Day 2 - Prey Sla to Kampong Cham
Kampong Cham is a beautiful river town with several special places to visit. The Mekong river is beautiful here with the river front being a social attraction at night. Kampong means ‘riverside’ or ‘port’. So there are many places called Kampong. Kampong Cham means port of the Cham people.
The ride from Prey Sla to here is perfectly flat on great roads and is very enjoyable.
This part of Cambodia is very fertile but it is not perfectly flat so there are rubber plantations and horticulture rather than rice.
Growing rubber is hard work and is poorly paid. The trees need to be cared for daily.
I got a bit off the main route and rode through some pretty awesome isolated villagers. Lots of people yelling out at me.
Kampong Cham
Kampong Cham is one of my favourite places. There are not many tourists here and the local people are wonderfully friendly. You cannot walk down the street without getting smiled at and ‘hello’ being yelled at you.
I spent a second day in Kampong Cham riding around looking at the sites.
There are some wonderful temples in Kampong Cham. Two that I visited are
Monorom VIP Hotel
This is my hotel in Kampong Cham. It is in my budget (less than $US20 per night) and is right in the centre of town on the water front.
The staff are great, very helpful and hopefully will look after my bike.
It is also just two doors from Smile Restaurant and there are lots of bars and restaurants within walking distance.
Smile Restaurant
Smile Restaurant is run by a local NGO called Buddhism for Social Development Action. Supporting NGOs in Cambodia is risky as for many it is about making money for the NGO and its staff rather supporting local people.
But this one seems legit with a very local focus.
They take youth at risk and train them in hospitality and other enterprises. So Smile restaurant is part of the training.
I always eat here a couple of times a day. You can get reasonable wine with dinner and good coffee with breakfast.
If you are thinking of donating time or money it seems like a good place.
Rain
While sitting in eating my lunch the most incredible storm erupted. Thunder lightening and torrential rain. The view of the bridge completely disappeared as did everbody outside.
The Riverside
Kampong Cham has done wonderfully well with its waterfront and it is a social spot when the weather is nice. It is safe to walk around but a few bars and restaurants have closed leaving a few dark places. The next set of photos were taken after the rain when there was no one around.
The Mekong is very wide here and the bridge is very long (1500 m) and is a centre point of the waterfront.
There are only a few bridges (5 I think) crossing the Mekong in Cambodia and they are all high to allw boats through.
This bridge is called the Kizuna Bridge
