Tonle Sap Floating Villages: Which One, Which Month, and Which to Avoid

The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and it does something no other lake this size does: it reverses direction twice a year.

During the monsoon the Mekong rises so far that it pushes water back up the Tonle Sap river, into the lake, which swells to several times its dry-season area and depth. From about November the flow turns round and the lake drains back out. The whole ecology runs on that pulse - it is one of the most productive inland fisheries on earth, and the flooded forest around the edge is the nursery.

What that means for you is blunt: a floating village in October and the same village in March are two different trips. In the wet months the stilt houses stand in water, the boats can push into the flooded forest, and the village is a village on a lake. In March the same houses are dry sticks six to ten metres up in the air, the channel is a shallow brown trench, and the flooded forest is a dusty wood you walk under.

Neither is wrong and both are interesting. But a tour photographed in October will not look like your February booking, and nobody selling the trip will volunteer that. Ask what the water is doing the month you are going, before you book.

Kampong Phluk - about 30 kilometres from town, roughly an hour each way plus boat time. This is the one most trips go to and the right default. The houses stand on stilts six to ten metres high, which is the image people have in their heads, and when the water is up you transfer to a small paddle boat to go into the flooded forest. Moderately visited but not overrun.

Kampong Khleang - about 50 kilometres out and a half-day minimum. The largest of the lake communities and by far the least visited, because the extra hour each way filters out the coach trips. If you want the stilt village without a queue of boats, this is it. The trade-off is the road and the fact that there is less laid on for you, which is rather the point.

Chong Kneas - closest to Siem Reap and the most heavily worked by tourism. If a lake trip is being sold very cheaply, this is almost certainly where it goes. It is not a scam, but the boat-to-boat selling is persistent, the 'orphanage' and 'school' stops that some operators build in are worth refusing on principle, and the village itself is the least interesting of the three because it moves with the waterline and has little permanent structure.

A note on the crocodile farms and floating restaurants: several tours build in a stop at one. They are not part of the village and you are free to skip them.

September to November - the lake at maximum. Water up to the floor of the stilt houses, flooded forest navigable, birdlife at its best. This is the peak of the trip and it happens to overlap with the cheapest and quietest weeks of the year in Siem Reap. Bon Om Touk, the water festival that marks the river's reversal, falls in November and is the biggest holiday in the Cambodian calendar.

December to January - still good. Water dropping but the villages still read as villages on water, and the weather is at its best for the rest of your trip.

February to March - the lake is visibly down and the trip changes character. The stilts are exposed, the flooded forest is dry, and a lot of visitors come back feeling short-changed. If you are here in these months and the lake is the main reason, consider spending the day on the countryside and rice fields instead - it is the honest swap.

April to June - the lowest water of the year, and the hottest weather. Some operators stop running to Kampong Phluk altogether because the channel is not navigable. Check before you pay.

July to August - filling again. By August the boats are back in the forest and the trip is worth doing.

Prek Toal, the bird sanctuary on the far side of the lake, is a different proposition again: a serious early start, a long boat, and the best water-bird colony in Southeast Asia. It is worth it from December to February when the birds concentrate as the water drops, and pointless outside that.

Boat fees are separate and they are the part that surprises people. The community boat charge at Kampong Phluk is collected at the pier and is not always included in a cheap tour price. Ask whether your quote covers the boat, the small paddle boat in the flooded forest, and the community fee - three separate line items at some villages.

Go in the late afternoon. The light over the water in the last two hours is the whole visual argument for this trip, and the village is back from the fields. Morning departures exist mainly so operators can pair them with a temple afternoon, which is the wrong way round.

Pair it well. The strongest combination is a sunrise at Angkor Wat followed by the lake in the afternoon, which is exactly what the sunrise-and-lake tours do. The other good pairing is to make the lake a rest day between two temple days - your three-day Angkor pass spans a ten-day window, so a lake day costs you nothing in pass terms.

Two things to decline. First, any stop billed as an orphanage or a village school visit - paid visits to institutions housing children are harmful regardless of how the operator frames it, and reputable Cambodian operators stopped offering them years ago. Second, buying rice or school supplies from the boat that pulls alongside; that trade is run for the boat operator, not the village.

What it costs: a shared afternoon trip to Kampong Phluk runs roughly USD 25-40 including transport, a private car version USD 60-90, and Kampong Khleang perhaps a third more for the extra distance.