Kompong Phluk Half-Day Tour from Siem Reap

When we planned to go to Siem Reap, we were sure that it would be very hot and that the water level of Tonle-Sap lake was expected to be very low. Nevertheless we decided to book this half-day trip with Khmer Detours through GetYourGuide. We were picked up at our hotel quite on time (End of Khmer New Year ;)), had a good diver, AC minivan and enough cooled drinking water and wet towels for the trip. The minivan had a capacity of 10 passengers but we were only 4 (my wife and a very sympathetic elderly couple from the USA with Indian origin). So it was a very harmonic group and we talked a lot. The highlight, besides the village and Tonle-Sap, was our guide Vanna. He knew that it was not easy to explain the participants that the water-level is so low, that we would board much closer to the lake and so on. He did such a great job that we didn't mind anything (which was crystal clear to us anyway). So he explained us a lot about the region, the lake, fauna and flora, the River-people and about Cambodian history. I thought we would have been well prepared for our trip to Cambodia but Vanna taught us so much more. There was not a single boring minute. We first went over a real local market (not the ones you know from Phnom Penh or like the Old Market in Siem Reap). He explained us the different fruits, how vegetables were prepared for the different Khmer dishes and many more details. No question was unanswered because his English was excellent. We carried on to the boat landing. He chose the first one possible to get a maximum endurance on the boat. Perfect! On this 'canoe' (that's how Vanna called it; for me more like an Indonesian 'sampan'-type) we followed the canals and saw the 'floating village' (yes, maybe in rain-season but not in dry-season!) from below. All the houses on stalks, 10 to 12m high poles made the houses kind of hovering over the former river-bed. Very impressive! We took a lot of astonishing fotos. Than the landscape opened up and we saw the huge lake Tonle-Sap. With good speed and a nice breeze, we reached one of the floating restaurants and bought some refreshments there. It also serves as a crocodile 'breeding station' for leather and meat. That was sadly spoken not European style but we had seen that before on our Mekong-Delta trip south of Saigon where it also had been part of the tour-program. So we ignored the animals and the leather shop and the restaurant and had a nice chat with the US-couple on the upper deck, relaxing in some hammocks. From there we headed back to the canal and carried on by foot through the village. This walk and the impressions we gathered were very authentic, especially with the explanations of Vanna, our guide. Last stop was the little temple, where we learned alot about Buddhism and the Khmer New Year customs. On the way back with our minivan, Vanna offered to buy us some fruit but we weren't hungry. We wre dropped at our hotel right in time. We knew what we had to expect and therefore there was nothing at all to complain about. All in all it was a great and interesting trip, very authentic and we were blessed with such a great guide. Som akun, Vanna!

Nice Tour Guide but not a very exciting day. Needed to put in half a day before heading back to SG on business. Took us to a local market and then on to the floating village. Everything was fine until I boarded a small boat piloted by an old lady. She took me off to the middle of nowhere to see some monkey's which she was then looking paid for. Another couple I was on the tour with end up being taken round to some old ladies home where they were told how difficult life was. Didn't appreciate this part of the trip but if you can live with the guilt and don't mind saying no it puts in a morning.

Rip off. Not a floating village. ..it's on stilts and in the dry season, most of the year, it's just a thousand boats on a muddy river. They will also stop you half way through the canoe part of the trip and try and humiliate you into buying overpriced goods from another boat. Then to a floating over priced restaurant for lunch. It's expensive and boring.