Meychrey Floating Village
Meychrey Floating Village
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3.0
209 reviews
Excellent
41
Very good
58
Average
27
Poor
15
Terrible
68
oliver1110
Doncaster, UK3 contributions
Feb 2024 • Friends
Had a great day out lasting over 6 hours. We negotiated a good price for a Tuk Tuk ($20) and the driver stayed with us throughout the trip. Yes, the price of entry is $20 per person for the boat trip but we were on the water for over 3 hours. We saw over 450 floating houses, a crocodile farm, stopped for refreshments and had no hassle or extra charges. My tip would be to negotiate the price up front, make sure what you are getting and use a Tuk Tuk driver who is registered at your hotel. Don’t just get someone off the street who is passing by. That way they will know that if you have any hassle they won’t be welcome to pick up again at the hotel.
Written February 3, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Cristea A
Perpignan, Languedoc-Roussillon, France85 contributions
Apr 2016 • Couples
I got riped of and is my fault and I know it , but from my mistake maybe somebody will learn. So.. The taxi driver we had from the airport to hotel (7 $ the ride ) proposed us a city visit of 3 hours the next day for 20$ . We said yes beeing the first time in siem reap and knowing very little about the city we thought it was a good ideea. He picked us up at 2 pm at the hotel and said he will show us the floating villages . After a 20 mins ride we arrived at a pier. He told us he arranged a private boat for us to see the villages .little did we know that the ticket was 30$per persone . A RIPE OF !!!!!! So expensive. My boyfriend told me that "we are here so let's do it " so we get in the boat to visit the village . It was the dry season in Cambodia so it had very little water and was very dirty. The boats passing will spalsh water on us as passsing because it was a very narrow path to the village. Once their it was nice and bitter all in one . The people are very poor living on floating houses. A nice view but that was it . We stoped at a "shop" to buy rice for the kids at school. 50 $ for 50 kg of rice . We wanted to buy a bag for kids at school because their are very poor and we were trying to help, but the man there told us to buy 2 bags bacause there are 2 schools . That instant I got mad . They saw we had money and were trying to make us pay for everyting . It was crazy . We bought one bag and toom it to the school. We saw the children they were very nice and innocent. Of course it is not their faul for all of this. After they wanted to take us to the crocodile farm . I said NO. It's enought !!!! i want back. When we arrived the 2 men on the boat asked us for money (tip) . We gave them 5$ for the 2 and they weren't glad. Told us 5$ each..... I was mad crazy at this time . Told them No . It's enought. The taxi driven took us at the hotel and that was it .
I always pay attention and plan my trip ahead with private tours or by myself , so this one was an error . Maybe because we were tired or maybe we were "stupid tourists" . I DO NOT recommend this atraction to anybody .
I always pay attention and plan my trip ahead with private tours or by myself , so this one was an error . Maybe because we were tired or maybe we were "stupid tourists" . I DO NOT recommend this atraction to anybody .
Written April 8, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jean-ka
London, UK24 contributions
Aug 2015 • Friends
I've done this so that you won't have to.
The brochure says you will take a nice boat ride down the river, through the floating village, stop by the forest, go out onto the lake, then make your way back to the departure point.
The reality is that this is the systematic exploitation of the poorest in society - a floating zoo of the landless. The $20 fee for the boat goes to a private company (licensed by government corruption) - the locals says and moreover the moneys don't benefit the village. The boats use large adapted car engines - they are incredibly loud, they look unsafe, they damage the local ecosystem, they leak petroleum products into the stream where fish are farmed and the community's children swim. There are oodles of boats at the dock, so one can only imagine how horrible it is for the villagers to be beset by a plague of these boats during the tourist high season.
Oh, and this is the "good" (cambodian) village experience. The other (vietnamese) village is ostensibly the bad experience: local kids jump onto your boat and hassle you for money until you buy something.
Our boat driver also refused to stop at the floating forest and out on the lake, but that disappointing fact is peanuts compared to how angry I was at the level of cynical exploitation involved in encouraging this "attraction"
In summary, boycott immediately until the authorities organise a humane, sustainable mode of highlighting this singularly wonderful community. Until then, google yourself some pictures, and perhaps consider finding a way of donating/helping this poor and exploited community.
The brochure says you will take a nice boat ride down the river, through the floating village, stop by the forest, go out onto the lake, then make your way back to the departure point.
