I had the great honor of hosting the first Destination Thailand festival held in Toronto last month and had an absolutely fantastic time.

The Destination Thailand event was organized by the Thai Embassy in Ottawa to promote Thai culture to the world, and what better place to start than Toronto, Canada. It was a wonderful big event, but what struck me most about the day was how involved and excited the people who participated were. We had a wide assortment of participants from across the Kingdom: Thai traditional dancers, musicians, culinary artists, boxers, and massage therapists were just some of them. The Smiling Albino team from Calgary was even able to come participate along with some long time SA customers and fans who came to support.

It was an amazing and energetic crowd and it reminded me of how special the people of Thailand and Southeast Asia are and how fortunate we have been to have had the opportunity over the past decade to interact with a great assortment of people – clients, partners and employees alike.

Many of you have met some of these special people over the years – Mr. Jeep in Chiang Khong, Mr. Bird in Chiang Rai, or Mr. Barang in Cambodia, Oi in Krabi, Lam in Vietnam, Mads and Clare in Nepal… That’s not even to mention all of you who have booked a trip with Smiling Albino have been touched by the people who work in our office and put the pieces of the puzzle in place to make sure you have an outstanding holiday.

Each of these people has made a difference to countless numbers of our friends and customers by just being their vibrant, enthusiastic and genuine selves.

I’m taking this opportunity to thank all of these people who have touched my life and so many of your lives through your experiences with Smiling Albino. I would love to hear back from you about any anecdotes that have stuck with you over the years since your first Smiling Albino experience about some of these special people so that I reflect back on them the impact that they have had on you. Please send them to me at dan@smilingalbino.com

I am lucky to be part of this, and thank you!

Safe travels!

Daniel B. Fraser

Adventure Highlights:

Surveying Chiang Dao

When we say that we personally scout every area, eat at each restaurant, source and train every guide/host, sleep in every hotel bed, ride the bikes, board the boats and scratch the elephants, we really do take our wholehearted promise to you, the traveller, seriously. We work hard to ensure every tour is highly original, well thought out, oozing value, and most importantly a trip we’d take our friends and families on.

During the seasons when there are fewer clients travelling and, at times, adverse weather conditions, our adventure specialists are often out in the field (literally) to discover and survey new resorts, sites of interest, outdoor activities and routes.

This is a tale of our intrepid Adventure Consultant, Queen who, along with our local guide, Eak, set out to survey a new trekking route in Chiang Dao.

Chiang Dao, an area dominated by national parks and a town of the same name, 80 km north of Chiang Mai, is regarded by many as the most beautiful scenery in Northern Thailand.

Chiang Dao’s most striking feature is Doi Chiang Dao, Thailand’s third highest mountain at 2225 m, which plays host to an abundance of wildlife and nature. It is one of the lesser-visited, but nonetheless interesting Thai birding sites. The area is also known for it’s famous caves.

Queen and Eak were on the final day of their survey of the region, driving into the jungle along a newly identified trekking route. Monsoonal rains, however, proved too unyielding, and their truck got hopelessly stuck in the rain-saturated red clay track. It took them hours to free themselves, and finally with the help of friendly passing locals, they made it out and back to Chiang Mai where Queen finally caught her thrice re-booked flight back to Bangkok.

The first-hand observations, incredible photos and new friends Queen acquired on this survey were immediately incorporated into our Northern Thailand Adventure Tours. Come the dry season, this trek will be a unique and rewarding experience.

Surveying Laos, in photos

Our Director of Sales and Business Development, Stephanie, spent a week surveying new resorts, activities and locations in Laos earlier this month, and she captured some great shots, a sampling of what our Classic Laos Trip has to offer. Don’t hesitate to contact our team for up-to-date Laos travel and accommodation information. Click here for inquiries.

What’s Going On

New Dynamic App Explores European Heritage Sites in Thailand

The European Union launched the “European Heritage Map and Cultural Calendar” smart phone application on October 13^th, 2014. This content-rich app describes, illustrates and locates 250 European heritage sites throughout Thailand. The criteria for the entries were “remarkable locations that share common heritage resulting from centuries of Thai-European interactions”.

Smiling Albino’s Daniel Fraser emceed the intimate event, hosted by H.E. Mr. Luis Barreira de Sousa, Portuguese Ambassador to Thailand, on behalf of the European National Institutes for Cultural Thailand at his splendid riverside residence, the oldest European Diplomatic mission in Bangkok.

The comprehensive app, developed by Talisman Media, is a valuable resource for history enthusiasts, locals and tourists alike. It also provides an up-to-date “European Cultural Calendar” that lists up-coming events organized by EU member States’ embassies and cultural institutes in Thailand

It’s a really cool free app! Search “European Heritage” in your app store now. Available for Android and iOS.

Smiling Albino Wins Expat Entrepreneur Award

On October 14th, Bangkok’s expat community gathered at the Rembrandt Hotel to drink free beer recognize outstanding expat businesses. For the first time, companies established in Thailand by the country’s expatriate community were honoured for their creativity, ingenuity, excellence and proven success in The Expat Entrepreneur Awards 2014. Supported by The BigChilli Magazine in conjunction with BNOW, Bangkok’s networking community group, the Award highlighted the contribution foreign operated businesses make to Thailand’s economy.

