Today is tourist day, some are going to see AngkorWat and the rest of us are going to visit the floating city on Tonle Sap lake. The floating villagers are mainly Vietnamese and survive on fishing and fish. However, there are crocodiles, turtles, frogs and lots of birds. We are on a tourist boat, which of course, ends up at a restaurant/giftshop. Everything floats here, houses, church's,stores, schools and water. The lake is flooded now, but as the water level goes down the houses will be towed further out into the lake until the monsoon's return.
tŏnˈlā säp [great lake], lake, central Cambodia; largest lake of SE Asia. It occupies the depression of the Cambodian plain and is fed by many streams; the Tônlé Sap River, c.70 mi (110 km) long, drains the lake S into the Mekong River near Phnom Pénh. At low water in the dry season (Nov.–May), the lake covers c.1,100 sq mi (2,850 sq km). During the summer floods, however, the waters of the Mekong back up into Tônlé Sap (which forms a natural reservoir) raising the lake's level c.30 ft (9 m) and more than tripling its area. Approximately 2,500 sq mi (6,475 sq km) of surrounding forest are inundated by the floodwaters and provide a breeding ground for fish. The fisheries of the lake are one of Cambodia's major natural resources. The Tônlé Sap lake and river are also part of an important inland waterway system. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. |
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