Kampong Cham

I decided that my next stop after Phnom Penh would be Kampong Cham, A city about 6 hours away. Cant remember why I decided to stop there but I ended up spending two nights at the Mekong Hotel right along the riverside. Most of the city is by the riverside actually because its not that big.

From Phnom Penh there seemed like there was a bunch of things to do in and around the city but I got done all that I wanted to do in less than a day.

I rented a motor bike from a cafe down the street and the lady there taught me how to ride a manual one. Every other one that I had ridden before had been automatic but it turned out to be not that much harder.

First I went to Wat Nokor which was an Angkor like temple about 8 km outside of town. Not sure how much I was expecting but I wasn't to impressed. There aren't very many tourist in the town to begin with but the place was dead. I was the only one there so I walked around, snapped a couple pictures and got back on my bike and left. 

Next I went to Phnom Pros and Phnom Sre (Man and Woman Hill) which the way that the guide book described it was two hills with old temples on top that face each other. Once I got there I discovered that there was new-ish looking concrete buildings on both and wasn't really anything impressive. There were a bunch of monkeys running around and a bunch of lady's selling bananas to feed them. 

Back on the bike for me.

The next stop was the Bamboo Bridge.

Every year during the dry season the build a bridge out of bamboo to cross over the river to an island. During the wet season when the water rises there is a ferry to take you across.The bridge wasn't finished being built yet so I decided to take the ferry over to the car-less island.  I went down to the docks where there was two other people waiting for it also.

After waiting for about 45 min and their being no boat I decided to go get some lunch. The lady at the cafe told me that there wouldnt be a boat for a little bit because they take a long lunch break. Losing interest in the island I got on my bike and headed for Phnom Hanchey. Phnom Hanchey is another hilltop temple that is about 30 km outside of town. It was a really nice drive along the river to get there. All along the way there were busy houses with families going about their daily routines and kids running around. 

The first thing that I saw when I got to the temple was her there were a bunch of giant fruit statues that said the names of all the fruit and what they looked like on the inside. I found this very useful because most of the time the people selling the fruit couldnt tell you the English name of the fruit so I never knew what it was. Here is a picture of my current fruit addiction. Rambutan. Its soft red spikey exterior contains kind of a lychee fruit inside. Most places it will cost you about $1 a kilogram. 

There were lots of statues all over the hill and it looked like a place that they might host events of some sorts because there was lots of open space. I saw a couple taking some wedding photos so maybe they hold those there as well.

There were many sayings on signs posted to the trees around the hill.

View of the river from the hill.

 There were many other religious buildings and statues on top of the hill but I didn't have a guide so I don't really know much about them.

 After walking around the hill for a bit I decided to head back. On the way to my motorbike I saw a tourist police man checking it out. He came over and told me that I needed to buy a ticket to see all the things that I had seen already that day. Not sure if that is a fee for all tourists because it seems pretty informal. But it only cost me $2 so I decided it would be easier than trying to negotiate with him.

Finishing off here is a picture of a driving school that I found. I thought this was pretty funny because of the way that people drive i never expected that there would be driving schools in Cambodia.

 

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More pictures in the Kampong Cham album on the left.