Tonle Sap Lake and the Floating Village

Tonle Sap (Large Fresh water River  but more commonly translated as Great Lake) is a combined lake and river system of major importance to Cambodia
The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997.
The Tonlé sap is unusual for two reasons: its flow changes direction twice a year, and the portion that forms the lake expands and shrinks dramatically with the seasons. From November to May, Cambodia's dry season, the Tonlé sap drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh. However, when the year's heavy rains begin in June, the Tonlé sap backs up to form an enormous lake.During these times fishermen fish when permitted moving their floating village according to the waters. Everything is afloat from schools to Police station. In days gone by it was much more traditional / real but today is owned by a private firm very much open to tourists. The main docks that supply the boats for tours is also state owned - not by Cambodia but by China. Guides and people we spoke to in Cambodia regularly talked about the corruption and the willingness of the Cambodian government to sell off parts of their land, industry and culture to foreign investment and clearly have big issues with ownership / land grabs by China and Vietnam. That said , floating amongst this fishing village was one of the highlights of the trip for me with so much to see.

Passenger boats at the Chinese owned ports

On the bank

Floating school

Old croc

Floating Police Force

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Tuk Tuk hammock again on the bank

Bankside silhouette

Fresh coconut milk

The Lost City of Angkor Wats

More stone than the Egyptian pyramids and covering more ground than Manhattan or Paris this temple complex is huge. Too big for the one day trip there we had so selections had to be made. To do it all you probably need 3 days but I`ve been "templed out" before on my travels and this one day gave me the flavour. Whilst many go at sunrise / sunset and the photos would have been better, expected crowds meant we targeted a different time and approach through the knowledge of our guide and it was worth the change. This really is a bucket list venue, one of the 7 ancient  wonders of the world. Amazing to think it was only discovered, overgrown and claimed back by nature, by missionaries / explorers  in 1860! We started at the back entrance to the main  temple and it was serene and fairly quiet.

We then went on to the famous Tomb Raider film set that is Ta Promh and Bayon, famous for its 216 stone faces on its towers. There has been much renovation as the temples had been quite destroyed by jungle / war but it is wonderful to see the massive tree trunks / roots entwined withint the ruins showing what hapens when an ancient captital of Asia is abandoned to the jungle

Angelina was unavailable

All too soon it was time to leave and hit Pub Street for the evening again!