FLOATING VILLAGES. The country's largest floating village on the Tonle Sap is rumored to have up to 2000 homes. At sunrise, locals took us on a small boat through the settlement for an up close and personal experience as the community started their day. Most of the residents are self-sufficient, and it is incredible how they maintain their homes, with floating vegetable gardens and floating barns where they keep goats, pigs, and chickens. These villages have grocery stores, gas stations, schools, and karaoke bars.

Because the water levels differ drastically in dry and rainy seasons, fishing families will move their floating villages with the changing water levels. Conditions are always changing on the lake. Tonle Sap is 16,000 square kilometers and nine meters deep during the rainy season. In the dry season, the lake shrinks to 2,700 square kilometers and to only a few feet in areas.

It is one of the world's biggest inland fisheries, producing over 400,000 tons of fish and feeding over 3 million people. There are over 220 different species of fish in the lake. The largest fish ever caught was a 648 lb. Mekong catfish.

Unlike other Cambodian job opportunities, the income is reliable however meager. Life on the water is difficult. Fishermen sometimes travel two days to reach the middle of the lake and spend up to a week at a time out fishing. Large waves, limited food, and dangerous conditions take their toll. The waters are teaming with fish, but also crocodiles and pythons. But this did not stop the men from noodling or hand fishing for catfish.