Hotels near Tonle Sap Floating Villages (Kampong Phluk)

Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and it does something no other lake does. Each monsoon the Tonle Sap River reverses direction, swelling the lake from roughly 2,500 square kilometres to around 16,000. Kampong Phluk is a village of about 3,000 people built on stilts six to eight metres tall specifically to survive that annual rise.

Boats leave from the Kampong Phluk pier and run about 90 minutes, threading between the houses, a floating school and a flooded mangrove forest you paddle through in a small canoe. Expect 18 to 35 dollars per person depending on group size and season. Water is highest from September to November. By March the channels are shallow and the boats sometimes cannot reach the mangroves at all, so ask before you commit.

Pro Tip: Choose Kampong Phluk over Chong Kneas, which sits closer to town and has a long-standing reputation for add-on charges once you are on the water. Take the late departure around 15:30 so the return leg lands at sunset.