In 2008 I went to Cambodia with photographer Peter Garmusch to write this story on traditional Khmer silk and to do preliminary research on a potential story about restoration work on the Angkor ruins.
One of the strangest things we saw was a floating village near Siem Reap. We arrived too late in the day to start our research until the next day. We found a tour guide who could drive us around for the rest of the week and he proposed a quick trip with the remaining hours we had in the afternoon to see this floating village. The place is called Chong Kneas on the Tonle Sap lake and our tour guide said the inhabitants were refugees from Vietnam, though I am not sure that is accurate.
I am sure a lot of tourists must go there because there were kids selling cans of Coca Cola and some strange floating building with a crocodile enclosure and a church. I found it more interesting seeing the signs of domestic and village life – some boats had laundry hanging on the line or small gardens, while others were clearly shops for the people who live there. The kids were water natives – they had been swinging from hammocks above the lake since they were babies and small children could captain a small round metal basin as if it were an ocean-going vessel.
We had a very tight working schedule during our time in Siem Reap but I’ve always been curious about this place. If you have been there or know anything more about it, please let me know in the comments!
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Yup the inhabitants of Chong Kneas are mostly ethnic Vietnamese – traditionally making a living out of fishing and some croc farming, but in more recent years, tourists are a more lucrative crop. The village is a bit of a tourist trap really with the stilted villages further south like Kompong Phluk of considerable more interest, but Chong Kneas is very accessible to Siem Reap and is home to the Gecko Environmental Centre which is an interesting spot.
Stuart´s last [type] ..Siem Reap live gig: the Grass Snake Union Band