Kompong Khleang is one of the largest Tonle Sap communities with over 20,000 people. Located about 45km south east of Siem Reap town, pass Damdek town, this village is less visited by tourists and thus offers a more traditional insight to Cambodian village life by the lake as compared with Chong Khneas.
Kompong Khleang
We take a half-day Peace of Angkor tour to Kompong Khleang, travelling by car with an English speaking local guide to the village, and then taking a boat out to the lake. A distinct feature of Kompong Khleang is its houses built on stilts rising up to 10m above water level during the dry season. There is a need to build these houses this high, to stay above water level during the wet season when the Mekong River floods into the Tonle Sap Lake. It is also not possible to reach the village by road during the wet season, so getting to Kompong Khleang then would require more travel over water.
view looking out from the boat
row of houses high on stilts in the dry season
close-up of a typical house on stilts
daily life at the homes of Kompong Khleang
a fair number of floating houses and houseboats similar to this one can also be found
a vegetable seller rowing by
kids everywhere as young as this little fella here manoeuver their way around the lake on boats
Floating Fish Market
One of the highlights of the boat trip is stopping by at the floating fish market. It is an interesting scene of fishermen in boats with their catch, selling their fresh fish to other villagers rowing by on their boats.
scene of the floating fish market
fresh catch for the day
fishermen busy separating out their catch
a villager inspecting the fish to buy
Pagoda and Village on Land
We stop by at the village pagoda, and then take a stroll through the land village where there are a few stalls remaining from the market earlier in the morning.
entering the pagoda school for monks
friendly sparring between two young monks
walking through the market alley of Kompong Khleang
cleaning out fish from Tonle Sap
drying fish in the hot sun
young ladies learning to sew with the sewing machine, as a means to make a living
a schoolgirl stepping through a puddle
Handicraft
As we leave the village, we pass by a little hut where women are in the midst of making bags out of water hyacinth stems, to sell at markets. The water hyacinth plants are commonly found around the tonle sap lake and form ‘dense floating mats’ that can obstruct the flow of the lake.
water hyacinth stems laid out to dry in the open
displaying skilled craftsmanship
Magnificient.
You have such a close view of the their life.
It is very interesting to see that their houses are built 10 m above the water. The foundation support poles are bamboo or wood? I assume they must be strong enough for the storm. The mobil floating house is also very interesting! Great post!
rainfield: it is an experience to witness the scene of the daily lives of the folks
micki: the support poles look like wood to me… u may find more photos of the floating houses at an earlier post on Chong Khneas village
interesting subjects. we never got the chance to visit this one, we’ll definitely do it next time!
in the philippine we have a minority with similar housing structure. Nice set by the way!
RON | fliptravels.com
Hello Lechua, thanks for dropping by my blog recently.
You take fantastic photos! Almost like I’m having holidays too
)
Can see a lots of their routine life from your pictures, great!
They drying the fish in the sun like cheung chau fishermen do! ^.^
Ron: we have houses on stilts in certain parts of villages in malaysia too but never seen such a huge community all around the lake
Ai Shiang: thanks for checking them out
Rafael : yea i noticed the same too haha.. same type of fish it appears to be too
Kompong means kampung? I am guessing it must be. Nice series on the kampung life over there. I love rustic scenes like these. The view looking out from the boat is very nice!
hi mei teng, yes i think the kompong and kampung are derived from the same root – although supposedly in khmer, kompong can also mean ‘port’ or ‘the side of the river’
Hi lechua,
what a beautiful blog you have here, so interesting and with great photos!
Thank you so much for your kind comment on my blog about that first sunset in 2010. To answer your question: yes, we have a lot of deep red sunsets in Florida like I have photographed on my blog.:)
I’m glad I have found your blog, I have subscribed to you in RSS reader.
Susanne
Sue’s Daily Photography
hi susanne, thanks for dropping by and ur compliment – it’s an honour coming from an established professional photographer like yourself! never got a chance to visit florida but did visit california/las vegas in summer 2008 while on training for work. Looking forward to your daily photos at your blog!