Did you know that Siem Reap contains the largest freshwater lake in all of Southeast Asia, called the Tonle Sap Lake? It’s one of the richest inland fishing grounds in the world, home to not only over 200 different species of fish but also to over one million people. In fact, the majority of these people actually live directly on the water in houseboats which create pockets of floating villages throughout this 1,042 sq mile lake.

So when I heard visitors can access one of the floating villages at the lake’s northern end (only 30-minutes from Siem Reap), I decided I needed to see it for myself. Here is where you will find the floating village of Chong Khneas, where close to 1,000 families live and make their living fishing on the Tonle Sap. A visit to this floating village seemed like the perfect authentic travel experience to add to my adventure in Cambodia.

For those of you that follow me on Instagram or have read my blog posts before, you know that authentic travel experiences are extremely important to me. I love to learn about different cultures and ways of life and always strive to support locally owned and operated tour companies that also give back to the local community. Examples of this would be like the time I stayed with families in the Andes Mountains of Peru with Ayni Peru, hiked to the Lost City of Colombia with Expotur, or the time I stayed with a family in their bamboo hut in the mountains of Sa Pa, Vietnam.

Not only do experiences like this allow us to see first hand how different people live their day-to-day lives, but it also gives us the opportunity to support the person or family that is providing and facilitating this unique experience.

However, this was unfortunately not the case with my experience visiting the floating village of Chong Khneas. What I thought was going to be an authentic experience visiting a local floating village turned out to be nothing more than a tourist trap which supports the cruelty of the crocodile skin industry and the exploitation of the local people living there.

Here are the top 6 (unfortunate) things I learned about the floating village of Chong Khneas that I hope will get you thinking twice before visiting.

1. Little to no money generated from ticket sales is given back to the local community

Droves of tourists flock to the floating village of Chong Khneas every day and pay a $20 entrance fee for a two-hour long tour through the village, yet none of the money is given back to the community that is being toured. You’d think that visiting this floating village would be a great way to support the local residents and simultaneously have the opportunity to see what life is like living on the water. Unfortunately, the boats are owned and operated by a private firm (VCD Boat Association) meaning all ticket sales go directly to the private company, not to the people who live there, which brings me to my next point…  

2. The residents of the community are exploited

While residents of the floating village of Chong Khneas struggle to survive, boatloads of tourists pass by each day to snap photos of and gawk at their homes. And since the tour operation is privately owned, the local people have no say or control over who comes and goes, and they don’t even financially benefit from it. As a tourist, you are essentially paying some outside company to go look at and take pictures of impoverished people’s homes, families, and their lives. In other words, the local people are exploited to generate income for a private company that has no interest or concern in the local community whatsoever.

3. The “floating market” they take you to is really a souvenir shop and an unethical amphibian zoo/croc farm

You will be told that part of this tour includes visiting a floating market. When I think of a floating market, I think of something like the floating markets near Bangkok, where you can sample local dishes from the region as well interact with the local people. Instead, the “floating market” at Chong Khneas, is really a souvenir shop that doubles as a crocodile farm and an amphibian zoo. Picture this; people lining up to take photos of a python draped across their shoulders, a monkey on a leash tied up to a pole, and a crocodile pit where hundreds of crocs are living on top of each other in squalor. That is what the so-called “floating market” is. It was all terrible, but the most horrifying part was knowing that these crocs were all being raised to be skinned alive and used for leather fashion goods (i.e Louis Vuitton, Hermes, YSL). I urge you to think twice before purchasing any snake or crocodile leather goods.

4. You will be able to tell this is a tourist trap the moment you arrive

It was pretty evident from the moment we arrived in the parking lot of the port that this was going to be a tourist trap. There were hundreds of mini-tour buses lined up outside, tourists everywhere, and salesmen selling tacky souvenirs to anyone they could (you will be asked to purchase a plate with your face on it after you come back from the tour – apparently they take photos of you while waiting for the boat to pick you up). Even the uniformed men collecting tickets made it seem like more of a commercial operation than a tour.   

5. You will probably be asked to buy a bag of rice for the children at an extremely high price

I did not personally experience this, but a woman in my group said that she was approached while on the “floating market” to buy a bag of rice for the children at $40 a pop. Whether the money or food actually goes to the children, I cannot say. But I can say that this did not seem like the most legitimate operation. Turns out, the “rice for the children” is a known scam. I can’t confirm this for sure, but it certainly doesn’t seem right…

6. There will be no interaction with locals or any explanations about how the locals live

Even after realizing that this was indeed a tourist trap, I thought I would at least learn about how the people of the floating village live, or maybe even have the opportunity to purchase food from a vendor selling local fare. However, we didn’t learn anything about the village or the people who live in it or even come close to the opportunity to interact with the local community or support them in any way. I learned the majority of the information about the floating village of Chong Khneas from a conversation with a local tour guide back in Siem Reap and by researching on the internet! 

If I have convinced you to stay away from supporting the exploitation of the animals and people of the floating village of Chong Khneas (which is most certainly my goal with writing this post) but you’d still like to see what life is like in a floating village, I would recommend checking out this post by Triple A Adventures Cambodia, which provides an alternative option. Check it out for more details on how you can visit the floating village of Kampong Khleang (another floating village near Siem Reap) where the boat service is still owned by the locals. That means that the money you spend on the boat trip actually goes back to the community.

I feel terrible that I supported such an ugly side of the tourism industry, but I think it’s really important to be open and honest about the not-so-stellar travel experiences we have along the way in order to become more ethical and responsible travelers. I’m going to turn this negative experience into a positive one and use my voice to spread the word on why you SHOULDN’T support companies or tours that don’t have a positive impact on the local community or the environment.

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You can read more about Siem Reap, Cambodia here.

Have you ever experienced irresponsible tourism before? Let me know in the comments 👇🏼 

Wander On,

Wanderluluu xx