Sam Veasna's knowledgeable guide took us on a wonderful 2/3 day birding trip to Tonle Sap. We expected to see some of the 200 tropical birds who live in... read more the refuge but were bowled over to see all of the floating villages and the lives of the fishermen and women and their families. Altogether, this day gave us the picture of Cambodia that we wanted beyond the temples. We also learned first-hand how the Center supports local villagers so they can benefit from the birds and support their families to preserve the birds without the need to capture or sell them. Local community members drove the boats and made the lunches in their restaurant.

The boats are small, and you'll climb in, so wear your sneakers and be a bit fit for this tour. We climbed up a bird blind. The guide had laminated posters and photos of birds on his phone so that he could show us close up what bird he was pointing to. He knew the area and the birds intimately so all of our questions got answered. He helped me take a couple of still photos of the birds since he knew how and I did not. It was a brilliant day.

  Don't miss it! - Definitely go with Sam Veasna! We went with them in 2013 and they have expanded so much! Great company, great guides, great experience! Prek Toal has been carefully conserved since... read more our last trip and the birds are amazing! This will be a highlight of your trip to Siem Reap, and so different from Angkor Wat! Worth the expense.

  Birding around Angkor Wat - I have done this trip before, but it is wonderful and close to Siem Reap with a good variety of birds, and of course, one gets to see the sun... read more rise over Angkor Wat. Good looks at lots of local species with a knowledgeable guide!

  Brilliant bird-watching trip - Probably the best guided tour we have done. Magical boat trip in beautiful scenery spotting huge numbers of different bird species, including rare Milky Stork. Mardy, our guide, was incredibly... read more knowledgable and enthusiastic, and excellent company. We also enjoyed seeing the life of floating villages along the way, and the fine lunch prepared by the local community. Thank you Mardy!

  Superb experence with Sophear Somrich as our guide. - We are a group of first time birders in Indochina yet with significant experience in multiple continents elsewhere. We thought we were only going to be walking around Ankor... read more Wat but our guide, Sophear Somrich, gave us so much more going to several locations in the nearby countryside seeing birds from marshes, forests, and fields. His personality is perfectly suited for guiding, so easy going and attentive to the six of us in every way. His knowledge of the birds was superb yet his humility when his certainty was not 100% confirmed our confidence in his other identifications. This was worth every penny of the cost and more. I highly recommend this experience.

  As dawn lifted the mist, our boat took us from the fishing village south of Siem Reap into the amazing lake. Among trees described as swamp forest in Wikipedia we... read more navigated through narrow water passages between dense swamp scrublands. At the Prek Toal floating village we changed to a small longboat and proceeded into the bird sanctuary while herons, storks and pelicans cruised above us. More and more birds were spotted during the half hour it took to reach the tree with the observation platform. After a short wait we could climb up to the platform overlooking a nearly continuous canopy hiding the lake underneath. All around there were large birds were nesting in colonies, especially storks and pelicans. It was difficult to imagine how much fish it takes to satisfy this huge population of large birds. My guide Oeung Hang's spotting scope enhanced the pleasure and I was also happy that Sam Veasna provided excellent Swarovski binoculars, much better than my own. After having enjoyed the overwhelming abundance of large birds, Hang skilfully spotted several small species nearby the platform. Our return journey to the floating village offered a couple of kingfisher species, an eagle and much more. In total we saw over 50 species.
After a nice lunch in the floating village, we returned to the large boat that took us back to the canal with the fishing harbour. On our way back to Siem Reap, we stopped a couple of times and watched several bird species in a rice field habitat, brining the total to over 60 species.
Thank you Hang for a great bird-watching experience in a unique setting! Let's just hope that this ecosystem with its incredible biodiversity can be saved for animals, plants and humankind!