The reality is that this is the systematic exploitation of the poorest in society - a floating zoo of the landless. The $20 fee for the boat goes to a private company (licensed by government corruption) - the locals says and moreover the moneys don't benefit the village. The boats use large adapted car engines - they are incredibly loud, they look unsafe, they damage the local ecosystem, they leak petroleum products into the stream where fish are farmed and the community's children swim. There are oodles of boats at the dock, so one can only imagine how horrible it is for the villagers to be beset by a plague of these boats during the tourist high season.
Oh, and this is the "good" (cambodian) village experience. The other (vietnamese) village is ostensibly the bad experience: local kids jump onto your boat and hassle you for money until you buy something.
Our boat driver also refused to stop at the floating forest and out on the lake, but that disappointing fact is peanuts compared to how angry I was at the level of cynical exploitation involved in encouraging this "attraction"
In summary, boycott immediately until the authorities organise a humane, sustainable mode of highlighting this singularly wonderful community. Until then, google yourself some pictures, and perhaps consider finding a way of donating/helping this poor and exploited community.
Written August 22, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Denis C
London, UK59 contributions
Feb 2016 • Couples
I'm still struggling to understand why this is considered to be a tourist attraction. We arrived there on a tuktuk. The driver specifically recommended going to Kâmpóng Khleang rather than to other floating villages located closer to Siem Reap, as this one was apparently more authentic and not spoilt by masses of tourists.
It was the height of dry season so the river that leads to the lake was reduced to a narrow and shallow stream of a VERY, VERY dirty water. Effectively an open sewer. We saw a child defecating into this stream openly off a boat. Adults must do the same, but they probably exercise more concealment.
The boat ride to the lake itself costs $25.00 per person. It's a rip off, nothing else. Where this money goes is unclear, but it's obviously not going to the people of the floating village itself (who are incidentally Vietnamese) or to Cambodians who live in the village on the river.
The floating village site was interesting in the sense that you have to understand that people actually live in these floating huts and make their living by fishing the surrounding (dirty) waters. It's not an easy life.
You should only go to this place if you want to see real, dirt-crawling poverty, enjoy swallowing a lot of dust, appreciate the stench of rotting fish and don't mind a few splashes of faeces-infused mud on your clothes.
The experience is very authentic indeed.
It was the height of dry season so the river that leads to the lake was reduced to a narrow and shallow stream of a VERY, VERY dirty water. Effectively an open sewer. We saw a child defecating into this stream openly off a boat. Adults must do the same, but they probably exercise more concealment.
The boat ride to the lake itself costs $25.00 per person. It's a rip off, nothing else. Where this money goes is unclear, but it's obviously not going to the people of the floating village itself (who are incidentally Vietnamese) or to Cambodians who live in the village on the river.
The floating village site was interesting in the sense that you have to understand that people actually live in these floating huts and make their living by fishing the surrounding (dirty) waters. It's not an easy life.
You should only go to this place if you want to see real, dirt-crawling poverty, enjoy swallowing a lot of dust, appreciate the stench of rotting fish and don't mind a few splashes of faeces-infused mud on your clothes.
The experience is very authentic indeed.
Written March 12, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
strylee
San Francisco, CA15 contributions
Jan 2015 • Friends
I really regret taking our tuktuk driver's recommendation at face value and not checking TripAdvisor first! After all, he was our hostel's official driver so I thought he was trustworthy. Not sure if he gets a cut but I think he must.
I basically had the same experience as so many others on here did:
-Arrive at the port to find out that it's $20/person.
-Confused as to why the two of us are in our own boat and not grouped with others; each boat had seats for at least 16 people.
-The "guide" didn't say much of anything at all. In the beginning he said we're in our own boat so we can go where we want. But in reality there are only 3 places to go, and they filed us through them one boat party at a time.
-1st stop was a really sad crocodile pit with a bunch of them confined to a tiny space and looking either dead or wishing they were.
-Then the next stop was a shop where we could "buy food for the children." They got their best English speaking guy to man the shop, tell the whole sob story, and then try to get groups to buy a $30 or $60 bag of rice to feed the children. They say it's so expensive because they're so out of the way. Impossible, they're ferrying people in 2s and 4s and rice grows down the street. Now it was clear why they separate each group - you're only likely to sell a bag of rice to a whole boat of people (if at all). We didn't buy anything.
-The next stop was the school, just 20 meters away from the store. I'm pretty sure those bags of rice that get purchased just cycle back to the store to be re-sold. The kids were really cute, were clean and had clean clothes. Cool. The store and our boat man both said not to give money to the school directly because the teachers would just steal it. But really it's because this boat mafia wants a cut.
