Kampong Cham District

Kampong Cham District (Khmer: ស្រុកកំពង់ចាម) is a district of Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia. Kampong Cham is considered an urban district. The provincial capital Kampong Cham City is located in this district. The city is located on National Highway 7 124 kilometres by road from the capital Phnom Penh. The district is split by the Mekong and the capital is located on the western bank of the river, since 2001, the Kizuna Bridge provides a good junction for the region.

Location

Kampong Cham district is the smallest district in Kampong Cham Province and is surrounded by other Kampong Cham districts. Reading from the north clockwise, Kampong Cham shares a border with Kampong Siem District while Tbong Khmom District forms the eastern boundary. To the south of Kampong Cham is Koh Soutin District. Kampong Siem lies on the western border.

Demographics

The district is subdivided into 4 communes and 24 villages. According to the 1998 Census, the population of the district was 45,354 persons in 8,236 households in 1998. With a population of over 45,000 people, Kampong Cham is the least populated district in Kampong Cham province and is the smallest in area. The average household size in Kampong Cham is 5.4 persons per household, slightly lower than the average for urban areas of Cambodia (5.5). However, this is the largest household size of any district in Kampong Cham province and reflects the district's status as an urban centre. The sex ratio in the district is 94.9%, with more females than males.

Kompong Cham City is a peaceful provincial capital spread along the banks of the Mekong. It was an important trading post during the French period, the legacy of which is evident as you wander through the streets of crumbling yet classic buildings.

Long considered Cambodia’s third city after Phnom Penh and Battambang, Kompong Cham has lately been somewhat left in the dust by the fast-growing tourist towns of Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. However, Kompong Cham remains a travel hub and acts as the stepping stone to eastern Cambodia.

History & Folklore

At the height of the Khmer Empire, in 1177, the Cham briefly won control of its territories, before King Jayavarman VII defeated them in an epic battle on land and water, scenes of which you’ll find on the walls of Bayon and Banteay Chhmar temples. The victory sealed his reputation as a warrior, despite the fact that he was in his sixties, and he was crowned king in 1181.

A local legend has the story of how the Chams came to be here another way, telling how a fish swallowed a Cambodian boy whose father was bathing him in the river. The fish then swam to China, where fishermen caught him and sliced him open, spilling out the live child inside. The emperor raised the boy as his own, but years later the prince returned to Cambodia with ships full of Chinese sailors to populate the land that became known as Kompong Cham.

Attractions

This fertile region — though in early 2016, the land looked wasted and desiccated as the drought of 2015 looks set to be followed by yet another — is home to numerous tobacco, cashew and (to the east) rubber plantations. It’s also remarkably pretty, not only in the landscape, but also in the architecture. If you want to get a feel for a real Cambodian city — Phnom Penh is predominantly Chinese or Sino-Khmer, and Siem Reap is… something else — then this offers an interesting glimpse.

The city is large, though the central area hugging the Mekong is where you’ll likely spend most of your time. From there, explorers will be rewarded with an array of architecture styles from early French colonial buildings, typical Chinese shophouses, and buildings influenced by the New Khmer Architectural style developed during Cambodia’s “golden” years in the 1960s. Locals are also quick to point out the city’s other attractions, such as Wat Nokor and the pagoda at Han Chey.

The local government takes great pains to maintain the town and attract new business. Though the exterior of the city’s French colonial buildings often seem to be in a state of decomposition, the actual infrastructure is functional, with wide boulevards, a riverfront promenade and a picturesque bridge expediting tourism and trade with points east.

Well-maintained gardens and Angkorian-themed statues grace the city’s median strips and central squares. At night, ornate lampposts and illuminated water fountains light up the town’s main street, Monivong Boulevard.

Most travellers use Kompong Cham as a layover on the journey from Phnom Penh to Kratie or Sen Monorom on the Mondulkiri plateau (visible from several of the hilltop pagodas outside the city centre). But Kompong Cham is worth an extended visit for its own merits.

Nearby temples dating to the sixth century AD reveal Cambodia’s oldest remnants of Angkorian architecture. Travelling to these temples can be as enjoyable as the visits themselves. Rent a moto ($5) and speed alongside the Mekong River, beside paddy and over tree-lined streets. Hire a boat driver and meander through winding Mekong tributaries where villagers pass in boats made from hollow tree trunks and fishermen stand on the banks, swooping wide nets through the water.

Wat Nokor Bachay is a kind of Russian doll temple, with a relatively modern pagoda buried within the walls of an Angkorian temple dating back to the era of Jayavarman VII. This was the warrior king who also built Bayon, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Banteay Chhmar, and many, many more. Just over a kilometre out of town, on the road towards Phnom Penh, the original sandstone and laterite temple is made up of a central tower decorated with motifs and Buddhist scenes characteristic of Bayon, and is surrounded by four laterite enclosures.

Embedded within the inner walls, a working pagoda with a beautiful tiled floor and painted pillars offers a shady respite from the heat outside, and you may come across some monks or nuns there. The old and the new, despite their very distinct styles, blend together well.

