Koh Panyee is a fishing village on an island in the south of Thailand. It was founded by Indonesian seafarers from Java in the end of the 18th century.
At the time, land ownership for non-Thais was prohibited, so the settlers built their houses on stilts. With time more people joined them, building adjacent floating houses, expanding the community into the water. In time, the laws were relaxed and land ownership for foreigners was permitted, but the village had already been built.
It’s fully functional to this day.
Side note: One of the problems facing the village was that there was no piece of land on the island to play football. So the children got together one day, inspired by the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and built a floating football field out of scraps of wood and other debris. Their team, Panyee FC, has grown to be one of the most successful in Southern Thailand.