodbye to the floating restaurant and headed out into the open lake to watch the sunset.

Boat 163 (formerly boat 105)

Our driver

Goodnight Lake Tonle Sap!