Thursday 26^th February

 

We visited a stilted  village of Kompong Phluk to visit a farm, saw a wedding and a funeral. Then it was on to the largest lake in SE Asia. Depending on the flood levels of the Mekong the lake fills or empties into the river for 6 months at a time with Himalayan melt. Beating to this seasonal rhythm the lake increases in area five-fold to over 5,000 square miles. The pumping of the water in and out of the heart of Cambodia maintains  a rich level of nutrients enabling the lake to rank among the world ‘s richest fishing grounds. We took a boat ride on the lake and saw the floating village of  Chong Kneas with 8000 inhabitants (mainly Vietnamese) who live a subsistence lifestyle without land ownership.