Chong Kneas

The village is where boats from Batdambang and Phnom Penh dock when they make the voyage across the lake to Siem Reap and Angkor. While Chong Kneas is the most convenient Tonle Sap community to visit from Siem Reap, this also means that it is the most heavily visited by tourists and thus the least ‘authentic’ of the villages on the lake.

Chong Kneas is home to around 6,000 people, mostly Khmer, Cham and Vietnamese, living in either houseboats or wood and bamboo homes on stilts. Due to dramatic variations in the lake’s water levels over the seasons, the floating homes are moved regularly to new moorings and the living quarters on some of the stilted homes are relocated up successive levels to stay above the high water mark.

Almost all the villagers live by fishing, and all village life happens on the water. The lively market, police station, two schools, fish and crocodile farms, the fishermen’s temple, and a Catholic church are all only accessible by boat. The approaches to the boarding point for Chong Kneas flood seasonally and are lined with paddy fields and thatched dwellings perched on stilts. An environmental project, called the GECKO Environmental Education Centre, where visitors can learn about the communities and ecology of the lake, also helps the local population deal with infrastructure problems such as sewage, refuse, and the lack of clean water. GECKO has a floating office within the village, which you are likely to visit if you arrange your trip through their organization.

Visitors to Chong Kneas should arrange trips through reputable tour agencies or negotiate with ticket sellers as overcharging by some Siem Reap-based agents seems to be common practice. Boat tours of the village take up to two hours and include a school, the flooded forest, the fish and crocodile farms, and souvenir shops.