Tonle Sap Lake - Vietnamese Floating Village

The Vietnamese floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake. This is the largest lake in Cambodia and the water rise and fall over 20 feet annually. This is caused by the Mekong River “backing up” in the rainy season. The village must move when the waters rise. While the more “affluent” live on house boats, others live in small thatch “shacks” only large enough to sleep in. These sit on bamboo stilts on the shore and are light enough that 4 men can literally pick them up and easily move them as the waters rise and fall. There are schools and stores on larger boats which are mooring at the shore. We traveled through their aquatic town by power boat, but there was plenty of traffic by canoe with enterprising individuals selling vegetables or firewood by canoe or dugout. There were several fish farms which like the schools were built to be moved with the rising water.