More boundaries can be seen further outside the temple grounds, in scenes that blend in ancient Angorian structures with a more recent Chinese cemetery, and modern working pagoda buildings.

Oedipal stories seem to be common currency around Kompong Cham. According to one legend told about Wat Nokor, two of the stupas within the temple were built by the son of the prince who had originally constructed the temple, Preah Bath Bachay Bachas. The son was sent to China while only four years old, where he was trained and then kept as a valuable advisor to the emperor.

But his yearning for his homeland finally overcame him in his 30s and he returned, taking the name Prom and taking refuge with a beautiful widow, whom he eventually married. When she confessed that she had been the prince’s bride, he realised to his horror that he had married his own mother.

You’ll find Wat Nokor on the left as you drive out of Kompong Cham on the N7 towards Phnom Penh and come to a roundabout with a globe and four twisted nagas. The entrance is $2, which includes entry to Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei.

Phrom Pros and Phnom Sray

Two hills face one another in a near stand-off, each topped with their own pagodas: The rather lovely, grand and ornate pagodas on top of Phnom Pros (Men’s Hill), and a rather shabbier cluster on top of Phnom Srei (Women’s Hill). At the top of 308 steps, 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 but the whole area feels a little unkempt.

The bamboo bridge and Koh Pen

It is the longest bamboo bridge in the world, and is rebuilt every year once the rainy season passes and the Mekong subsides to reveal the sandy banks below. Almost a kilometre long and made entirely of blonde bamboo poles, the bridge remains until it is submerged and washed away again every year when the Mekong, flush with snows from the Himalayas, surges again.

Prasat Han Chey

Just over 22 kilometres to the north of Kompong Cham, at the side of a picturesque road that skirts the Mekong River, you’ll find Prasat Han Chey on top of a hill on the far side of an iron bridge. It is, perhaps, one of the more kitsch pagoda grounds we’ve come across.

A road on the hill’s south end (turn left at the crossroads with a sign that says 400m) 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 1,500-year-old Angkorian ruins. While historians visit the site to study early Angkorian culture as it existed during the Chenla period, local villagers visit to pray during the P’chum Ben festival in September. The views over the Mekong are fabulous and make the trip worthwhile in their own right. But take the time to explore or get chatting to the monks, several vendors sell sugar cane juice, fried noodles and fertilized duck eggs, so you can enjoy a meal at one of the picnic tables overlooking the Mekong River below and the Mondulkiri plateau in the distance.

Cheung Kok ecotourism village

Cheung Kok is one of the prettiest Cambodian villages we’ve seen and also happens to be home to a fascinating “community-based ecotourism” project. Cheung Kok used to depend upon its surrounding rice fields for survival, but recognizing the need to diversity they collaborated with Amica, a French NGO, to create a sustainable, fair way to generate and distribute incomes.

You can visit the village independently, and do your own little tour, dropping in to see the artisans at work if they are there. There are panels dotted about the village, telling you where to find the silk maker, palm sugar producer, palm leaf weaver, the krama maker, or perhaps someone who will show you how to cultivate rice.

It may be better to get a deeper understanding with a proper, guided tour of the village, which takes about one hour. You may also be able to participate in various activities as well, to learn how they’re done.

You can take it a step deeper by staying at one of the homestays here too, which are just $5 a night. If you can’t or don’t want to stay the night, you could also tuck into a tasty, traditional Khmer lunch with a host family for just $4.

There is a small shop and visitor centre at the start of the village, where you can buy everything the artisans produce. You can’t buy direct. Proceeds are managed by a local committee, and go towards supporting projects such as free Khmer and English classes for children, micro-credit support for artisans and villagers, roads and house renovations, and water supply projects.

If you want the guided tour, calling in advance is highly recommended.

The village is found just a few hundred metres further along the N7 than Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei (towards Phnom Penh), down a left turn.

Wat Maha Leap and Prey Chung Kran weaving village

Along the prettiest of waterways, 24 kilometres outside Kampong Cham, Wat Maha Leap is the last working wooden pagoda of its kind. Inside, each pillar required a whole tree. Sadly, a large beam fell down in early 2012, partly destroying the central altar and access has been restricted, although a smile and donation should find the key.

Inside, the cool tiles are spattered with bat guano, indicating that the pagoda is not regularly used. But the beautifully painted pillars are glorious with the light spilling in from the shuttered windows to the side, and once you stand in the middle and look up, the rich blue ceiling gleams down, by far one of the loveliest temples in the area. At the rear of the wat is a stupa-strewn cemetery and an unexceptional reclining Buddha, plus a yellow cremation tower.

The trip is best in the early morning, before the sun is high and when there is a better selection of boats docked in two places, near the underpass of the Kizuma Bridge and almost directly across from Mekong Crossing hotel. Alternatively, secure the services of a motodop (or ride yourself if you are experienced with unsealed roads) to take the same route as horse-drawn tobacco carts (you will need your GPS or a decent spattering of Khmer to find it, as there are some unexpected turns).

Just 4 Km on from Wat Maha Leap is Prey Chung Kran weaving village, the source of some of the best kramas in Cambodia. The village itself is not so exciting, but almost every stilted house in it has a loom in the shade beneath, where the women weave colourful scarves and fabrics. We tried to buy the last time we visited, but didn’t succeed.

