This is Kampong Cham province travel guide and information, Kampong Cham Province is the most heavily populated province in Cambodia, Kampong Cham province has also supplied a steady stream of Cambodia’s current political heavyweights including Prime Minister Hun Sen and senate Head Chea Sim.
Most of the residents in Kampong Cham province enjoy quieter lives, living off the land or fishing along the MekongRiver. Rubber was the major prewar industry and there are huge plantations stretching eastwards from the Mekong. Some of these are being redeveloped for industrial use and there are even encouraging signs of young saplings being plated around Memot.
Some of Cambodia’s finest silk is also produced in this province and most of the country’s karma (scarves) originate here. Kampong Cham province draws a fair number of visitors thanks to its role as a gateway to the northeast.
There are some of the attractions in Kampong Cham province, includes several pre-Angkorian and Angkorian temples, as well as some pleasant riverbank rides for cyclist or motor bikers.
The city of Kampong Cham province is long considered Cambodia’s third city after Phnom Penh and Battambang, lately Kompong Cham has been somewhat left in the dust by the fast-growing tourist towns of Siem Reap and Sihanouk Ville. More a quiet town than a bustling city, it is a peaceful provincial capital spread along the banks of the Mekong River. It was an important trading post during the French period, the legacy evident as you wander through the streets of bruised yet beautiful buildings.
Kampong Cham province remains an important travel hub for road and river, and acts as a gateway to eastern and northeastern Cambodia. This role has been enhanced in recent years with the opening of the first bridge to span the Mekong’s width in Cambodia, dramatically cutting journey times to popular destinations like Kratie and Mondulkiri. Wat Nokor is just outside town is an 11th century Mahayana Buddhist shrine of sandstone and laterite, which is a kitsch kind place, a temple within a temple, and many of the older building’s archways have been incorporate into the new building as shrines for worship. On weekdays, there are only few monks in the complex and it is peaceful to wander among the many alcoves and their hidden shrines. There is also a large reclining Buddha.
Wat Nokor, Kampong Cham Province This 11th century Khmer sanctuary is definitely worth a visit for its temple within a temple style layout. At the centre of the ancient complex a contemporary and rather garishly coloured wat has been built, but the two are set within each other like Russian dolls and are so close together that the new temple uses parts of the ancient Khmer sanctuary's laterite walls as its own exterior.
The sanctuary shows signs of being rebuilt in places, but overall it is in very good condition with a wild variety of apsaras unlike those at Angkor. To the left of this complex are two smaller temple buildings facing each other. One holds a reclining Buddha while the other contains a variety of Buddha statues and at the rear is a white cement statue of a woman who survived the Khmer Rouge period, escaped Cambodia and funded the construction of the temple in thanks for her good fortune. On the right side of Wat Nokor, going towards another wat complex, are a bunch of stupas, including a taller one with a metal door. This is a killing field stupa and looking inside you'll see a pile of around 100 skeletons.
The original killing field in this area was between Phnom Proh and Phnom Sray, a short moto ride out of town, but after the end of the Khmer Rouge period, monks collected the bones and interred them here. Wat Nokor is set a couple of hundred metres to the south of the Wat Nokor traffic circle at the eastern end of town. You could walk here, but a motorbike ride is more comfortable.
Phnom Pros And Phnom Srei, Kampong Cham Province The original location of of Kampong Cham Killing Field is between these two hilltop temples, before monks moved many of the remains to be interred beside Wat Nokor. Phnom Pros (Man Hill) is the smaller of the two and a paved, gently sloping road leads to its summit, while the summit of Phnom Srei (Woman Hill) is reached by a 300-plus step staircase that is a lot steeper than it looks. Phnom Srei offers splendid views over the countryside with Kompong Cham and the Mekong easily visible, while further in the distance the rising plateau of Mondulkiri can be seen. Atop the hill there is a small temple.
Phnom Pros is far smaller than Phnom Srei but in typical male fashion a trio of tall temples abutting each other have been built at the summit in an attempt to compensate for the hill's small size. Unlike Phnom Srei, Phnom Pros is overrun with fat monkeys and vendors will happily sell you ambulant to feed them. Phnom Pros is a popular spot to have your fortune told, though you'll need pretty good Khmer language skills to get much out of it. Phnom Pros is also more heavily trafficked by locals by the ease of its access.
Between the two hills there is a new garish wat, a library and a Chinese cemetery. The library has a selection of mostly Khmer books, with a particular emphasis on fortune telling handbooks -- the curator here speaks fluent French. A sculpture garden is attached, with a large Bayon-style head, anatomically correct deer and various other temple paraphernalia. A wide range of legends surrounding the building of these two hills exist, most of which centre around the men being stupid, lazy or generally slack, thus allowing the women to build a bigger hill -- ask your motodop for his interpretation on the legend, and don't expect the same tale from any two.
