A Tour of Many Mountains

The latest tour of Cambodia’s amazing ancient sites and wonders covered familiar ground once again along the RN6 and some new ground for me which is Prey Veng and then back to revisit Oudong, a couple of amazing mountains in Pursat and Kampong Chhnang, back to Kampong Thma, and return to Siem Reap. Not a solo tour this time, once again Chanthim came along on her Honda. I wasn’t really intending to visit so many mountains, it just worked out that way, fortunately, they are all quite small!

It was another hassle-free trip once again, from June 30 to July 6 covering near to 1000 km. The roads in Cambodia continue to improve and 99% of the way was on good sealed roads. The Honda Wave purchased new in December clocked over the 10000 km mark on this trip and still not a fault to be had, just oil changes every 1000 km at the Honda dealer, which are in every major town, and the odd puncture. There’s a lot to be said for buying new and skipping the endless hassles of an old beater bike.

First stop on this tour was Kampong Thma to meet up with Chanthim and then head off to Wat Prasat Andaet, a contemporary monastery and location of an ancient temple site that was converted into a vihara, thankfully when they built the new pagoda they left the old site mostly intact. Then onwards to Phnom Penh stopping at Wat Pothi Pruk by chance to notice that it still had the old pagoda intact as does Wat Chambak Meas while across the road, Wat Sovan Botum features an array of contemporary and monumental Buddha statues. We’d visit several pagodas in Phnom Penh including Wat Saravan for its inset sema and old murals, Wat Kean Khleang aka the Golden Temple, and several others you can see in the list below. Many of the pagodas in the area were visited on a previous trip, see Phnom Penh for more of those.

In PP we’d also visit the SOSORO Museum which covers Cambodia’s monetary system featuring ancient coins and informative displays on the periods all the way from the Funan era through to the present day. Well worth the time and an example of what Cambodia can really do when it comes to museums.

Next day it was off to Ba Phnum in Prey Veng province, stopping by several pagodas along the way. The roads are great and a highlight along the way is the spectacular Tsubasa Bridge (Neak Loeung Bridge) that joins Kandal with Prey Veng province crossing the Mekong River.

At Ba Phnum or Ba Phnom, there is a large mountain range and small mountain with beautiful farmlands below. It is an area of ancient activity although the only standing remains of a temple site are seen at the bottom of the mountain, Preah Vihear Chan Temple. The site consists of a rearrangement of sandstone plinths and laterite blocks enshrining some contemporary Buddha statues. Atop the small mountain, Wat Phnom Touch offers views over the fields and across to the other mountain where a larger pagoda sits at the eastern end, Wat Preah Vihear Kuk. I believe there was ancient activity here too, and many years ago they built an elaborate monastery here although on our visit the entire site looks like it has been abandoned. After that, visiting the three pagodas nearby with Wat Kompoul Chheukach perhaps being the nicest of all. It’s an easy day trip from PP and we headed back in the late afternoon.

After some more time in PP, it was off north again along the AH11, stopping at pagodas including Wat Chrung Thmor Krapeuha and its monumental Buddha plus Phnom Tbong & Wat Taing Sre for views back to Phnom Penh, then, west on the 61 stopping a few more pagodas, some housing ancient remains, before reaching Phnom Oudong to visit the Buddha Nirvana which I missed seeing on the last visit. The day was getting on and it was a choice of staying in a guesthouse near Oudong or racing to reach Kampong Chhnang before dusk and we chose the latter. Luckily the amazing new highway here is almost complete making it easy going albeit darting on and off the sections yet completed.

The next day, we went to visit a very cool and developing tourist area, Phnom Neak Sor Resort (រមនីយដ្ឋានភ្នំនាគស). It’s located on the border of Kampong Chhnang and Pursat with good roads all the way. Instead of going to the tourist resort, we took the motos up a small mountain and then a foot trail to reach the incredible reclining Buddha sculpture at Phnom Neang Kang. After that wonder, heading down and across to Wat Phnum Kuk and then Phnom Kachchot Borey for a two-hour hike up to the plateau to see the possibly ancient stupa and surprisingly, an Ashoka pillar. The contemporary monumental statues of Yaksha and Neang Kong Hing are pretty amazing too, as are the epic views.

The next day, it was onboard the ferry from Kampong Chhnang city across to Kampong Leaeng, there are two ferry services on the river here, a tourism service which I am unsure if it’s running, and a vehicle ferry. With motos, we obviously went straight to the latter. You purchase a ticket at the booth and then wait, I have no idea about the timetable but they seem to be regular and we didn’t wait long. Ride the moto on when they open the gates, park up and wait until it’s full and then, off it goes doing a spectacular reverse turn and heading on the short trip along the Tonle Sap river to the dock at Kampong Leaeng. The views along the way are enjoyable and if there is a boat cruise around the whole area it would be quite enjoyable.

I’d explored the ancient temples here on a previous trip so this time, stopping by a few pagodas, rode around and over the beautiful Phnom Kong Rei and a quick stop at Prasat Pros to discover that it’s under restoration. After that, the bumpy dirt road to Stung Saen, stopping by the Toul Vihear site which is getting a new pagoda.