Ancient Places, New Beginnings

What a floating village can tell us about Cambodia’s future

Nowhere does the modern world so quickly evaporate into the countryside than on the road from Siem Reap to Kampong Phluk.

Siem Reap is a rowdy backpacker’s hub, a home base for exploring the massive temple grounds of Angkor by day and drinking fifty cent beers by night. From the streamers and neon lights of Pub Street, to the food stalls and souvenir shops of the Old Market, Siem Reap is exactly what you’re imagining when you think of Southeast Asia. To travel to Cambodia without spending at least a night or two here is like going to DC for the first time and skipping the National Mall — it simply isn’t done.

Kampong Phluk, on the other hand, is barely even in the guidebook. My December 2021 edition of Lonely Planet Cambodia dedicates four paragraphs to this floating village on the shores of Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s massive freshwater lake that seems more like an ocean. Like I’ve written previously about getting around in Cambodia, the trip here isn’t exactly easy.

Our guide, who goes by Mr. T, and a driver whose name I don’t catch, pick us up outside our hostel in a freshly washed Land Cruiser. (We have black Lincolns in the States — everywhere else the classiest ride on the streets is always a Land Cruiser.) It’s a…