Cambodia: Tonle Sap Lake

Tonle Sap Lake – an eye opener visit. It’s one of the largest fresh water floodplain lake in the world. The size of the lake will increase in wet season and decrease in dry season. This annual flood cycle creates an incredibly productive environment for both wildlife and people. There are 170 floating villages on the lake itself with a population of 3.5 million. Fishing is the dominant activity of all the villagers. Over 70% of the protein consumed throughout Cambodia is estimated to come from fish from the Tonle Sap. The road to Tonle Sap is some paved, but mostly rough and extremely dusty. There is no electricity in the village. Naked or half-naked children running everywhere in the village.

Fishing is the most common job here for the villagers. But there are quite a number of “entrepreneurs” too, mostly seen were women and children. They sell fruits, drinks, tit-bits and souvenirs on their small boats. They are skillful and fearless rowing a boat in the middle of such a big lake. Some of them are using speed boat to easily approach and jump onto the tourist boats. Items are sold at $1 each.

A self-potrait of mine - Photo courtesy from Kok Sheng. As we were too immersed in photographing the scenaries of the places we stepped on, we did not make many photo of ourself. Like what Kok Sheng grumbled, it maybe more than a curse than a blessing to be entrusted as the photograher in many of his club events and activities. Your face simply appear no where when you review the "harvest" after the events.

We arrived at one of the villages around 6.30PM and “landed” on a floating souvenir shop. We did not buy much any souvenir on our first day there. This shop is 3 stories high, on top of it is an open space where tourists can relax and watch the sun set from the lake. It’s was a windy evening and when the clouds were blew off by the strong wind, and when the suns shines through the clouds it gives a spectacular view on the sky which is rarely seen. We call this the “Jesus Light”. I learnt this term from brother Albert during the Bukit Janing trip.

On our departure from the lake, the sky gradually turned red and the sun was slowly “sinking” into the sea. This is the first and last most beautiful sun set scenery we had throughout our stay in Siem Reap.