-After that, there was nothing left to see. We then rode back to the port in silence, where our guide went ahead and told us to give them tips. We did not.
I basically had the same experience as so many others on here did:
-Arrive at the port to find out that it's $20/person.
-Confused as to why the two of us are in our own boat and not grouped with others; each boat had seats for at least 16 people.
-The "guide" didn't say much of anything at all. In the beginning he said we're in our own boat so we can go where we want. But in reality there are only 3 places to go, and they filed us through them one boat party at a time.
-1st stop was a really sad crocodile pit with a bunch of them confined to a tiny space and looking either dead or wishing they were.
-Then the next stop was a shop where we could "buy food for the children." They got their best English speaking guy to man the shop, tell the whole sob story, and then try to get groups to buy a $30 or $60 bag of rice to feed the children. They say it's so expensive because they're so out of the way. Impossible, they're ferrying people in 2s and 4s and rice grows down the street. Now it was clear why they separate each group - you're only likely to sell a bag of rice to a whole boat of people (if at all). We didn't buy anything.
-The next stop was the school, just 20 meters away from the store. I'm pretty sure those bags of rice that get purchased just cycle back to the store to be re-sold. The kids were really cute, were clean and had clean clothes. Cool. The store and our boat man both said not to give money to the school directly because the teachers would just steal it. But really it's because this boat mafia wants a cut.
-After that, there was nothing left to see. We then rode back to the port in silence, where our guide went ahead and told us to give them tips. We did not.
Written January 22, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Clemens M
2 contributions
I should have read the comments here before...
It started with a 20$ per person boat ride the TukTuk driver talked us into. Floating village.. We thought a different experience after hours of visiting beautiful and interesting temples in angkor could freshen us up a little. We thought about pictures we've seen (probably from Vietnam). Markets floating on the water and people trading fish and rice. Just a different world with people living a different life and a beautiful scenery at the third largest sweet water lake in the world. So we thought it could be worth to dive into that world and buy some fish or anything to support the people so they could stay there even in harder times with less fish, but we actually should have known better.
The boat mafia earns thousands of dollars by driving tourists up a brown smelly polluted channel to the lake, polluting air and lake with loud diesel engines. If the people we've seen really live there, they must feel annoyed by the noise and the smell these boats cause. But it does not stop there. The 20$ is just the start. Anything you could possibly do out there costs extra money. With stories about orphans they try to sell you stuff 100 times the price of the value. They - in our case a fat guy in clothes that showed he has money - are not only very unfriendly but almost threaten you to buy something. We wanted to buy a coke. He wanted 5$. We felt verry cheated after a 2x20$ boat ride with not much to see out there. Not a good situation if you know you have to get back with a boat from the company that supports all this. The promised crocodile farm you will get to see, turned out to be a 6 square meter pool with 6 poor reptiles in it. They are there only for the tourists.... so the boat company can say. "We showed you something". It only made me feel more guilty that i supported them by riding on their boat.
In the end they ask you for a tip for the boat driver. We gave them a dirty dollar bill and left the boat as quickly as we could avoiding there eyes to let them feel we felt cheated. They expected another 20$.
In a country where you can live a very good live with 100$ a day and a company bringing thousands of people to this place for 20$ every day the people in this village could be wealthy if they would only get a part of the money. But the money must go somewhere else... I experienced the cambodian people as very friendly and honest until that day. I can't help it. But after this expirience my feelings have changed. Everytime i spend a dollar i don't know if that money goes where i want it to go. I don't know if i can trust them anymore. This is sad! I'm sure i'm not the only one... Stay off! Mafia!
It started with a 20$ per person boat ride the TukTuk driver talked us into. Floating village.. We thought a different experience after hours of visiting beautiful and interesting temples in angkor could freshen us up a little. We thought about pictures we've seen (probably from Vietnam). Markets floating on the water and people trading fish and rice. Just a different world with people living a different life and a beautiful scenery at the third largest sweet water lake in the world. So we thought it could be worth to dive into that world and buy some fish or anything to support the people so they could stay there even in harder times with less fish, but we actually should have known better.
