Kampong Cham
Cambodia · 18 m
Description
Kampong Cham (កំពង់ចាម) is Cambodia's third city, a quiet riverside place on the Mekong a hundred and twenty kilometres upstream of Phnom Penh, with rows of shuttered French shophouses along the waterfront. Each year after the floods recede the villagers of Koh Paen rebuild a bamboo bridge out to their island by hand, four hundred metres of lashed poles that carries motorbikes and light cars until the next monsoon washes it away. At the edge of town Wat Nokor Bachey wraps a working modern pagoda around a twelfth-century sanctuary of laterite and sandstone, the two buildings grown into one another. The twin hills of Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei, the man's hill and the woman's hill, carry pagodas and look out over the rubber country. Upriver the hilltop terraces of Wat Hanchey preserve brick shrines from the pre-Angkorian Chenla period.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 to 2 days (optimal 1 day)
Travel season
Best time to visit: December – January
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Bamboo Bridge to Koh Paen (approx. December - May)
- Wat Nokor Bachey
- Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei
- Koh Paen
- Mekong Riverfront
- Wat Hanchey(Day trip)
- French Colonial Shophouses
- Kizuna Bridge
- Mekong Sunset Cruise
- Kampong Cham Central Market
- Wat Maha Leap(Day trip)
- Rubber Plantations
- Kratie(Day trip)
Getting there
- Seaport:
- Reachable by ship or ferry