It is a kind of long and seaport canal about 12 km from Siem Reap, flanked by brown-green seats scrubbed to the west side from which you can see the edges of a part of the floating forest that makes the Tonle Sap Lake a rich source Plenty of food. Along the upper part of the east bank, depending on the time of year and the level of the lake, houses and businesses of local families can be found in soft wood and tents of various types of solidity.

The canal is overlooked by the hill of Phnom Krom to the north, in which sits an Angkorian temple dedicated by King Yasovarman around 900 BC. Dozens of boats line the canal, some were huddled on dry docks, some clearly passed their flotation date, some still to make their first voyage, but most crowded toward the harbor at the top, pushing to the attention of the company now has control of Chong Kneas and expels the transportation rights of tourists. The boats are long and narrow and have no keels - lake and canal levels drop very low during the hot season before the Mekong River, swollen with rain and melted Himalayan waters, powers the Tonle Sap River to reverse its flow in October, flooding the dry plains around the Great Lake.

When you move the channel of Chong Kneas towards the lake in one of these long and narrow boats, feeling vaguely unstable as you go, you will pass alongside fishermen standing to their knees in the thick muddy brown water, throwing their nets , while the children nearby play and play. Suddenly you noticed while watching your sneezing vomit long bows of glittering light that the water smells distinctly unhealthy.

When passing by a floating school, smaller boats begin to pull next to yours. Inside is a woman with one or two small children who are sporting water snakes. They hold the snake in their direction as the mother (perhaps) reaches out for the money. "A dollar?" They say. And so it begins.

Chong Kneas is crap. The channel is dirty, the order is quite intense and a very recent phenomenon - one that has grown as the number of tourists has grown. Certainly, it was not the norm, even three years ago, when children would probably try to sell a Sprite than beg of you. Be that as it may, they should be at school not begging under a hot afternoon sun. Begging is easier and generates more returns for your parents in the immediate term. The long term costs are almost literally crippling however.