On our previous visit to Siem Reap, we intentionally did not take a tour of the floating villages on Tonle Sap lake. Part of that trip was a cruise up the Mekong from Saigon to Phonm Phen and in the course of that trip, we had the opportunity to visit some floating villages that had a lot less tourist influences than Tonle Sap villages.

But on this trip, we arrived from our morning flight from BKK, and had a free afternoon so we headed out form our hotel around 3:00 pm to visit the Tonle Sap Lake floating village of Chong Khnea. On the way there, we stopped to sample some local cuisine: grilled snake and stir fried grasshoppers. Both were actually pretty good and despite some concerns; neither caused any gastronomical irregularities.

Once at the lake the boat trip took us by floating houses markets and locals in all forms of marine transportation attempting to get “One Dollar!” from each tourist in any manner possible.

After watching the sunset over the lake, we stopped on the outskirts of Siem Reap at what our guide called a “Cambodian Picnic”. We found hundreds of people lining the road buying food at stalls and finding a spot wherever they could to enjoy their meal.

Click here to see a video that includes footage from the Lake as well as the food stalls mentioned in this article.