The last sight of this holiday is the floating village of Me Chrey on the Tonle Sap Lake. It takes a dusty ride on red unpaved roads and here you see the real Cambodian countryside life. During the 45 min drive we have seen a lot of rice paddies, lotus fields, water buffalos trying to stay out of the sun and villagers greeting us from their stilted homes. After our guide explained us a lot about the area, we arrived at a canal. During the rain season the whole area, including the villages on land, is completely flooded. The canal is shallow at the moment, but in December it was 9-10 meters higher here! The heavy rains and melted snow from Tibet arrives via the Mekong river in the lake changing the scenery dramatically..amazing! (You can see it on the picture with the green building how high the water actually gets)
We get on the boat and arrive at the floating village after 10 minutes. Around 100 families stay in this area on water. The guide told us they initially came here to stay out of the hands of Pol Pot during Khmer rouge and now they build up their lives there. There is a supermarket on boat coming every morning, a school for the kids and bigger events like weddings. Electricity comes from generators.
We go around with our longtail boat and have dinner in the floating village during sunset. The food is all local and the fish is from the lake. We say goodbye to the crocodiles in the floating crocodile farm and turn back to the mainland now with nightfall over the village creating an even more unforgettable scenery.
We get on the boat and arrive at the floating village after 10 minutes. Around 100 families stay in this area on water. The guide told us they initially came here to stay out of the hands of Pol Pot during Khmer rouge and now they build up their lives there. There is a supermarket on boat coming every morning, a school for the kids and bigger events like weddings. Electricity comes from generators.
We go around with our longtail boat and have dinner in the floating village during sunset. The food is all local and the fish is from the lake. We say goodbye to the crocodiles in the floating crocodile farm and turn back to the mainland now with nightfall over the village creating an even more unforgettable scenery.
