22 November
Kompong Phluk Floating Village and the Flooded Forest
KIM: Another early start, we were collected and piled into our minivan with 6 others and on our way out to Kompong Phluk. As mentioned before, the most often visited village of Chong Khneas has become a bit of a tourist trap and doesn't receive great reviews on Tripadvisor. As a devoted user of the site, I decided to trust it and go with the recommended and lesser known, Kompong Phluk. Although this village doesn't really float, but rather is a village entirely built on stilts for when the great lake Tonle Sap floods as it does and the water level rises up to 10 metres. First we visited a local market, filled with children and women selling an array of amazing edibles, mostly covered in flies. Jumping onto a tuk tuk version of a boat, we set sail (chug) down this tributary that leads to the lake and saw people weeding what will become rice paddies in the dry season, children fishing and, of course, the many mangroves.

Kampong Phluk is a cluster of three villages of stilted houses built within the floodplain of the Tonle Sap. The villages are Khmer and have about 3000 inhabitants between them. During the dry season, the buildings soar atop their 6 metres high stilts exposed by the lack of water. We were luckily visiting at the start of the dry season, so the water level was still high and we could see the community going about their business of fishing and shrimp harvesting, while children were on their way to school, or playing, in paddle boats and even a steel bucket!

After a visit to the loo - a western toilet in a hut on stilts out over the water... I didn't ask where the pipe led the waste out to, or if there was a pipe at all or just a drop down into the same lake their were kids swimming in out front, and a lunch of sandwiches and chocolate brownies in one of the stilted homes, we were on our way to see the flooded forest. We had the rare opportunity of floating in a small boat between the upper branches of trees that stand about 10metres from the ground. Eerie and magical, it was a beautiful opportunity and we have over 200 photos of trees, just trees... to prove it.

After a full day we headed back to our minibus and back to Siem Reap - where we both welcomed the airconditioned room at Prince D'Angkor. A quick swim and beer on our patio and we started to think about dinner. After a delicious meal at the Cambodian Soup restaurant on our first night, we decided to head back there for dinner tonight. Sitting upstairs (which is actually Temple Bar Balcony and not the same as the Cambodian Soup below) we were treated to some traditional Apsara dancing which has been a part of Khmer culture since Angkorian times - over a millennium (according to the trusty Siem Reap Visitors Guide). A fantastic Khmer curry and Fish Amok later (I can't rate Cambodian food enough!) we were full and exhausted. The true mark of staying in a luxury hotel, is you'll have any excuse to never want to leave it. So for tomorrow we have a full day of absolutely chilling in store.