The French watchtower, Kampong Cham Province Renovated in mid-2005 and sitting on the far bank of the Mekong, beside the Kazuma Bridge and opposite Kompong Cham, this tower was built in the early 20th century by the French to serve as a defensive watchtower. The Kompong Cham Governor's house has a direct line of site to the watchtower and when a warning was needed a large fire would be lit in the tower announcing the pending danger. Today it is used to alert the motodops of the arrival of a tourist bus.
If you are fine with heights, an incredibly steep staircase runs up the interior of the tower, allowing you to climb to the summit and enjoy the same views that the guards in the 1920s would have had.
Ko Paen Bamboo Bridge & Ko Paen, Kampong Cham Province This bamboo bridge is built every dry season to connect the west bank of the Mekong to Ko Paen -- a medium-sized island just to the south of Kompong Cham. The island has sandy beaches, lots of fishermen and some tobacco plantations and can make for a pleasant half-day wandering or cycling around. In wet season the bridge disappears under the water and the island is only reachable by boat. Of particular interest, on the east bank of the island you can see fishermen using massive hand-held nets in the shape of enormous tennis rackets. With their glistening white nets, the lush green grass and the muddy Mekong waters, in the late afternoon light these fishermen can be particularly photogenic. The bridge (when above water) is about a 15-minute walk to the south of central Kompong Cham. When we last visited, in October, the bridge had been washed away by the fast-flowing Mekong, though a villager assured us a new bamboo bridge would soon span the divide.
Wat Maha Leap, Kampong Province One of the few remaining entirely wooden wats in Cambodia and believed to be more than 100 years old, Wat Maha Leap was one of the few pagodas the Khmer Rouge left standing in Kompong Cham province, supposedly because of its ominous supernatural powers. It looks rather bland, but the interior reveals towering gilded teak columns supporting a beautifully painted, sky blue roof. The central altar has a collection of myriad sized Buddha statues, but the true attraction here is the impressive wooden pagoda. Each pillar required a whole tree.
We found Wat Maha Leap, while not as large, to be reminiscent of the magnificent Wat Phra That Lampang Luang in northern Thailand. Beside the temple, monks pray and converse in their red, stilted dormitories and an old woman arranges betel nut to try in the sun. At the rear of the wat is a stupa-strewn cemetery and an unexceptional reclining Buddha. In wet season, the area beyond the Buddha is often totally under water, and covered in lily pads. Horses, cows and goats meander throughout the grounds. Follow the dirt path to its end and find palm trees rigged with ladders and friendly villagers drinking sweet syrup. The men who tap the trees enjoy offering their nectar. Highly recommended.
The trip is best in the early morning, before the sun is high and when there is a better selection of boats docked two places, near the underpass of the Kazuma Bridge and almost directly across from Mekong Crossing hotel.
Prey Chung Kran Weaving village, Kampong Cham Province Located a further 10 minutes by boat downriver from Wat Maha Leap, the weaving village of Prey Chung Kran is worth a visit if you have not seen weaving in Cambodia. Famous across the country for its high quality kramas, sarongs and hol, the weavers here work under the stilted homes that line the long dirt road. You're more than welcome to take a look at the women weaving and fabrics are available for sale fresh off the loom, though be prepared to pay between $50 and $90 per unit. You'll also see silks being dyed, but much of the silk itself comes from Vietnam or elsewhere in Cambodia. Watch out; the canines here pack a particularly angry bark. Prey Chung Kran is actually in Prey Veng province.
Prasat Han Chey, Kampong Cham Province
Prasat Han Chey is a 20km moto ride north of town on a paved, shady lane through villages of stilted homes flanked by the Mekong River to the right and rice fields to the left. Han Chey is set atop a hill accessible by two roads and also a 300-step staircase, buttressed by protective lion statues. A road on the hill's south end is rocky, steep and covered in slippery wet clay during the wet season. The road on the hill's north side -- paved and gradual -- is recommended. Once at the top, visitors find a rather large monastery intertwined with several pagodas, an extensive statue garden and 1500-year-old Angkorian ruins. Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, with a US$45,000 grant from the US government, is currently renovating several of the temples, because, it says, the crumbling sandstone structures date back to the sixth century AD. While historians visit the site to study early Angkorian culture as it existed during the Chenla period, local villagers visit them to pray during the Prachum Ben festival in September. Statue gardens with a seeming random assortment of animals surround the old stone temples, new clay pagodas and monk dormitories. The grounds include life-sized deer, crocodiles, peacocks, dinosaurs and mythic beasts. Several vendors sell sugar cane juice and raw duck eggs; so pack a lunch if you're in the mood for a full meal at one of the picnic tables overlooking the Mekong River below and the Mondulkiri plateau in the distance.
Rubber Plantations, Kampong Cham Province Kampong Cham province was the heartland of the Cambodian rubber industry and rubber plantations still stretch across the province. Many of these are no longer commercially tapped, but are tapped by locals for variety of uses. However, some of the largest plantations remain active and can be visited by interested groups, usually French tourists on a tour of their colonial past. The most commonly visited is Chup Rubber Plantation, as large planation in Tbong Khmom district about 15km east of Kampong Cham.
