Floating Villages and Beng Melea tour 2Days – 2Days

Halal Tourism (Cambodia)

Phnom Penh, April 4th, 2023 —

Boat trip onto the Tonle Sap lake, Kompong Phluk village and the flooded forest, Kompong Kleang village and the stilt houses, Beng Melea

1 – Floating villages –

We will pick you up at your hotel and drive 15 km from Siem Reap to the boat docks of Chong Khneas, tonle sap great lake. We will go aboard a local boat for a lovely ride onto the Tonle Sap through the floating village of Chong Khneas. The Tonle Sap is the biggest lake of Southeast Asia, supporting which is perhaps the world’s largest and richest inland fisheries. It swells to ten times its normal size during the wet season. Chong Khneas consists of some permanents buildings but is a largely floating settlement. The majority of the population, which is composed for a great part of Vietnamese people, live in houseboats. Most of the time, you can recognise the Vietnamese habitation because of their bright colours. We will pass along the floating houses, school, sport hall, even pigs farm and stop at the Gecko Environment Centre which offers information about the ecology and the rich biodiversity of the lake area.
Then we will continue our boat trip to the fishermen’s village of Kompong Phluk. Kompong Phluk is not a floating village but a village on stilts and in spite of fishing is often the privilege of the Vietnamese minority, the inhabitants of Kompong Phluk are almost exclusively of Khmer origin. The villagers frequently move from house to another house. During the rainy season, they live in the house on stilts and move to small huts near the waterfront during the dry season.
As we will arrive at the village at about Noon, we will enjoy a nice lunch from fresh local fish, shrimps and vegetables prepared by the local women. Then, we will visit the village, the pagoda on the only butte (the only building which is not on stilts) and see the activities of the villagers before doing a traditional boat cruise. Small canoes, paddle by villagers, will take you deep into the dense flooded forest. The trees of this forest are perfectly adapted to their unusual existence as they are completely submerged a part of the year.
In the middle of the afternoon, we will board again for a 2 hour trip to the village of Kompong Khleang, about 35 km east of Siem Reap. Kompong Khleang, more remote than the two other villages, is much less touristed. With over 20,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest communities in the Tonle Sap. During the dry season, the thatch dwellings rise to 10 meters into the air, held up by impressively high bamboo stilts. In the wet season, the waters rise to within one or two meters of the buildings. Like in Kompong Phluk, the economy of the village is largely based in fishing and you will be able to observe the fishermen at work on the lake, drying their catch or preparing smoke fish. We will also visit the small island at the centre of the village with its colourful market, pagoda and school.

In the evening, we will help our host family to prepare the dinner and we will share a friendly meal and spend a hearty evening all together.

Day 2 – Jungle’s temple –
After breakfast with our host family, we will spend some more time in the village to learn more about the daily life in rural Cambodia and to take advantage of the morning light for picturesque pictures. Then, we will leave our hosts and take a car or van to the north. A 2 hour drive will take us to the jungle’s temple of Beng Melea where we will enjoy our picnic lunch.
Beng Melea was built during the 12th century during the reign of Suryavarman II, at about the same time as Angkor Wat of which its layout and style closely mirror. However, Beng Melea is completely ruined and largely overrun by vegetation and competes with Ta Prohm for the “lost in the jungle” ambience. It is a tangle of trees, lichen-covered stones, broken towers and galleries. Many impressive sculptures are hidden among the rubble and the vegetation. This temple is very lightly touristed and offers plenty picturesque pictures’opportunities.
After the visit, we will come back to Siem Reap and leave you at your hotel at the end of the afternoon. end trip to wonderful jungle tour and cambodia lake.