Tonle Sap Lake

Slight confusion over pick-up time (at least we were an hour early not an hour late). Tuk-Tuk finally arrives and we head south of Siem Reap to the lake, past some rice paddies and Lotus flower fields. You should look on Google maps for the scale of the lake, it's massive but shallow (4 metres rising to 12 in the wet season). Our guide Pich explains how the lake is fed from the Siem Reap river and it's height is also dependent on the Mekong. It takes about 90 mins to reach the floating village of Chong Kneas currently housing about 1000 families  whose whole life revolves around the lake.

We were hoping to see some birdlife but the water level is too high (their habitat shrinks in the dry season and they become tied to smaller areas). Still there are Brahminy Kites, Storks, Egrets and Herons.

Have to stop at police checkpoint to pay fees and order a little lunch for later - fish I think! Under some of the raft houses are cages for Crocodiles - since the decline of the trade in skins they are now used just for their eggs. Various methods used to trap different fish, saw a boat laden with 2M open ended bamboo tubes for eels,  Lobster-pot type affairs for the Catfish and nets for everything else.

The abundant water Hyacinth are also harvested and dried. This a revived craft and funded progrm to turn the stalks into material for weaving into baskets, bags, hammocks etc. (Amanda is itching to try it) Without harvesting, the lake would soon be overgrown with the stuff and it spplements their income.

Overall, the lake supports over 1M people (some of them Vietnamese) and the work they do feeds the whole of Cambodia. Most are desperately poor but every home is tidy & organised (you have to be living in 20 ft2) many prettily painted & decorated, most have a tv antenna and there is cellphone reception. Some villages even have Catholic churches for the tiny %age of christians.  The school house will be on one float with the playgound on another next door, This village will have the primary shcool and the next, secondary.  

And everyone makes you feel very welcome...