Many visitors arrive in Siem Reap looking for a floating market like the ones near Bangkok or in the Mekong Delta. There isn't one. What Tonle Sap Lake has are floating villages: homes, schools, clinics and shops, whole communities living on the water. They have markets, and boats that sell from house to house, and none of it is put on for tourists.
Clearing up the confusion: is it a floating market or a floating village?
A floating market is a place where sellers gather on boats and buyers come to them. A floating village is a place where people live on the water: at Kompong Khleang and Mechrey the houses float and move with the lake; at Kompong Phluk they stand on stilts up to ten metres tall and the water rises to the floor each year. The market is one building among hundreds. So if you are searching for a floating market in Siem Reap, what you are really looking for is a floating village, and the market is one of the things you will see there.
The markets in the villages
Every floating village on the lake has a regular market, the same as any Cambodian village: vegetables, fish, meat, rice, noodles, cheap clothes and phone cases. It is built on the highest ground the village has and is busiest early in the morning. Even so, it floods for part of the year. At Kompong Khleang, the largest village on the lake, the main market goes under water at the peak of the rainy season, so the sellers pack up and move their stalls to higher ground, then move everything back when the lake drops. Markets here close and reopen with the seasons.
The boats that bring the market to you
In addition to the main market, there are boats that travel from home to home with essential groceries. When the water is high the market is a long row away, so sellers load a small boat with vegetables, fruit, bread, ice, gas cylinders or noodle soup and go back and forth through the village, stopping wherever someone waves. In that sense, they are a floating market. It is how the villages shop, not a show for visitors.
Where to see it
You will see the house-to-house boats on any village tour, and most of all at Kompong Khleang, where the floating communities beyond the stilt villages are big enough to keep several sellers busy. Our Kompong Khleang Sunset Tour passes the market on the way to the boat and spends an hour and a half on the water among the houses, but the group tours do not usually stop at the market itself. If the market is what you want, book a private tour: we can make a proper stop at a village market, ideally in the morning when it is busiest, before the boat.
At Kompong Phluk the market is smaller and the village is on stilts rather than floating, so there are fewer boat sellers; what you see instead is the fish coming in and being dried along the walkways. At Mechrey, the floating houses get their supplies by boat the same way.
The "floating market" at Chong Kneas
If a tour or a driver promises a floating market, they usually mean Chong Kneas, the port village 15 minutes from town. What floats there is a handful of souvenir shops, a crocodile farm and the floating shop that sells sacks of rice "for the school" at several times the market price. Out on the water, children paddle up to the tourist boats in metal washing pans with trinkets to sell, or a snake around their neck for a photo and a dollar. It is the one stop we warn guests about in our guide to the floating village scams, and it is not a market.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a floating market in Siem Reap?
Not in the sense of boats selling to tourists, as in Thailand or Vietnam. What Siem Reap has are floating villages: whole communities of homes, schools and shops on the water. They have regular markets on the highest ground, which flood and move with the seasons, and sellers who travel from house to house by boat with the essentials. You see both on a village tour; neither is staged for visitors.
Where can I see the sellers on boats?
In any of the floating villages when the water is high, and most of all at Kompong Khleang, the largest village on the lake, where the floating houses beyond the stilt villages are supplied by boat. You see them from the tour boat as they go from house to house.
Is there an entrance fee for the floating market?
There is no floating market to pay for. What you pay for is the boat through the floating village: USD 20 per person plus a USD 2 tourism tax at Kompong Phluk and Kompong Khleang, USD 22 at Mechrey, paid to the community. The village market and the sellers on the water are simply part of the village. Our tours include the boat ticket.
Which tour visits the floating market?
Our group tours do not usually stop at the local markets, though you pass them and see the house-to-house boats from the water. If you book a private tour, we can make a proper stop at a village market, ideally in the morning when it is busiest.