Cambodia: More temples and Tonle Sap scams


On our final day with our driver we went to visit the Roluos group of temples, some of the oldest in the Angkor area, about 20 mins East of Siem Reap. The main temple there, Bakong, was another huge impressive pyramid, surrounded by ruins and a moat, there weren’t too many people around and it was well worth seeing. The other Roluos temples are in pretty bad condition with lots of restoration work underway. However the Lolei temple is attached to a fully functioning Monastery and there we got to meet some monks and see a little of how they live and learn English & the ways of Bhuddism (and make a ‘suggested donation’ to the monks). It made a nice change from the ancient ruins.

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That was the temples done. Following that we had a few options. Our driver had previously mentioned going to the markets or Tonle Sap lake (the largest in SE Asia) so I thought the lake sounded pretty cool. He only then mentioned it was a $20 ticket, quite expensive even for Siem Reap, to see a floating village. We hadn’t really researched this but it sounded quite interesting. I did a quick TripAdvisor scan back at our hotel; reviews were mixed but it was clear some people had rated it and I’m always the optimist. I wish we hadn’t bothered.

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The Tonle Sap Boat Tour is essentially an elaborate scam to get dollars off tourists – and I’ll wager little to none of the money goes to local people. You buy a ticket and get marched towards one of the many waiting boats. There’s quite a few seats but we were alone with a driver and a guide. You set off down the river to the lake proper, there were some people fishing and once you make it to the lake it’s quite striking. The whole village is floating house-boats and includes temples and two schools. The guide gave little to no information about the people and their lives. He said we could take a small boat to the mangroves (for more money) but we passed.

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Then we approached the school and he launched into a speech about the orphan kids at the school (where he went, naturally) and about how tourists come with money and help the school and it makes them feel good. What about the $20 we just paid you may think. That all goes to companies and the government, he got quite aggressive about it, but now we had an opportunity to give to the kids. Asking for money outright would seem a bit sussed so what you can do is sail your boat over to a ‘shop’ (a floating shack filled with massive bags of rice and not much else) to buy some food, then bring it over to the children and give them food like some kind of contrived 21st century samaritan. I’m sure the kids are all well trained to run up and hug you when you do this, and the the rice is on a boat back to the ‘shop’ the second you leave.

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Once I said we didn’t have any extra money the guide just went to the back of our boat and barely said anything else. We got a brief look at the crocodile and catfish ‘farm’ – loads of the creatures piled into a tiny enclosure – which did nothing to improve the trip and then we headed back in silence.

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All of this might sound very cynical and scathing but anyone who knows me knows I’ll always see the good in things. Here the good bit was seeing the village and local people living there (one family even had a cat on their boat!). But the whole thing left a very sour taste; its quite intimidating to have someone aggressively asking for money when you are alone floating in a massive lake.

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Tonle Sap Boat trip is a big scam, avoid at all costs! If you are travelling eslewhere in SE Asia there are many opportunities to visit floating markets and villages and I’m sure they are all much more rewarding than this.

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