Welcome to my article “Kompong Khleang – the only Fishing Village worth visiting in Tonle Sap”. To most visitors in Siem Reap, after visiting the main temples in the Angkor heritage sites, the natural option is to check out the floating villages at the Tonle Sap. Travel guides will bring three main villages to your attention – Chong Kneas, Kompong Pluk and Kompong Khleang. My message in this short blog is to highlight why Kompong Khleang is the ONLY village that’s worth your time and money.
Location of the 3 main lakeside villages on Tonle Sap
Kompong Khleang is the furthest from Siem Reap, about 55km and reachable via a 1 hour 15min drive. It’s the most remote and least touristy village compared to the other two villages (Chong Kneas -22min, Kompong Pluk – 55min). Hordes of scams you may have read in the travel forums are centred around Chong Kneas and Kompong Pluk. The scams, among other things, involve exorbitantly marked-up ‘donation’ packs to school students which don’t go to the children at all. The solution is to engage a reputable travel agency to handle all the bookings.
Kompong Khleang
Kampong Khleang lies on the shore of the biggest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. With more than 10,000 residents, it is the largest community on the shore of Tonle Sap. The unique feature is the rolls and rolls of stilted houses. In the dry season, people move over dusty red mud tracks which get submerged underwater in the wet season, when boats take over motorbikes as the water level surges.
You will see this is the main scene of Kompong Khleang when you arrive at the village’s grand temple ground during the dry season. The lake’s size, length and water volume vary considerably over a year from an area of around 2,500 km2 at the end of the dry season in late April to an area of up to 16,000 km2 as the Mekong southwest monsoon rainfall peaks in September and early-October.
Only during the dry season are you able to see these houses with their exposed stilts. In the wet season, the water level rises to 1-2 metres from the stilted houses.
A villager and her family preparing fish for sunning. Kompong Khleang sun-dried fish are a staple dish in Cambodia.
Rolls and rolls of lake fish laid out for drying in the scorching sun. According to the World Fish Center, roughly 20 kilogrammes of fish are caught in the Tonle Sap for every inhabitant of Cambodia, making it the world’s most intensely fished inland body of water.
The road to Kompong Khleang is a mud road which is submerged in the wet season as the water level rises above this land.
Firewood is being transported to the village. Electricity was introduced recently but it’s unaffordable for most households.
Villagers making a fermented fish paste called Prahok (a popular fish paste and core ingredient of Cambodian food).
The fish are thrown into this bucket to be descaled by a noisy motor. The residual sludges are poured down into the river.
Most of the houses in this fishing community are one-room bamboo huts built on wooden stilts. During the dry season, the stilted homes sit far above the water and residents enter by long ladders. Stilted house owners are generally more financially well-off compared to those living in floating houses on the lake.
Workers repairing the wooden houses’ stilts during the dry season, to ensure it remains secure for the wet season.
Fishermen go out to the lake to harvest their catch. Villagers sleep early but wake up about 3-4 am to commence their daily work.
A fishing boat with a huge amount of fishing traps on the way to the lake.
Taking care of their children frequently involves bringing them along on the fishing trip.
Looking at the age of some of the children manning the boat, you quickly realise there is no minimum age or licence needed for operating one.
A fisherman with a basic fishing net intently looking at us as we cruise by him.
Roots from the water hyacinths are a bane, frequently clogging up fishermen’s netting.
From the time children start their first steps, they are trained in water skills and when they can lift an oar, they are ready to paddle to and from school.
A fisherman feeling the lake bed for shells, which are a common street snack in Siem Reap.
A fisherman preparing to cast his net but will not do so until our boat goes past it.
Tonle Sap
Fishing traps in the lake. In total, more than three million people live on the lake’s shores, and 90% of them make a living from fishing or agriculture. The fish that come from Tonlé Sap supply three-quarters of the animal protein to locals in a country where almost 40% of children under five are chronically malnourished.
The homes on the lake are designed to float so that they rise and sink in tandem with the water level. The floating homes, generally comprised of wood and bamboo, tend to be much smaller than the stilted homes. They’re safe in the dry season when the water is low, but rougher tides during the rainy season can make them unstable. Some have small motors attached, but most of them float freely along the lake and relocate as it swells and recedes.
Conclusion
I hope readers like the “Kompong Khleang in Tonle Sap” article. A visit to Kompong Khleang during the dry season will make your visit more memorable while providing a ‘balance’ from being exhausted from too many temple visits. You get a better understanding of how nature impacts human beings and vice versa apart from witnessing how a community adapts and survives in a harsh environment. For a fruitful outing at the Tonle Sap and Kompong Khleang, be reminded again to engage a reliable travel guide to avoid scams.
Thanks for coming along the pixels journey, for some quick tips on how to better enjoy your Siem Reap adventure, you might check out my blog here.
Footnote: All pictures used in this travelogue are copyrighted to Jensen Chua Photography and all rights reserved. The opinion expressed is factual, objective and that of the author. The trip is non-sponsored.