Tonlé Sap Tour: Visiting the Floating Villages of Cambodia

An odd juxtaposition: being in a hurry, surrounded by a slow and ancient way of life.

We sped toward Siem Reap, Cambodia on a six-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. The dinner hour pit-stop barely gave us time to catch our breaths, and we were off again, aimed for few nights’ stay near the temples of Angkor Wat. I watched the sun set out the bus window, glazing everything from rice paddies to rustic roads with warm light, causing me to consider the farmers working the land to grow a living with each passing day.

When we arrived in Siem Reap, we knew our time was limited. Though we planned to join people from around the world in flocking to see the ancient Hindu temple complex ruins of Angkor, we also wished for a chance to experience something a little farther from the crowds, something a little more insightful about present day life in rural Cambodia. Enter: a visit to the remote floating villages of Tonlé Sap.

Floating Village of Kampong Phluk: Tonlé Sap Tour

Tonlé Sap is Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, a UNESCO Biosphere welling up to 15,000 square kilometers in the rainy season, draining to the Mekong River, and shrinking to 2,700 square kilometers during the dry season. North America’s Great Salt Lake is 5,483 square kilometers, by comparison.

One and a half million Cambodians live in 127 communities around and on the water. Lake dwellers live in bamboo floating houses and stilted structures, fishing for a living and navigating the waterways as they’ve done for centuries, though motors and foreigners and outside developers are changing the tides.

“The floodplain ecosystem establishes conditions for an abundance of natural resources…[providing] livelihoods for at least 15 percent of the population and sustenance for the entire Cambodian society. The inland fisheries supported by the Tonle Sap Lake system form the backbone of Cambodian food security, however the people of the Tonle Sap Area experience the highest incidence of poverty in the country…The rich environmental wealth does not equitably contribute to the welfare of the surrounding people and rather the highly profitable resources become a source of conflict among stakeholders…Unequal access rights, growing population pressures, severe poverty, insufficient or nonexistent rights of land tenure, cultural and ethnic divisions and a badly weakened civil society are all factors decrading the natural and social fabric and undermining the sustainability of biodiversity and development in the area.”[ref]How Do Women in Prek Toal Village (Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve, Cambodia) Participate in and Benefit From Ecotourism? p.10[/ref]

To see and learn more about this region and the people’s way of life, we connected with a local guide through Intrepid’s Urban Adventures to make the most of our short window of time and follow him on a Tonlé Sap tour to tucked away scenes and hidden spots we never would have found on our own.

In the hot weather of our October visit, the open air remork (Cambodian for tuk tuk) ride was a welcome start to the day.

Our group of three travelers – Ted and me, and an Australian woman named Narelle – and our guide, Ly. Sok Khgang, took to the morning roads with ease, divvied between two vehicles. We headed east on the highway out from Siem Reap and eventually took a right hand turn, entering into forested land split by small roads. So very different from jam-packed bus rides between major Cambodian cities.

Like a movie reel, scenes flashed by to our right and to our left, and when we made another right hand turn and then stepped from the remork to the village streets to wandered the morning market, there wasn’t another westerner in sight.

{Village Market Post Coming Soon!}

A bit down the road, a bit later in the morning, we came to the launch area for boat rides into the Tonlé Sap. Rickety wooden slivers, with kitchen chairs and school desk seats nailed to the floorboard, Cambodian flags waving proudly, and eager boatsmen running to and fro with ropes and paddles, preparing to take the next batch of visitors on their vessels.

We took their hands and steadied our balance, found our seats and settled in for the twenty minute boat ride through the marshland and tributary streams to the Kampong Phluk village…

According to UNESCO, over 400 species of fish have been identified in Tonlé Sap waters, and the regions fisheries supply 80% of Cambodia’s protein intake.

The fertile flood plain nourished by seasonal rising and falling waters yields agricultural land rich with nutrients for vegetable and rice production, and countless families living in the region practice fishing, farming, and harvesting methods taught to them by previous generations.

We drifted into Kampong Phluk (“Harbor of the Tusks”) and slowly the world of village families open up before us.

Fishing boats and fishing nets. Ladders up to sleeping rooms and laundry hung from rails.

Colorful, curious scenes.

