Community First: Kompong Khleang Floating Village Tours

Our half day afternoon trip by mini bus to visit an authentic village along the Tonle Sap was an absolute highlight of our visit to Cambodia and Vietnam this Jan. 2025 The small scale tour run by Community First (a non profit organisation), to visit Kompong Khleang was memorable for so many reasons. Firstly, Paren our guide from Kampong Khleang and one of the principals was interesting, genuine and provided real lived experience commentary about life in the village and people living around the Tonle Sap. Stopping along the way for sticky rice and Cambodian 'donuts' and snacks was a bonus cultural experience. Secondly, the tour was not touristic at all and still professionally run. You will read that many of the other heavily advertised tours that take visitors to the floating villages around Tonle Sap are tourist traps. You will also read on traveller forums that the typical tours are more like zoo visits, exploitative and where there is little or no genuine benefit to the local community. We almost didn't visit this area as a result until we fortunately came across this tour run by Community First. The organisation directly employs people from the village, the money from tours goes back into supporting different areas of the village, including schooling and access to learning English. Going out to the main Tonle Sap lake in a boat during the dry season was really eye opening. At this time of the year, you can really see the village houses built and perched up on wooden stilts around 10m above the ground to avoid being submerged when the water rises. It will be great to come back again during the rainy season to see the contrasting life with high water levels. The boat cruise out to the lake from the village provides a great insight into the life on the local people and the challenges that they face. To watch the magical sunset over the lake is just one of the many highlights of this tour. If you are interested in an authentic experience visiting a Khmer village and seeing life around the Tonle Sap, in a respectful and low impact way, going on this Community First tour is a must. Best of all, you can be confident that your money is directly contributing to improving the livelihoods of some local people. Many thanks again Paren. Keep up the great work Community First!

A truly authentic tour of Cambodia, Paren was amazing, he told us his personal story and you can relate to the Cambodian way of life. The local sticky rice and bakery was a great way to meet the locals. The village was welcoming and just smiles everywhere. The school was incredible and hopefully the new building will make a great impact. The sunset was perfect. I felt I had a genuine glimpse of the real Cambodia.

I don't know how to describe how amazed I was during the tour. The experience was so authentic. Our guide, Paren, helped us discover a beautiful forgotten temple. Then we visited Tonle Sap and the authentic fisherman village. We are so grateful to be able to do this tour. Also, going with them has an impact on their community and helps them have a better life.

Exceptional, a highlight of my trip to Cambodia. First of all, it felt very authentic and local. We were a small group and the only tourists. The tour was very mindful to respect the local communities (as opposed to what I’ve heard for the other more touristy floating villages). We tasted some local snacks, drove to the village with houses on tiles and then took a boat on the river to see the floating villages and the sunset on the lake (beautiful endless water in the horizon). Cherry on the cake is that the money of this tour supports the village (building a school, access to clean water…). I did the tour during dry season and was afraid that it would be less scenic due to the low water levels but I ended up loving it because you could really see how big and impressive the tile structures were. This tour went beyond my expectations, I highly recommend it.

We had a fantastic tour of Kampomg Khleang Village and lake. Our local tour guide Paren was super friendly and had so much insight to share about life in Cambodia and the small fishing villages around the lake. We also loved visiting the Bridge of life school and getting a feel of how this company has a real social impact on the local community. We highly recommend booking a tour with this company if you like to experience the stilted and floating villages of Ton Le Sap while learning about this unique Cambodian society.

We had the afternoon tour with Community First organization and everything was just perfect. Really authentic experience, you get in contact with local communities of fishermen and you have the possibility to see the floating village from the boat. We also walked in the village to go see the school that this project is funding. It has been a emotional experience and I was glad to really support this community. Also, the guide was amazing, we stopped along the way to get some sticky rice and local donuts. Just choose them!

If I could give 10 stars for this trip I would. This has been the absolute highlight of our time in Cambodia and a truly memorable authentic experience. We did not feel like tourists but rather friends welcomed into Paren's home village. You will experience the Cambodia that happens behind doors in the houses of locals. .... and knowing you are supporting local village businesses and education enterprises is an added bonus. Thankyou Paren for welcoming us so generously.

The tour to the floating village is very interesting to learn more of the local people living there. It is a part of Cambodia that you should know. It's hard to see but it's necessary. All the people are kind. The guide was amazing. During the trip they stopped 2 times for have a snack in local shop. The first one was sticky rice that was pretty good. The second one was Cambodian donut, they were superlative! Delicious, amazing..the best food here. At the floating village on the lake you can see with your eyes the condition of the people and the guide explain you that the money you payed for are used to helpful project such as the school. It worth. Choose this tour operator.