Kampong Phluk, Cambodia

Kampong Phluk is a cluster of stilted houses built within the floodplain of the Tonle Sap lake. Flooded mangrove forest surrounds the area and is home to about 3000 people.  The houses of Kampong Phluk are built on top of stilts 20 - 25 feet high.  During the dry season when the lake is low, the buildings in the village seem to soar atop their stilts exposed by the lack of water. At this time of year many of the villagers move out onto the lake and build temporary houses, but there were still lots of villagers around.  In the wet season when water level rises, the villagers move back to their permanent houses on the floodplain, the stilts now hidden under the water.  

Tonle Sap Lake, upon which the village of Kampong Phluk floats, exhibits a unique hydrologic phenomenon during the wet season - the river reverses direction, filling the lake instead of draining it. The cause of this phenomenon is the Mekong River, which becomes saturated with snow melt and runoff from the monsoon rains in the wet season. The swollen Mekong backs up into the Tonle Sap River expanding the surface area of lake more than five-fold.

Yet someone else carrying one of the boys.

 While the boys were enamoured with the bunny, the locals were enamoured with the boys.

Even the pigs have their own stilt pen.