Humbled by the Kampong Phluk Floating Village Experience in Cambodia

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If you’re visiting Kampong Phluk from Siem Reap, I recommend these half-day tours. This GetYourGuide tour (around 5–6 hours) includes hotel pickup, a guided boat ride through the stilted village, and the option to explore the mangroves by small dinghy, offering a good overview of daily life on Tonlé Sap Lake. Alternatively, the Viator half-day tour (about 5 hours) is a join-in experience by minibus and boat, covering the floating village, mangroves, and local community insights, making it a convenient and well-paced option for first-time visitors. You can also explore Kampong Phluk with this Trip.com half-day experience, which includes hotel pickup, a scenic cruise through the floating village, insights into village life, and a chance to see mangroves and stilted homes up close

Today was meant to be a relaxing day.

We had Kampong Phluk Floating Village on our agenda, with a pick-up scheduled at 8:30 AM and the whole experience estimated at around five hours, basically back by lunchtime.

A personal visit to Cambodia’s floating village on Tonlé Sap Lake, Kampong Phluk.

The driver was there to pick us up at 8:30 am sharp on time. Mare was his name and he called the 13 odd mix of us from various countries as 'family of Mare' for easier identification. He also made expectations clear. Visitors should be prepared for a rustic experience. There are no luxury facilities and electricity is limited, but that simplicity is part of what makes the village feel authentic and real. We were truly set to experience the Kampong Phluk Floating Village in Cambodia.

On our drive to the floating village, mare explained to us about how agriculture was the main occupation of people in Cambodia, and especially cultivating rice was key to their occupation. He showed us many rice fields and explained the process of cultivating short term and long term rice.

It was a one-hour bus ride to the ticket reservation center, where there are washrooms available. At the ticket reservation centre, our guide walked us through Cambodia’s background, its key tourist highlights, and the history, geography, and cultural importance of Tonlé Sap and the Kampong Phluk Floating Village. From there, we boarded an open-air double decker boat to reach the village. You can choose to sit in the covered section inside, but honestly everyone gravitates to the open deck. it’s where the breeze is, and where you can capture the best photos as life in the village unfolds around you.

Enjoying a serene boat ride through Kampong Phluk village.

Life on Water

Kampong Phluk Floating Village sits on Tonlé Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and the lifeline of Cambodia. The lake’s water levels rise and fall dramatically with the seasons, and entire communities here have adapted their lives to this seasonal change, which is fascinating in itself. During the dry season, the water level drops, revealing the muddy lakebed and allowing villagers to walk or bike between houses. In the wet season, the lake swells, and the entire village floats on water (or sit on high stilts), with boats replacing bicycles and footpaths. Therefore, it is not just another sightseeing tour, but one that defines resilience, community, and the remarkable ability of people to live in harmony with nature.

Homes are built on stilts that can reach up to 10 meters high to accommodate the rising water.

Deep Diving into the Kampong Phluk Floating Village Experience in Cambodia

Kampong Phluk is home to around 3,000 families, mostly fishermen and their families, living in wooden stilt houses that rise dramatically above the water. As the boat glides through, you immediately notice daily life activities like fishermen hauling nets off their trawlers and children splashing around carefree in muddy waters. Fishing is the main source of income, with villagers relying on the lake’s abundant fish during the wet months. Men are also involved in boat building and repair, maintaining stilt houses, transporting fish and goods to nearby markets, and taking on community leadership or seasonal labour during low fishing periods. Women in Kampong Phluk play a central role in keeping village life running. Many row small wooden dinghies to sell biscuits, chips, juices, fresh fruit, and coconut water, or guide visitors through the mangroves, while others are involved in fish processing such as cleaning, drying, and fermenting fish, repairing fishing nets, running small home-based shops, preparing food, caring for children, and managing households. Some also make handicrafts or help support local schools, balancing economic work with family responsibilities.

Everyday life in Kampong Phluk Floating Village, Cambodia, is quite a scene: a local steers a long-tail boat through muddy waters, a woman expertly mends fishing nets, colourful boats used as main transportation during wet seasons parked by the traditional stilted homes, and a woman on a boat sells a variety of goods to people passing by.

Most houses are built with tin or aluminum sheets and look extremely modest. While the slightly decent ones, for the lack of a better word, are made of wood. Belongings are tied to the sides on the outside of the house, creating a web of junk, every inch of space used with intention. But one thing that really stood out: waste was neatly segregated, something many other places could definitely learn from. It was really overwhelming to watch the poverty in the village and how they lived life like this. However, the tour is important because visitors can witness how the community thrives despite the challenges posed by nature.

Waste is neatly sorted under the stilt houses at Kampong Phluk Floating Village, highlighting the community's efforts in managing the environment.

We cruised past the village for about twenty minutes before getting off at a platform and walking into the settlement itself. The first sight was a Buddhist temple and pagodas, beautifully decorated with colourful murals and ornate carvings. These village wats are not grand monuments like those in cities, but deeply important community spaces where locals come to pray, make offerings, celebrate festivals, and mark life events such as births, deaths, and religious ceremonies.