The boat mafia earns thousands of dollars by driving tourists up a brown smelly polluted channel to the lake, polluting air and lake with loud diesel engines. If the people we've seen really live there, they must feel annoyed by the noise and the smell these boats cause. But it does not stop there. The 20$ is just the start. Anything you could possibly do out there costs extra money. With stories about orphans they try to sell you stuff 100 times the price of the value. They - in our case a fat guy in clothes that showed he has money - are not only very unfriendly but almost threaten you to buy something. We wanted to buy a coke. He wanted 5$. We felt verry cheated after a 2x20$ boat ride with not much to see out there. Not a good situation if you know you have to get back with a boat from the company that supports all this. The promised crocodile farm you will get to see, turned out to be a 6 square meter pool with 6 poor reptiles in it. They are there only for the tourists.... so the boat company can say. "We showed you something". It only made me feel more guilty that i supported them by riding on their boat.
In the end they ask you for a tip for the boat driver. We gave them a dirty dollar bill and left the boat as quickly as we could avoiding there eyes to let them feel we felt cheated. They expected another 20$.
In a country where you can live a very good live with 100$ a day and a company bringing thousands of people to this place for 20$ every day the people in this village could be wealthy if they would only get a part of the money. But the money must go somewhere else... I experienced the cambodian people as very friendly and honest until that day. I can't help it. But after this expirience my feelings have changed. Everytime i spend a dollar i don't know if that money goes where i want it to go. I don't know if i can trust them anymore. This is sad! I'm sure i'm not the only one... Stay off! Mafia!
Written January 10, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
naya950126
1 contribution
Dec 2014
It took us an hour by tuk tuk to reach the port. The journey there was remarkable. We had a great opportunity to view the village life. The landscape was scenic, filled with lush green paddy fields, local plantations, fields with grazing cows and ponds with paddling ducks. We were fortunate to have travelled in good weather and the journey was relatively comfortable for five people in a tuk tuk. Along the way, you can stop for light local snacks. We had banana fritters, banana steamed in rice, shrimp fritters and fresh sugar cane water. When we reached the port, we were greeted by the local fishermen. It was a good experience watching them fish using traditional equipment. It was definitely not a scam because only very few tourists frequented the location. The locals were friendly and obliging. We were lucky to have a boat driver of a similar nature. He even let us drive the boat when we reached open waters. From the river to the lake, you can observe the daily activities of the locals. It was an authentic floating village. Further into our journey, we reached a point where we couldnt see any land. We felt like we were at the ocean and not at a lake. Some of us even took the chance to have a swim, so do bring a change of clothes. It was a truly remarkable experience. Dont miss it!
Written December 20, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Samr8177
Battambang, Cambodia8 contributions
We went here yesterday, as part of a three-day tour we had arranged with a Tuk Tuk driver.
The boat is $20 each, for a half an hour(if that) ride to the village. The lake around the village is extremely polluted.
They take you to the "floating market" which is just a barge with stacks of bags if rice and packs of water for donation to the 'orphanage' school. $50 for a bag of rice for the school, $5 for a little pack of water.
After this we declined to go to the restaurant, fish farm and crocodile farm, which charge for everything but the air you breath, and were taken back to the mainland.
Sickening exploitation of children and a complete scam preying on tourists who as it is bring bucket loads of money to the village without the scam.
The boat is $20 each, for a half an hour(if that) ride to the village. The lake around the village is extremely polluted.
They take you to the "floating market" which is just a barge with stacks of bags if rice and packs of water for donation to the 'orphanage' school. $50 for a bag of rice for the school, $5 for a little pack of water.
After this we declined to go to the restaurant, fish farm and crocodile farm, which charge for everything but the air you breath, and were taken back to the mainland.
Sickening exploitation of children and a complete scam preying on tourists who as it is bring bucket loads of money to the village without the scam.
Written May 2, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Cme1234
Singapore, Singapore1,076 contributions
Stay away from this place at all cost. This place is all about lies, deception and scams.
After a long a arduous journey thru endless dusty tracks to this place, I was charged USD30 for a supposedly 60 mins boat ride. When I boarded a small dinghy boat which had seen better days, the boat man quickly picked up another man who introduced himself as my tour guide even when I had not asked for any guide. He told me his services would cost USD30 for the ride! I politely refused his services and he then told me that I need not pay USD 30 if I found it expensive.
He did not volunteer to leave the boat even at my repeated request. He then started telling me one sob story after another about the difficult lives of the people residing around the floating village. He also pointed to me that the 2 schools on the lake did not have any support from the govt and many kids had succumbed to starvation. Really? When I looked towards the direction of the 2 schools, I noticed that the kids were reasonably well fed to say the least. I also saw 2 men loading what looked like sacks of rice onto a small boat. The small boat then made its way to the floating market and the same 2 men unloaded those items.