But it’s easy to see that the way of life is hard.

Living in these communities generally means limited education, arranged marriages, and an expected lifespan of 54 years.

Moving into the city often means sickness that isolated immune systems cannot manage.

It means devalued skill sets.

It means a jolting shift to whatever this era of modern living in Cambodia has to offer…

It’s odd, floating through their lives, trying to decipher the picture from the outside in.

How are these families to make a living, to make a life, in the twenty-first century?

Perhaps they wonder themselves about the odd juxtaposition: living a slow and ancient way of life, visited by people in a hurry to “help” them change.

Help from foreign investors building posh eco-lodges over the waterways?

Help from large scale fisheries making industrial efforts to cut out the countless middlemen?

Help from ecotourism agencies that partner to invest in clean water sources and eduction?

Developers with motives of all sorts are descending on Tonlé Sap. In Kampong Phluk there are cell towers next to monasteries and foundations in place for the next grand resort. Not so unlike other corners of the world, but perhaps with less oversight?

I read portions of a fascinating paper [ref]Ecotourism as a Tool for Sustainable Rural Community Development and Natural Resource Management in the Tonle Sap Biosphere Region[/ref] methodically reviewing the current state of rural Tonlé Sap communities and stable community development and resource management based on responsible ecotourism.

I know enough to know that I don’t know enough. As a concerned citizen of the world, I’m burdened to see these communities overcome the threat of being starved out of existence by lack of education, lack of equitable access to their land and water, and lack of concern and respect by visiting travelers.

It’s easy enough to pass through in a day, to soak it the sights, and to leave for the next adventure, but seeing the faces of people living here and learning about their histories and possible futures makes me wish for the ability to do more.

I can start by sharing what I see, and I can continue by encouraging us all to think about how our decisions and dollars support the local communities around us everyday – at home or on our travels.

For the farmers raising our food.

For the families living in poverty.

For the developers trying to make wise decisions.

I do hope that responsible, sustainable ecotourism helps stabilize the future for Cambodians at Tonlé Sap.

If it is going to be developed at fast speed without paying much attention…ecotourism will only be a blaze. It will run down the quality and quantity of natural environment and biodiversity without benefiting the poor and vulnerable people and the conservation process in the area.[ref]Ibid p.xv[/ref]

There is no quick fix.

There is no speedy solution.

Therefore, management mechanisms of [Tonle Sap Great Lake] core areas should start from addressing local survival groundwork to medium and long-term strategic plans for rapid adjustment, local economic development and conservation supported by good micro and sectoral policies.[ref]Ibid p.xv[/ref]

My hat goes off to the researchers and planners, to the NGO workers and the families there on the ground (or on the water), living out their daily lives in pursuit of a healthy, stable, well-nourished, well-managed tomorrow.

As we left the floating villages and motored back along the canals to the original launch point, I wished we could slow down.

I wished time could slow down. For their sake and for mine.

I wondered…

…just how will these communities last?

WHAT TO KNOW:
Tonlé Sap Secrets, 4-5 Hour Long Guided Tonlé Sap Tour
Especially in delicate ecosystems and threatened local communities such as the Cambodian floating villages, they’ve demonstrated commitment to environmental and social responsibility.

Tonlé Sap UNESCO Biosphere
Description, ecosystems, habitat and land cover types, research and monitoring

The Flowing Heart of Cambodia
NPR’s Morning Edition featuring Radio Expeditions stories from Tonlé Sap in a co-production from NPR and the National Geographic Society

The Lake Clinic
Delivering Medical Aid to the Floating Villages of Cambodia

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Many thanks to Intrepid / Urban Adventures for sponsoring this post. I first discovered Intrepid when I bought a second-hand T-shirt at Goodwill in 2008. I was saving every penny for travel, but I couldn’t resist the map of the world made out of Intrepid logos… I Googled the company and fell in love with their travel photos and inspirations. Urban Adventures’ small-group tours around the world offer unique, local experiences showcasing different sides of typical travel destinations. All tours run as guaranteed departures with a maximum of 12 per group (which means even if you’re the only one signed up, the tour still runs!). For more details, check out their day trips around Siem Reap, Cambodia.

{More Stories From Cambodia.}