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Discovering the Floating Village of Kampong Khleang and the Local Way of Life, Cambodia [UPDATED FOR 2024]

Nic (The Roaming Renegades) - Last updated on January 15th, 2024 at 3:09 pm

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Have You Ever Considered Visiting A Floating Village

Many people travelling around Southeast Asia will find themselves in the incredible town of Siem Reap ready to take on the impressive Angkor Wat. We don’t blame you, the site is one of the most amazing places we’ve ever had the privilege of visiting and despite it being crowded it’s still a “must-do” in the region.

Chapters

  1. Have You Ever Considered Visiting A Floating Village
  2. An Off The Beaten Track Floating Village
  3. A Bike Ride Through the Villages of Rural Cambodia
  4. Exploring This Wonderful and Fascinating Place on a Local Villagers Boat
  5. Being Invited Into One of the Houses
  6. An Unforgettable Day And A Unique Experience!
  7. How To Visit This Siem Reap Floating Village:

Have You Ever Considered Visiting A Floating Village

But visiting the well-known sights is just one of the highlights of your time in Cambodia and there is much more to see and do outside of Angkor and Siem Reap. On the outskirts of the city lay many “floating villages”, the best of which is Kampong Khleang. Further out than the others it offers the most unspoilt, uncrowded and authentic experience of life here on Southeast Asia’s biggest lake. It’s the perfect antidote to a busy few days jostling around Angkor Wat, here you can take your time and take in real life!

 Kampong Khleang
One of the kids in the villages was eager to come over and say hello.

Our Favourite Travel Camera & Lens

Sony A7IV & Sony FE 24-105 f4

The Sony a7IV is the perfect travel camera. Offering incredible image quality, great portability and a varied lens selection.

Our favourite travel lens is the Sony FE 24-105 f4. it’s a great all-rounder, super sharp and a perfect focal range for travel.

An Off The Beaten Track Floating Village

Outside of Siem Reap is the huge lake of Tonle Sap, it is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and is annually fed by the Mekong. This lake is an important source of life and livelihood to this region and creates a floodplain that enriches the soil of the surrounding areas too. This means that often the villagers that live in the stilt houses on the lake fish in the rainy season and farm in the dry season. If you want to visit a  Siem Reap floating village then this is your most fascinating option.

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Many who come to see life at the floating villages opt for the much closer Chong Kneas or Kompong Phluk. Many people we have spoken to said they were left disappointed by these two villages and felt they were a bit of a con. One person even told us how their boat left them on an island in the middle of the water where they were asked to pay for £50 worth of rice before being allowed back on, then there is the number of Korean restaurants due to the number of tourists from there as well as just the sheer number of tourists boats speeding up and down.

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By heading out to Kampong Khleang we had what resulted in a 100km tuk tuk ride there and back, but what we saw on that ride was almost just as wonderful as the village itself. Upon arriving we also found ourselves to be the only tourists, rather than the kids shouting out for money and locals seeing you and a quick buck, we were greeted with smiles and “hellos” as well as confused looks. This felt like we were visiting a real working village rather than just a tourist attraction!

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A Bike Ride Through the Villages of Rural Cambodia

Not only was visiting this amazing “floating village” itself really a stand-out experience of Cambodia but the 55 km bike ride through the rural landscape was also wonderful in itself. Bike rides on rural roads in Cambodia aren’t the quickest, instead, over here they travel at a much more gentle pace, trundling through the fields, passing farms and small villages, at this speed you really get a chance to take in your surroundings.

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55 km there and another 55km back is a long way on bumpy roads but once out of the city itself it was a wonderful way to see the countryside of this beautiful country. This Siem Reap floating village might be a little bit out of the city but it offers the most authentic experience!

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Our Favourite Backpacks

Osprey Fairpoint/ Fairview

We’ve used the Osprey Fairpoint/ Fairview for all our backpacking adventures over the past 5 years and highly recommend them!

The main area of the pack opens like a suitcase, which is great for using packing cubes to keep everything organised and they even come with a detachable day pack!