The awards night was well-attended, and as our own Adventurer-in-chief, Daniel Fraser was hosting a trip, SA’s Marketing Mahout, Andrew Clark was there to accept the award on behalf of the Smiling Albino team. Smiling Albino thanks all who participated.

PURE Life Experiences 2014

We will be back at PURE LIfe Experiences 2014, November 10-13 in Marrekech. We look forward to seeing you there at the global marketplace of high-end experiential travel!

New Connections

Soneva Kiri

Soneva Kiri is pleased to announce a new direct flight service to Siem Riep. Launching on 16th November 2014 with a special introductory offer! Two flights a week linking Indo China to the beautiful beaches of Koh Kood.

Halong Bay

Seaplane Flights are now available from Hanoi airport to Halong Bay! A 30-minute flight or 45 minutes with some sight-seeing. Reasonably priced, quick and easy with fabulous aerial views over the countryside and experience the thrill of a water landing at the Tuan Chau Island Marina.

Contact Smiling Albino today for all your travel needs.

The post People Drive Adventures – Albino Smiles Oct., 2014 first appeared on Smiling Albino.

The Tonle Sap provides numerous opportunities for visitors to travel to one of the stilted or floating villages of Cambodia and experience the vibrant communities and diverse animals that inhabit the great Cambodian lake.  Either via day trips to flooded forests and floating villages from Siem Reap, Kompong Chhnang, and Pursat or while traveling between Siem Reap and either Phnom Penh or Batdambang aboard a ferry or luxury riverboat, even a glimpse of a Cambodian floating village is an experience to remember.

Tonle Sap as the Beating Heart of Cambodian Life: The Tonle Sap Lake is connected to the Tonle Sap River, which meets the Basaac and Mekong Rivers at the chaktomuk or “four-faces” in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  Each year the spring snowmelt in the Himalaya Mountains flows into the Mekong River and the surging water causes the Tonle Sap River to change its course, flowing backwards into the Tonle Sap Lake.

Gradually, the Tonle Sap Lake fills with this nutrient rich water and swells nearly fivefold: its waters rising from a dry season low of 3-6 feet to nearly 35 feet deep!  As the waters of the lake continue to rise, Cambodian communities living in stilted villages such as Kompong Phluk move higher and higher up their uniquely designed homes to stay above the water line, while those living in floating homes, including Chong Kneas and Kompong Luong, simply relocate according to the seasonal ebb and flow.

The monsoon rains cause the lake to fill and spill over onto the surrounding flood plains, engulfing the forests and supporting a thriving underwater ecosystem, which is the mainstay of the local economy.  As the heavy monsoon rain feeds even more water into the Tonle Sap the lake continues to swell until around November, when replete with water, the lake overpowers the Mekong and the water flows back towards Phnom Penh, into the Mekong and Basaac Rivers, and finally out to sea.

As this cycle is so vital to the livelihoods of many Cambodians, the nation celebrates the reversal of the river with a grand water festival, the Bonn Om Tuk, during which people from all over Cambodia converge in Phnom Penh for exciting boat races!

Visiting Communities on The Tonle Sap:  The best opportunities for visitors to experience life on the Tonle Sap are via day trips, primarily from Siem Reap, which can include both the stilted and floating villages of Chong Kneas, Kompong Phluk and Mechrey villages, and the Prek Toal Biosphere Reserve.

Visitors to Pursat and Kompong Chhnang may also visit floating villages on those parts of the lake, particularly Kompong Luong, which is located near Pursat on the southern shore of the Tonle Sap. In addition to birding, these trips provide an opportunity to see the unique villages that are home to diverse populations of Khmer, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham ethnic groups.

Kompong Phluk:  The floating village and flooded forest of Kompong Phluk sit at the edge of Tonle Sap Lake near the mouth of the Roluos River, not far from the temple town of Roluos, eight miles southeast of Siem Reap.

There are several villages that make up this fishing community of around 3,000, who relocate their homes seasonally as the water levels of the lake alternatively swell and recede with the annual monsoon.  A number of villagers live in stilted houses near the coast, while others live in floating houses, some of which have in-board motors.

In the dry season there is an island with a temple, school, market area, and areas for drying and smoking the daily catch.  During the dry winter months, when the waters of the lake are lowest, temporary thatched bamboo and wood buildings are constructed on the banks and it is possible to walk under the stilted houses.

When the rains come, the waters of Tonle Sap rise, flooding the entire village.  While the floating houses and shops can move closer to or farther from shore as the lake alternatively swells and recedes, the stilted houses allow the villagers to stay in place while the lake rises upwards of 30 feet.  As the water rises, the villagers move their houses up successive levels of the stilts in order to stay above the high water line.

