Houses on Stilts and Floating Village

On the way back from Beng Mealea, we stopped at two unique fishing villages around Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in South-East Asia.  

Our first stop was Kampong Khleang, where all of the houses are on built on 10m stilts so that in the rainy season the houses don't get flooded.  The area of Tonle Sap Lake increases 5 to 6 times during the rainy season, causing the level of water rising dramatically.  Since we were here during the dry season, we could walk through the village to see all of the stilts, whereas during the wet season the water level reaches the floor level of the homes so they use boats to get around.

We then took a boat cruise to the second village - a floating village.  On the way, we saw locals going about their daily business along the river.

We finally emerged to see the houses of the floating village.  This floating village moves nearby the shore of Tonle Sap Lake as its volume increases in the rainy season and shrinks in the dry season.  The impressive thing is that all of the houses float on bamboo.. it seems to work!