October 3, 2018

Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.  Located not far from Siem Reap it can be easily accessed with a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride.  The ride is a bonus treat if it is rainy season, rained earlier that day, or the roads are flooded….don’t ask me how I know.  Once we got to the lake we rented a boat and headed out on the water.

The water level is very high at this time of year.

     

We passed some girls out for a swim and a group of happy fellas stopped for a beer after work.

We continued on to a floating village.  There are several of these in the area but most are actually stilted communities.  This village was almost fully floating with the exception of a small island that contained the temple and a couple of other buildings, perhaps a monastary.

The village has its own school which is also floating.  There are two classrooms per building and we saw signs up to 6th grade.

Not sure if this is a school bus, but it was full of children.

The people living on this lake are either Cambodian or Vietnamese and most fish for a living.

The kids zoomed back and forth in the boats.

We stopped at a ‘restaurant’ for some beverages…..

the captain swabbed the deck….

..and we met the crocodiles.

Life on the lake is pretty busy,

 

This lady was not mad, she just got caught with a mouthful of bread.  The little guy’s shirt says Chicks Dig Me.

a little girl sewing a doll blanket

cooking dinner

This girl was happy to see us, but her little sister was even happier.

fast food take-out

I can’t imagine needing a boat to step out of my house but it is kinda handy if you don’t dig your neighbors.