How to get there
Wat Maha Leap is south of Kompong Cham on a tributary of the Mekong referred to as Tonle Thoit (small river) and is best reached by boat from Kompong Cham. The trip takes about 30 to 45 minutes each way and en route you’ll enjoy splendid riverside scenery. A trip here is best combined with a trip to the weaving village at Prey Chung Kran, a further 20 minutes downriver. Boatmen will charge around US$40 to $45 for a trip including waiting time to both Wat Maha Leap and the weaving village; trips to the temple alone cost about $35. A boat could comfortably hold five plus guide and pilot.

By moto, the temple is a 40-minute rural ride and can be the beginning of a circular tour, making the 3,000 riel ferry crossing to Koh Sotine and Koh Paen before returning to the mainland. A good English-speaking guide and motodop, such as Mr. Why (T: 011 293 951), will cost around $15 for the day.

Orientation
Nearly all of Kompong Cham sits within a two-square-kilometre area. Three roads frame Kompong Cham’s city centre: the thoroughfare National Road 7, which connects Phnom Penh to Kompong Cham from the west then heads east over the Kizuna Bridge toward Kratie; Sihanouk Boulevard, which borders the river; and Monivong Boulevard, whose two lanes and grass median cuts through the western part of town.

Between Sihanouk and Monivong is the market, two police stations and most hotels and restaurants. One police station is on a small courtyard two blocks west of the river. The other one is on Sihanouk Boulevard in between Kizuna Bridge and the Bamboo Bridge. The post office is located on the northwest part of town, two blocks north of the hospital, which can be easily found by taking a left off Monivong onto Kosomak Neary Roth Street, the intersection where all the banks are located, including the National Bank of Cambodia (or Banque Rouge, as it’s known for its trademark red walls).

There are several small grocery stores dotted along the riverside road, and going back from it, where you can pick up snacks and basic toiletries. The main market should also have most of what you may be looking for. There are two markets. The new one houses the food stalls, while the old market — which is worth a visit in its own right — sells household goods, shoes and clothing, cosmetics and toiletries, fabrics and food.

Several banks have international access ATMs and there are several Western Union wire transfer sites throughout town as well. Across from each other at the main intersection on the northern end of Monivong Blvd are Canadia Bank and ANZ Royal Bank. They accept both Visa and Mastercard. The Acleda Bank on National Road 7 permits Visa cards. All their ATMs are accessible 24 hours. A fourth international ATM at Cambodia Public Bank near the central market is open during the bank’s open hour’s weekdays from 08:00 to 15:00.

Accommodation

The range of sleeping options here is pretty uniform and pretty basic but at least the prices are reasonably cheap. Most Westerners head to the riverfront, which has a string of guesthouses and hotels. A river view will add a few dollars, but you might be better off springing for the air-con.

Border Crossing to Vietnam

Kompong Cham no longer has an international border with Vietnam, but if you continue east on the N7, and then N72, you’ll find the Trapeang Phlong to Xa Mat crossing. There’s no public transport, though a taxi or moto will take you. Be sure to get your visa beforehand by contacting the Vietnamese Embassy in your home country or from the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh.

The border from Trapeang Phlong in Cambodia to Xa Mat in Vietnam is open to international tourists. On the Cambodian side you have to organise your own transport either all the way from Kampong Cham or take first a Kratie bound bus to Krek and then a motorbike for the remaining 14 km to the border. On the Vietnamese side there are regular public busses running to Tay Ninh a few hundred metres from the border. Visas are not available at the border and the formalities may take a while. Be aware that people in Kampong Cham may tell you that this is not an international border although it is. When you get to Vietnam border it looks like that there is nothing, only some sort of highway starts from the gates. If you don't have anyone to pick you up the employees will try to "sell" you a taxi ride. They have pre-agreements done with local drivers who will try to charge ridiculous fares. Fortunately, bus station is just 500 meters away from the border so it is easy to walk there. Note that, most likely, nobody at the border will ever tell you about the bus station as they want to sell their taxis.

Getting there

Bus: Only two to three hours away from Phnom Penh, Kompong Cham makes for a quick getaway, or convenient gateway, whichever you’re looking for.

GST, Sorya and Rith Mony have regular routes all day ($4-$5), while a more comfortable, but slightly pricier, ride can be found with Cambo Express ($8), with three departures at 07:00, 13:30 and 16:45 daily.

Plenty of minivans make the journey this way too. You can either book your ticket ($5) with a travel agent, or just rock up to Central Market in the morning, or Orussey Market in the afternoon, to pick one up. Just wander around asking for Kompong Cham, and you’ll be directed to the right one.

Taxis to Kompong Cham will cost $25, unless you go for a share taxi, which will be $5.

The main bus stations in Kompong Cham are along Monivong Road. The office for Cambo Express is on Route 7, just north of Monivong.

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Cham_District

https://www.travelfish.org/location/cambodia/northeastern_cambodia/kompong_cham/kompong_cham