T-Travel Photography
Zdenko Takac & Iveta Takacova
Landscape, Travel & Fine Art Photography
Mt St Helens & Willamette NP
Chong Kneas Floating Village
After quad biking we were ready to have a quick shower at the hotel and head off for another adventure. We booked a sunset boat trip to the vietnamese fishing village, hoping to capture a few nice images. The boat ride took about 20 minutes and we paid 18 USD. The water in the river is very muddy, so don't hope to see any fish in it. We however saw many locals fishing with nets on the river bank. The traffic on the river was quite busy, from kids driving boats home from school, to locals coming home from the days shopping in Siem Reap.
Be prepared to get harassed by local Vietnamese, especially kids holding snakes who will gladly pose for the photo but will then chase you around till you give them money (usually 1 USD). It's quite depressing to see mothers with little kids on their boats drinking water directly from the muddy lake.
There were not many photo opportunities on this trip, especially at the beginning when you are on the boat heading towards the village on Tonle Sap Lake. As mentioned above, going through the muddy channel, all you can see is rubbish hanging off the trees, showing how high the water gets during the wet season. Once you get to the open lake, you can see a floating village inhabited mainly by Vietnamese people. Your boat will usually take you to the floating restaurant and souvenir shop at the end of the village. As part of the attraction, a few crocodiles are kept in captivity on the pontoon.
We were quite surprised to see that even here people were trying to recycle. They couldn't burn their rubbish like they normally do on the mainland.
There is a viewing platform on the top of the restaurant and many people wait here for sunset but we decided to leave early as we couldn't see any good photo opportunities from here. However, we were able to capture a nice sunset shot on our return to the dock.
In our opinion this trip is nowhere near as interesting as another fishing village called Kampong Phluk. The photo opportunities there are far superior and definitely worth the trip. We wouldn't recommend this particular trip to anyone, as for us it was one of the worst attractions of Siem Reap.