The guide then spoke to the boat man in Khmer and the next thing I knew was that the boat was headed to the direction of the floating market. When the boat was at the floating market, the guide and the so-called shopkeeper then tried to pressurize me to buy those very same sacks of rice which were just unloaded from the school!! I guessed that those rice were just donated by some kind soul but these were transported back to the shop to wait for another unknowing victim. I held my ground and refused to buy those sacks of rice. By the way, those rice cost a hefty USD300 per sack. Yes, it was not a typo but they quoted me USD300. When I told them that I did not have so much cash with me, they told me that they could give me a discount. What a joke. Of course, I would not budge knowing that it was a big scam.
When the tour guide knew that I would not buy the rice, he then told the boatman something in Khmer. The boatman then increased the speed of his boat. What was supposed to be an hour of boat ride ended in just 30 mins. This was certainly an unpleasant way to end the day's tour.
Please stay away from this place. There are definitely better things to do in Siem Reap than being scammed.
After a long a arduous journey thru endless dusty tracks to this place, I was charged USD30 for a supposedly 60 mins boat ride. When I boarded a small dinghy boat which had seen better days, the boat man quickly picked up another man who introduced himself as my tour guide even when I had not asked for any guide. He told me his services would cost USD30 for the ride! I politely refused his services and he then told me that I need not pay USD 30 if I found it expensive.
He did not volunteer to leave the boat even at my repeated request. He then started telling me one sob story after another about the difficult lives of the people residing around the floating village. He also pointed to me that the 2 schools on the lake did not have any support from the govt and many kids had succumbed to starvation. Really? When I looked towards the direction of the 2 schools, I noticed that the kids were reasonably well fed to say the least. I also saw 2 men loading what looked like sacks of rice onto a small boat. The small boat then made its way to the floating market and the same 2 men unloaded those items.
The guide then spoke to the boat man in Khmer and the next thing I knew was that the boat was headed to the direction of the floating market. When the boat was at the floating market, the guide and the so-called shopkeeper then tried to pressurize me to buy those very same sacks of rice which were just unloaded from the school!! I guessed that those rice were just donated by some kind soul but these were transported back to the shop to wait for another unknowing victim. I held my ground and refused to buy those sacks of rice. By the way, those rice cost a hefty USD300 per sack. Yes, it was not a typo but they quoted me USD300. When I told them that I did not have so much cash with me, they told me that they could give me a discount. What a joke. Of course, I would not budge knowing that it was a big scam.
When the tour guide knew that I would not buy the rice, he then told the boatman something in Khmer. The boatman then increased the speed of his boat. What was supposed to be an hour of boat ride ended in just 30 mins. This was certainly an unpleasant way to end the day's tour.
Please stay away from this place. There are definitely better things to do in Siem Reap than being scammed.
Written February 10, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Charlie Y
Perth, Western Australia, Australia35 contributions
Nov 2014 • Friends
We had a day where we didn't really know what to do after we visited a few Museums, so the tuk tuk driver advised we went and saw the floating village, we were stupid enough to take a recommendation from a shady tuk tuk driver so we went there anyway. They charged us 25$ per person to take a boat for 20 minutes up the river. The tour guide fell asleep straight away. The driver took us to the crocodile farm which was a dirty cage filled with abused reptiles. Then they took us to the markets to see if we wanted to buy a bag of rice for the local school children. The man asked us to buy a 25kg bag of rice for 50$ which is more then i pay in Australia. We asked him if it was a fair price and he even had the nerve to say that it was the average price for a bag of rice in Cambodia. The tour guide then woke up and said there was nothing more to do and that we were going back to the boat jetty. They then asked us if we could tip the driver and tour guide. We asked jokingly how much they wanted and they asked for 20 dollars. I think if these money sucking, tourist scamming people gave a tiny bit of their money to the poor villagers then they wouldn't be poor at all. We tried to get some of our money back because our tour guide was asleep and the trip took all of an hour but they told us to leave and not to come back. It was a really disappointing for these people in such a poor country to use other peoples poverty to their advantage.
Written November 15, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
When is the best season to see nice view and Birds?
Written October 26, 2015
Hi, do you pick up from Saree beach? thanks
Written July 25, 2015
Hi there,
im sorry i cant since i was just a tourist there and not a local guy and as far as i know there is no other way for you to get to this village but through the jetty. Its a standard practise due to water level issue in the river and to control boat drivers conflict. Hope this helps
Written July 27, 2015
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