Exploring This Wonderful and Fascinating Place on a Local Villagers Boat

After a long ride through the progressively rural settings, we entered into the village. The main street which is usually underwater during the rainy season was a road of bright orange thick mud. Lined with palm trees this now-revealed thoroughfare had houses rising above on either side, their stilts revealing now the waters had receded. The drive along here was slow and slippery, villagers came running out of their houses to wave and say hello, it was quite a surreal experience!

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Once we got to the end of the road a group of villagers gathered and seemed to be discussing which boat was available. We were ushered onto one of the large wooden ones moored close by, the only ones on the boat, followed by one of the villagers.

He then proceeded to take us around the village, driving close by to some of the more usual buildings and pointing out things like schools, fisheries and the homes of some of his friends. Now in the dry season, the level of the water was much lower, but still, many of the villagers work out in the lake, but often further into its deeper central regions.

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The low water meant for us that the impressive stilts on which these houses seem to precariously balance were revealed. These houses are all self-built and seem to rely on a complex series of wooden beams with little ordering, some of them tower over 35 ft into the air above the murky waters below. This Siem Reap floating village offers such a different atmosphere to the city.

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In the dry season, many of the villagers work in the fields as well as in the waters fishing. Those who stay often set up true floating houses and schools further down the lake in the deeper waters. These also provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the people here. Everyone uses a boat, whether high power or rowing, children, teenagers and the elderly can be seen getting around town in all kinds of boats and they are even used to get to and from school. This Siem Reap floating village offers a unique insight into the way of life here.

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Here in the village, they have a dedicated island for a large temple too and even during the dry season the whole town was bustling with people working and getting on with their daily lives. We didn’t see one other tourist the entire time we were here which was refreshing given how busy places like Angkor can get and how crazy the other Siem Reap floating village is supposed to get.

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Book Your Accommodation

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Being Invited Into One of the Houses

One of the highlights but totally unexpected moments of the day was getting invited into one of the stilt houses. We were in desperate need of a “number 1” after our 1-and-a-half hours spent on the water. With nowhere in sight to relieve ourselves, a kind family invited us inside, sat on the terrace, three generations and a little dog! Their house was as rickety as expected, walking across the wooden slats there were huge holes where we could see the lake flowing 30 ft below.

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Most houses here do have a limited and shared electricity supply but often no running water, their living conditions were simple and basic, and yet the smiles radiating from their faces and the warmth with which we were greeted and invited in told us of how happy and content this simple life leaves these resourceful people!

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An Unforgettable Day And A Unique Experience!

To see such a way of life, a way that differs so much from ours on levels we can’t even imagine was a really special experience. Travelling to me is all about seeing how other people live and appreciating the differences in people and places all around the world.

The more I travel the more I realise my true fascination lies in the people and their culture, today we got to see just a small insight into the hard lives the people of the Siem Reap floating village of Tonle Sap lead, but also the beautiful place they call home and the warmth with which outsiders are welcomed in.

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How To Visit This Siem Reap Floating Village:

To get here we hired a scooter from our hostel, expect to pay around $5 a day. You can also rent a tuk-tuk driver for around $15 a day too but you might not have as much time to explore the village as you want after the boat ride, be sure to let him know you want to do this too.

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The boat in the village then takes you on a 1.5 hours tour, expect to pay around $20 for this, your tuk-tuk driver can sort this out for you and if you manage to get more people along you can get this price down. You can book from a small office on the way into town if you are on a bike.

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2 comments

  1. Jessica Hoofnagle says:

    Hello!
    I really want to visit Kompong Khleang independently (without a tour), but it seems like most people go as part of a tour.
    It seems like you went without a tour, so I just wanted to clarify: you took a tuk tuk to the village from Siem Reap ($15) and then hired a boat once there ($20).
    It really is that simple?
    Thank you for this great article!

    1. Hey. Yeah exactly that, we booked a tuk tuk to take us there through our hostel so that might be a good place to ask where you are staying. Then once we got there the driver spoke to some people and they got us on a boat for $20 that took us all around the village. It would be worth speaking to your accommodation too about that and what the price should be and how to organise but that’s literally all we did!! Best of luck!