In Kampong Phluk Village, the main temple is commonly known as Wat Kampong Phluk.

Almost immediately, a group of children ran up to us offering earrings, small trinkets, and handmade accessories. It was a Sunday, and with schools closed, many children helped their families by selling items to visitors, often encouraged by their parents as they spoke some English and were comfortable interacting with tourists.

Children play joyfully on a hammock under a stilt house in the village of Kampong Phluk.

The guide walked us through, sharing snippets of daily life and routines in the village. He showed us a primary school and secondary school where Khmer and English were the main languages taught apart from the other subjects. He mentioned the lack of a high school because most of these high schools were private owned and hence the families couldn’t afford to continue their children’s education after secondary school.

Snapshots from Kampong Phluk Floating Village in Cambodia: Home on stilts, shrimps to dry outside a local shop, and a villager gets some snails ready.

After the village tour, we were ushered back onto the boat to glide a little further to the next stop. It was the mangroves stop. The mangroves around Tonlé Sap Lake cover about 150–200 square kilometers, changing a bit with the seasons. They grow naturally where the lake’s freshwater meets slightly brackish water from the Mekong River. The mangroves are important because their roots protect the shoreline from flooding, give fish and other water animals a safe place to breed, and provide homes for birds and other wildlife. They’re also crucial for the people living in the floating villages, who depend on the lake for fishing and their daily lives.

Brightly colored boats cruise through the peaceful waterways of Kampong Phluk, winding their way among the lush mangrove trees.

Here there is an optional tour to switch to tiny dinghy boats, rowed by elderly women. The adults are charged €10 for two on a dinghy while children below 10 were free. To make a decision here is optional yet heavy… knowing these women are out here trying to earn whatever little they can to support their families. Anyway we had already decided to do this, so we paid for it and we hired a rower with our dhingie. I assumed this part of the experience, sailing 'quietly' through the mangroves, will feel the most reflective. However, I was proven wrong.

We, all set to enjoy a scenic boat ride through the tranquil waters of Kampong Phluk, surrounded by coluorful boats and dappled sunlight.

The sail was not really through mangroves but through the muddy lake adorned with trees. The boats followed one another in a line. I would’ve liked the experience to be peaceful however the ladies who rowed kept talking in heightened voices with each other and also breaking into songs, while the tourists remained quiet and relaxed. They stop halfway next to vendors rowing boats selling biscuits, water, juice and coconut water. We bought a coconut water each for €2.

Exploring the lake on a Kampong Phluk boat tour

Eventually, after around 20 minutes, we returned to the same place where we took the dhingies. We had half an hour here to admire the stuff that locals sold like magnets, clothes, and other souvenirs. They also had a restaurant that served juice and small eats. There were crocodiles kept in the back of the restaurant in a huge cafe in murky waters and the sight of them made Kiu and Arya interested.

Exploring a floating boat shop in Kampong Phluk, browsing dried fish, lake finds, and local handmade curiosities together.

After all of this, we made our way back to the boat to sail back  through the village, watching it all again from a distance, like a slow fade-out of a world that stays with you.

So, today was meant to be a relaxing day. It didn’t feel light or easy, but it felt important, and sometimes, that matters more.

Respectful Travel

Here are some tips for responsible visitors:

• Hire Local Guides: Hiring local guides helps your money reach the community while giving you deeper, more authentic insights. Even when tours are booked through platforms like GetYourGuide or Viator, they are usually operated by local companies, so the people guiding you, driving you, or rowing the boats are still members of the local community.

• Avoid littering: The lake’s ecosystem is fragile, and while it’s clear that daily life and livelihoods already put pressure on the water, it still makes sense for visitors to be mindful and not add to the problem.

• Ask Before Photographing: Ask before photographing. While many villagers are used to visitors taking photos, some may prefer privacy, and it never hurts to ask politely first.

• Buy Local Products: Purchasing fish, crafts, or small snacks helps support local livelihoods, and taking a dinghy tour directly supports the women, often providing enough income to help feed their families for the day.

• Tip the Guide Generously: The guide's personal story gave us a glimpse into what many people in Cambodia continue to live with long after the tour ends. If you’re able to, tip the guide generously. Sometimes, that small gesture means far more than we realise.

My Closing Thoughts on Kampong Phluk

Visiting Kampong Phluk left me feeling deeply humbled. It’s easy to come here thinking of it as just another stop on a tour, but once you see how closely life is tied to the lake, its changing seasons, and the challenges people quietly live with every day, the experience stays with you. The simplicity of life on the water, the way the community adapts to nature rather than fighting it, the resourcefulness of living on what's only available and the strength that comes from living together made me think hard. For me, it wasn’t just about seeing something different, but about understanding the stories behind it and why mindful tourism, supporting small communities, and respecting their way of life truly matter.

Cruising through the peaceful mangrove forest on traditional wooden boats, in Kampong Phluk, Cambodia.

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