Visiting Kampong Phluk Floating Village

Kampong Phluk is a floating village located just outside of Siem Reap. It's not as touristic as the temples are and is absolutely worth a visit. We saw around a dozen other foreigners during our day trip to Kampong Phluk. You can do Kampong Phluk as either a half day or a full day. We arrived around 12pm and stayed until 7pm or just after dark, and this felt like a good amount of time to explore. 

IMPORTANT - there are no ATM facilities on the road to Kampong Phluk and the boats there only take cash. You will need to bring cash with you. The nearest ATM is a past the Bakong temples, a 30 minute drive each way from the departure point to Kampong Phluk.

How to get to Kampong Phluk

Put Kampong Phluk into Google Maps. The road is paved until the boat departure point, and you can get there either via car or motorbike. We hired a scooter for USD$8 per day and drove ourselves there - free parking was available for the bikes and there were people to watch the bikes against theft. 

You cannot drive all the way to Kampong Phluk - although where the road ends and river begins may change depending on time of year. Generally, the road to Kampong Phluk is one hour from Siem Reap, and half an hour from Prasat Bakong. 

When you get to the end of the road, you will notice ticket tellers waving you to purchase your boat ticket. It was USD$22 per person (or KHR 88,000 each) for a boat for the entire afternoon. As we were only two people, we got our own boat and driver for the entire afternoon, and our driver even let us drive the boat. 

What to do in Kampong Phluk

The standard price is USD$22 / KHR 88,000 per person for a river trip along Kampong Phluk. You do not need to book in advance. You can organise day trips through most accommodations, although they will charge you extra for a guide and for transport. This was a very easy trip to organise ourselves on the day. 

Once you've got your boat, you'll drive down the river for 20-30 mintues to a floating restaurant. Each of the boat drivers will have a restaurant of preference to take you to. Here you can get food, drinks, souvenirs, and see some live crocodiles. Most of the restaurants also offer a kayak tour through the mangroves and floating village (depending on water levels) for only USD$4 per person. This was a great little addition to the day. Keep an eye out for bubbles on the water - this indicates you're kayaking over a crocodile. Don't worry, they won't bite!

Next, they'll take you out to Tonlé Sap Lake. This is a freshwater lake, and the crocodiles don't come out so far. If you're feeling adventurous, you can jump in the lake for a quick swim. Women in kayaks may come up to you and sell you cold drinks while you're on the open water. There is also a floating restaurant on the lake where you could stop for a bite. We came here for sunset and it was a beautiful sight. 

Once you've visited the lake, you'll have the option to visit the floating village itself. Our boat driver told us many people skip this, but it was very beautiful to visit. We stayed in the village until it was almost dark and walked along the street. Much of the street was submerged in water, although this depends on the season. In one of the drier sections of the village we stopped a while to play football with some children. Locals beckoned for us to come and have dinner or drinks with them, but we decided against this as we didn't want to be riding our scooters home too late and intoxicated.

Budget for Visiting Kampong Phluk

Here is our exact breakdown of the money we spent during our day trip to Kampong Phluk. 

The total cost came to USD$78.50 for two people for the day trip, including bike hire, boat to the village, and food. We each bartered our souvenirs separately, hence the two different souvenir lines. That's just under $40 per person before souvenirs - not bad!