A trip to Kampong Cham

Kampong Cham is the third largest city in Cambodia. Despite not having as many tourist attractions as Phnom Penh or Angkor Wat, this charming city is the best place to get a feel of the “real” Cambodia. The remnants of French colonial rule are here, as are modern improvements to this one poor area’s infrastructure. The real charm of Kampong Cham lies with its people. Despite their almost universal poverty and the brutal history of their country, the people of Kampong Cham are mostly friendly, happy-go-lucky folks who are welcoming to tourists.


It was one of those days, I needed to get out of the city for a while so I decided much on the spure of the moment to fill up the truck and drive highway 7 to Kampong Cham. I have been there before and found the place to be friendly and in many ways photogenic. So I loaded the gear into the car and I was on my way. 


Highway 5 / 7 is a busy old road and care needs to be taken as Khmer drivers tend to be a little less road aware than some peoples, especially the Bus drivers who generally think they own the road.

Along the road there are many thing that I find interesting, almost every village that you pass through has a Temple (Wat), no matter how poor the village there always seems to be money available to build the most extravagant Wat's.


The day was bright but overcaste and threatening rain but the cloud eventually began to break up giving some opportunities for some landscape style pictures.
As the morning progress the picture opportunities increased with the weather continuing to change.
I arrived at Kampong Cham at about 10.30 am and it took a while to orientate myself as some new building had taken place since I was last there but I eventually found my way down to the riverside, where I wanted to be, to find some local flavour shots of boats on the river and local people.

Some good shots were to had as the local people are very friendly towards tourists, and to them I'm a tourist. 
I speak only a tic tic of Cambodia but many Khmers like to try their English speaking skills anyways and communication although a little difficult is ceratinly no impossible.
There is much to see in Kampong Cham but my quick trip did not allow me this time to explore futher, I may well go for a couple of days on the next occassion.