One of the poorest tourist destinations on Earth | Lake Dongrisa
Following the concept of budget travel, my friend and I, who dislike group tours, chose to travel independently to Tonle Sap Lake in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After completing the trip, I would like to share some tips and experiences.
⬇️Transportation:
🚘Departure: Took a TukTuk on Grab from a hotel in Siem Reap city, almost instantly accepted, 💰15800 Riel (US$3.86)
🏁Destination location: Chong Khneas ferry
🚘Return trip: According to our tuk-tuk driver, it's impossible to get a car near the lake. She can wait here for us to finish our visit and take us back for 💰8 USD, which can be negotiated down to 💰7 USD (we agreed immediately, so there should still be room for negotiation)...
❗️Hidden fees:
1️⃣The boat will first stop near the water forest, and ask if you want to take a small boat to the forest to watch the sunset (there seems to be props like flower wreaths on the boat), and the price is 💰20 per person... It's just outrageous
2️⃣After we refused the canoe, they took us to see 🐊crocodiles. After taking photos of us on the high platform of the boat for 5 minutes, the guide took us to see another small boat with a nicer color and talked about something (maybe about donating the money to some organization). They asked for 💰20 per person, but I didn't ask where we were going... Anyway, I refused a bit unhappily, and then the guide took us back to their own boat and continued to sail towards the sunset.
3️⃣️Tip: 😓My friend gave 2000 rupees (0.5 USD) to the guide and boatman on the boat, but they disdainfully counted it and told my boyfriend it was too little hhhhh (if you think it's too little, give it back to me 😅). Maybe because there were only two of us on the boat, they could receive more tips if there were more people...
🛖Lake attractions: water houses, crocodile breeding, sunset
⏰Our playtime is from 16:30-18:30 (sunset time: 18:00). To be honest, it feels like sitting on a boat 40 minutes or 1 hour before sunset on the same day is enough without extra expenses.
I have to say, the sunset 🌅 here is really amazing!! You can see the whole sun being gradually submerged!
🚢Charter boat: 💰28 USD/boat [limited to 1-5 people], didn't notice if there are bigger ones...so it's better to come in a group of 4-5 people.
⚠️Safety: Overall it's fine, we didn't encounter any begging children, and there were quite a few tourist groups coming and going during sunset. None of us wore life jackets on the boat, um...everyone can make their own judgment on this.
Lake Tonrisa, also known as Phnom Penh, is located in the west of Cambodia and is long-shaped in the heart of Cambodia. It is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. The lakeside plain is flat and broad, 500 km long and more than 110 km wide, northwest to southeast, across Cambodia, and the Mekong River crossing in Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
Lake Tonrisa, also known as Phnom Penh, is located in the west of Cambodia and is long-shaped in the heart of Cambodia. It is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. The lakeside plain is flat and broad, 500 km long and more than 110 km wide, northwest to southeast, across Cambodia, and the Mekong River crossing in Phnom Penh and Cambodia. It is like a huge green emerald, set on the Cambodian land, for the development and prosperity of the Khmer nation provides a solid resource guarantee, is the Cambodian people's "lake of life". Chinese name Donglisa Lake Foreign name Tonlé Sap alias Phnom Penh Lake geographical location in the western area of Cambodia 2,700 km2-
By boat, we reached the first big lake in Southeast Asia through the Yellow River Siem Reap River. Although it is the dry season, the lake is still vast. Vietnamese floating village is the magical existence of this lake. Because Cambodia prohibits Vietnamese people from building houses on land, they simply build houses on the water. The houses on the water form a village~ there are restaurants, shops, schools, churches, temples, power stations and other floating water~ there are small vegetable dumplings and chicken and duck cages floating on the water~ various boats passing through a large area of floating village houses on the water can be regarded as the most intentional in Donglisa Lake The humanistic landscape of thinking ~
If you haven't been to Lake Tonlisa, you can say you haven't been to Cambodia. Of course, it's exaggerated, but it's true. There are "refugees" that the governments of Vietnam and Cambodia do not care about. It's also a reflection of Cambodia's relatively backward living conditions. But the impoverished "Vietnam Floating Village" has the most touching sunset, sitting in the bow waiting for the sun to fall into the lake, feeling a thousand.
First, there are no mosquitoes. Second, there was no landing so there was no selling or forced massage. We arrived at 4:00 p.m., still very hot, first small boat and then big boat, it is estimated that the reason for separate operation is to pass through the villagers'houses, rows of very strange, different sizes, scattered uniformly, little boys are playing diving, little girls are rowing or washing clothes, this is the real life, maybe the lake is not clean, but this is their home, where they play and live, the sunset is very beautiful. Why is it that no one wrote a journey back, no sun, no light along the river, a 25-minute boat journey back is really thrilling ___________ The dark clouds above our heads are gradually invisible, and the surrounding scenes are getting darker and darker. On the left is a distant lightning, on the right is a low bush, and the surrounding River reveals the crisis of undercurrent surging. There is nothing but the flashlight of the boatman shaking to guide the course. When the boats behind us surpass us, they become more and more panicky. Otherwise, they can be seen again when they are better. Really panic, chaotic head, whether it will rain, whether there will be water monsters, whether the boatman will rob.................................................. More than 20 minutes of silence, until the distant light appeared, everything became reassuring The boat family was very good to send us ashore, and the thrill of the return trip was much more exciting than the three or five minutes of pirate boats in the playground. It's really wonderful to have a pleasant journey, a thrilling return journey and two feelings on the same road. It's unforgettable in this life.
Siem Reap, Cambodia. The last stop in the outer circle must be in the afternoon to catch up with the sunset on the lake, which is more beautiful than Mount Bacon. Tickets of $20, is the cost of a large ship, basically do not fight, special boats, large ships from the wharf, a quarter of an hour in the river, will pass through a large area of water villages, and then reach the entrance to the lake. Change the boat for $5. Specialized women boatmen paddle hard to the forest. After ten minutes in the water, they go to the lake and change back to the boat. By 6 p.m., the boat will take you to the lake, stop on the lake, turn off the motor, then you can sit on the bow and watch the sunset quietly. Donglisa Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. The whole trip lasts three hours and is worth visiting.
The sunset in Donglisa Lake is really beautiful. It is like a huge topaz, inlaid on the land of Kampuchea, providing solid resources for the development and prosperity of the Khmer nation. It is the "lake of life of the Kampuchea people"...
Donglisa Lake is indeed a different existence, completely different from the main melody of Angkor we are going to visit next, which is a water village near Siem Reap. We went in April, the last month of the dry season, and the driest time of Donglisa Lake. There was only a narrow river running between villages. What remained in the river was not Lake water, but yellow mud. The dwellings in those villages, which were originally supported on the lake by long trunks, now seem to be dwellings on land, even roads. Dumbbell-shaped Tonle Sap is Cambodia's most prominent feature and the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. In dry season, the lake area will shrink to 2,500 square kilometers; in rainy season, it will increase to 12,000 square kilometers. The floating villages on the lake are inhabited by thousands of fishermen's families, each family will have 5-7 children, which constitutes a unique and vivid human landscape on Lake Donglisa and also attracts a large number of tourists. More than half of Cambodia's annual fish production comes from Lake Tonlisa.