During the wet season, the boats come out and everyone gets around by paddling from house to house, to market, or even to restaurants, churches, and wedding platforms.  Vast mangrove forests surround the entire village, offering incredibly scenic locations for boat excursions along the flooded tree line.

As one of the most convenient locations from Siem Reap, Kompong Phluk is a great experience for most visitors, even if tourism has become nearly as important as traditional forms of income.

Chong Kneas: Chong Kneas is a large stilted and floating village along the edge of the Tonle Sap where boats from Batdambang and Phnom Penh dock following the voyage across the lake to Siem Reap and the Angkor temples.  While Chong Kneas is the most convenient Tonle Sap community to visit from Siem Reap, it is also the most heavily visited by tourists and thus the least ‘authentic’ of the villages on the lake.

Chong Kneas is home to around 6,000 Khmer, Cham and Vietnamese, who live in either houseboats or wood and bamboo stilted homes. Due to dramatic variations in the lake’s water levels over the seasons, the floating homes are moved regularly to new moorings and the living quarters on some of the stilted homes are relocated up successive levels to stay above the high water mark.

Almost all the villagers live by fishing, and all village life happens on the water. The lively market, police station, two schools, fish and crocodile farms, the fishermen’s temple, and a Catholic church are all only accessible by boat. An environmental sustainability project called the GECKO Environmental Education Centre allows visitors to learn about the communities and ecology of the lake and helps the local population deal with infrastructure problems such as sewage, refuse, and lack of clean drinking water.  GECKO has a floating office within the village, which you are more likely to visit if your trip is arranged directly with the organization.

Mechrey Village: Mechrey Village, which is located just 6km from the Prek Toal Biosphere in the northwest ‘corner’ of the lake, offers visitors the opportunity to explore land-based villages upon ox or buffalo drawn carts and floating villages and flooded forests in small boats.  Mechrey is one of the newest Tonle Sap communities to open itself up to tourism and the experience for visitors is likely to be more authentic and less crowded than visits to the established and more popular sites, such as Chong Kneas and Kompong Phluk.

Kompong Luong Floating Village: Kompong Luong is a fascinating floating village that is almost entirely self-sustaining. There is everything from markets to schools and ice factories there, all kept afloat and ferried around the community by busy fleets of long tail boats.  One of the most charming ‘buildings’ in the village is a wonderful floating Christian church built by Japanese missionaries.

Kompong Luong is located on the southern shore of Tonle Sap, just outside the charming town of Pursat; since its off the beaten track tourists visit infrequently, which is a shame because the area is a marvel and the locals could do with some tourist dollars.

Prek Toal Biosphere: Prek Toal Biosphere is one of the three designated protected biosphere reserves on the Tonle Sap Lake. Situated in the northwest corner of the lake, between Siem Reap and Batdambang, Prek Toal is the easiest protected area to visit and is particularly popular with those who love birds.

The establishment of the Prek Toal bird sanctuary has added a wonderful dimension to a floating village visit, even for those who aren’t ornithologists or amateur birders.   A wide variety of rare birds, including storks, pelicans, ibises, cormorants, and darters gather in a relatively small area, especially during the dry season months (December to April), when visitors are practically guaranteed to see something special.  Other species inhabiting the coastal region of the preserve include otters, slow Loris, and flying fox.

A permit from the World Conservation Society (WCS) is required to visit Prek Toal, though it is easily arranged through a local birding or ecotourism outfit in Siem Reap.  Other tour operators will offer to take you into Prek Toal (without permission), but it is best to visit with organizations such as the Sam Veasna Center or Osmose, both of which have knowledgeable birding guides and connections with the WCS and local villagers.  Visiting the area with the proper permission ensures that your visit doesn’t adversely impact either the environment or the community and it is possible to combine a birding trip with a home-stay opportunity in the floating village!

Want to know more about Stilted and Floating Villages in Cambodia? Check out our Video of Kompong Phluk Floating Village and our Photo Gallery of Floating Village life in Kompong Phluk, Cambodia, which were taken in the dry season months.

Best Time to Visit Kompong Phluk: Both the rainy and dry seasons have their own unique qualities, but the rainy season from June to October is when the villages are most scenic.

Best Time to Visit Chong Kneas: Both the rainy and dry seasons have their own unique qualities, but the rainy season from June to October is when the villages are most scenic.

Best Time to Visit Mechrey Village: Both the rainy and dry seasons have their own unique qualities, but the rainy season from June to October is when the villages are most scenic.

Best Time to Visit Kompong Luong: Kompong Luong Floating Village is best visited during the dry season months (November-May) when road conditions are best.

Best Time to Visit Prek Toal: Prek Toal Biosphere is best visited early in the morning (followed by an overnight stay if possible), particularly during the winter, dry season (December to April) when there are the greatest number of birds in the sanctuary.

Listen to Smiling Albino co-founder Scott Coates and National Geographic guidebook writer Trevor Ranges talk about floating villages in Cambodia.

Check out some of our photos from a visit to Kampong Pluk Floating Village.

The post Life on the Tonle Sap Lake: Stilted and Floating Villages of Cambodia first appeared on Smiling Albino.