Tonle Sap Lake Cambodia
Cambodia
437
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
CroisiEurope (437 Cruises)
RV Indochine
277 Cruises
RV Indochine II
160 Cruises
Frequently Asked Questions
Through the sailing itself: the lake is a leg of the voyage, not a pier. River ships linking Siem Reap and Phnom Penh cross it, and shore visits are made in small boats that come right up to the villages.
Because it changes size twice a year. In the rainy season the swollen Mekong pushes its tributary backwards and the lake expands to several times its dry-season area, with levels rising by metres. As the flood recedes, the current reverses again.
For hours, a horizon reduced to a line where the sky mirrors water the colour of milky tea, dotted with fish traps, drift nets and fishing boats. Herons, cormorants and terns follow the passage.
An entire community built on pontoons or bamboo clusters: homes, grocery stores, schools and even places of worship move with the seasons to follow the fish and the depth. Vegetable plots sit in boxes and pigs in floating pens.
Floating villages rise and fall with the water; stilt houses, more common towards Kampong Chhnang, stay fixed on posts several metres high that let the flood pass under the floors. In the dry season they seem perched above cracked riverbanks.
Yes, it is a UNESCO biosphere reserve and one of the richest wetlands on the continent. Visits are made slowly, with engines throttled back, so as not to disturb that fragile balance.
It is among the largest freshwater lakes in Southeast Asia and among the most fish-rich in the world: it feeds a considerable share of the country. Fishing families work it together, standing in slender boats.
High water, September to January, gives the easiest navigation and the floating villages at their fullest. In the dry season levels drop, some transfers switch to the road, and the stilt houses stand over mud.
Yes. A major national festival in Phnom Penh each autumn marks the moment the lake gives its water back to the river, with pirogue races.
Hat, water and sun protection: there is no shade at all on this freshwater sea. Small riel or dollar bills are useful in the villages, and a splash-protected camera earns its keep in the small boats.
