Our 3rd and last day in Siem Reap started with the tour to Tonlé Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. It took us about half an hour to get to there from down town to one of piers around the lake. We paid USD15 per person and took a boat to ourselves since we were one of first few to be there and the pier was quiet. Our boat driver was a little kid and the boat was very noisy and slow. For about 4 hours out there on the boat and around the village. The floating village sits along the canal leading to the open lake which looked a sea to me when I was out there because it was so huge and could see the end of lake with naked eyes. 

I like the floating jungle along the canal after the floating village, but felt sad watching the villagers living their lives among the wooden house in the murky water. Those people literally had nothing  much to fall back in their life and probably they will never be able to get out of this place. And I saw the village kids almost ran down some tourists for a few pennies in their hands, it was such a pathetic scene. With the amount of tourist swamped the lake everyday, it was a shame that the local government failed to do much to improve the lives of the villagers. The money that the tourists pay everyday should be used in some way to help the local villagers. Some might argue that a lot of illegal migrants live there so the government should care less but it is still a failure on the government part that allow such exploitation on the local villagers.

Personally I felt that the tour was quite boring and sad to see such
pitiful lives of the local people. But it was a welcomed change from the
temple visits that almost looked identical to me after 2 days. After the tour I was really glad with all that I have and blessed with in my life. Sometimes we just need to see something awful to be reminded of all the good that we are enjoying.   

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonl%C3%A9_Sap