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Cambodia
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Siem Reap Province
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Krong Siem Reap
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Tours & Activities
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Kompong Phluk Village and Tonle Sap Lake Half-Day Tour From Siem Reap
4h30
Half Day
About this activity
You will leave Siem Reap at 8:30am and travel southeast through small beautiful rural villages and rice fields towards the great Tonle Sap lake. Depending on the time of year and the current water levels you will go as far as you can by road before reaching the point where your boat will be waiting for you.
You will then travel the rest of the way by boat down the Kompong Phluk river and into the main village. The village is home to approximately 3000 predominately Khmer fishing people, where, depending on the time of year, you will either sail on through the main street of the village (when the water is high the roads become a river) or walk along it in the low water level season. Whichever way it is a great opportunity to see how the rural fishing villages work and people live and go about their daily tasks. You will see a few schools, a large Pagoda and many stilted homes, some towering as much as 9 meters high, which are built this way to adapt to the changing water levels. It is a lovely and peaceful place to visit anytime of the year. This tour will give you the opportunity to see how a vast majority of Cambodians live as fishermen or farmers and give you an insight into their way of life.
From there you will transfer into your small boat and get rowed through the flooded forest of Kompong Phluk (or if the water levels are low we walk through the treetop canopy walkway). You will then proceed onto the great lake of Tonle Sap itself and see the small floating village which moves in and out depending on the water levels throughout the year. The actual level of the lake can vary by up to 10 meters.
After seeing the floating village you will then make your way back down the river to the collection point where your minivan will be waiting for you to take you back to your guest house or hotel.
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You will then travel the rest of the way by boat down the Kompong Phluk river and into the main village. The village is home to approximately 3000 predominately Khmer fishing people, where, depending on the time of year, you will either sail on through the main street of the village (when the water is high the roads become a river) or walk along it in the low water level season. Whichever way it is a great opportunity to see how the rural fishing villages work and people live and go about their daily tasks. You will see a few schools, a large Pagoda and many stilted homes, some towering as much as 9 meters high, which are built this way to adapt to the changing water levels. It is a lovely and peaceful place to visit anytime of the year. This tour will give you the opportunity to see how a vast majority of Cambodians live as fishermen or farmers and give you an insight into their way of life.
From there you will transfer into your small boat and get rowed through the flooded forest of Kompong Phluk (or if the water levels are low we walk through the treetop canopy walkway). You will then proceed onto the great lake of Tonle Sap itself and see the small floating village which moves in and out depending on the water levels throughout the year. The actual level of the lake can vary by up to 10 meters.
After seeing the floating village you will then make your way back down the river to the collection point where your minivan will be waiting for you to take you back to your guest house or hotel.
Included
- Professional tour guide
- Boat tour
- Transportation by air-conditioned cars or minivans
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Light fruit lunch
- Water
- All checkpoint fees
- Entry/Admission - Tonle Sap Lake
- Entry/Admission - Kompong Phluk
Not included
- Gratuities
- Food and drinks (unless specified)
Additional
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Most travelers can participate
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
Features
Tourism
95%
Cultural
70%
Reviews
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This was a great overall tour. I enjoyed getting outside of Siem Reap and Kompong Phuk Village was fascinating. The tour was well constructed and efficient. The guide handled everything extremely well.
We had a great tour guide, Va, who was absolutely wonderful and made it a great day. However, I feel like this tour was touristy and not quite worth the money. The description on Viator says that the tour includes the floating village, which it did not, and it was less than 4 hours, not five. That is why I took off four stars as the description lies and is misleading as to what to expect. However, this should not be held against our guide who did his best. The day: - Bumpy, van ride with no AC down to the lake - Loud boat through the stilted village - arguably the coolest part, neat to see the village and how the people live. Felt a little bad about watching them, almost as if they were in a zoo and we were looking in. It was hard to hear our guide over the loud motor - Get rowed through the flooded forest, where a random child will jump onto your boat so a local vendor can then harass you and try to make you feel bad enough to buy the child some food. We were caught off guard and bought ourselves some terrible underripe mango and then the child a juice, which she didn't drink and most likely just returned to that vendor later on. This was very unexpected, and I would prefer for the tour group to ask us to bring a few extra dollars to tip the local rower rather than be harassed. Other than that, this part was relaxing if not very educational - Get driven 10 feet out into the lake to learn about local wildlife. With the tour time, if they didn't plan on taking us to the flooded village, they should have taken us at least around the lake more to see it/kill some time, rather than feel like we were being rushed to head back - Walk through the town: This was good to see how the locals lived, but should have been done upon arriving as it was very, very hot that hour of the day and no relief from the heat once we were walking. The town burns its trash, so it was hard to breathe with the fumes and diesel from the boats. - Get back in overheated van. Since we finished so early, our guide asked if we wanted to see a crocodile farm for 3 extra each. We agreed, expecting more of a half day activity in general. The farm was interesting, with a ton of crocodiles, but was filled with trash and smelled terrible. If this was a planned stop, it should have been included in the price since we did not see the floating village.
Good tour with excellent guide.
The boat part of this tour was actually scary! The boat was very old and in terrible shape - it kept taking on water and the tour guide would drive it which the local bailed water out. The motor actually quit a couple of times, but eventually the local did get it started again. However, there was very little power and the boat moved extremely slowly - when we finally entered the lake, we sat in one spot for a long time while the local worked on the motor, eventually we turned around and slowly made our way back down the river. Of course, there were no life jackets on board, and we were extremely concerned about the seaworthiness of the long-tail boat, especially when we entered the lake. Viator and/or the local tour company should be inspecting the boats, and this one should definitely NOT have been used! However, our tour guide was great and we enjoyed the village and scenery along the river. However, I would not recommend this tour because of the extremely poor condition of the boat.
This tour was fantastic - a must see. The floating village and flooded forest, simply stunning. Topped off with a great, friendly guide who was very knowledgeable and comfortable transfers. Would recommend.