|
|
Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville
Kep Sre Ambel Kampot Bus
Road Trips Cambodia.
|
|
Either
by car, bus
and some
use small motorbikes
or
sometimes, usually in group, dirt bikes.
Another route is when
coming from Thailand via Trat and Koh Kong, this is a
excellent journey since Koh Kong has great nature in the
vicinity. There are two routes from the capital going
south, one is via Kampot and the other
is via Sre Ambel, its about 230km.
Since big and small buses
are continuously on the run it makes sense to start
early morning at Phnom Penh exit the bus at Sre Ambel
and have a look at the great
Peal Rong Waterfall, come back to
the main road and take another bus, van or pickup down
south. Since there is central bus terminal at the
capital buses start from different places, if you do the
tour by let the hotel handle it, thy charge you the
normal fee and they make sure a tuk tuk will bring you
to the bus, free of charge.
When traveling south via Sre Ambel |
|
the road is much better, in
particular when no plan for Kep or Kampot use
the routing via Sre Ambel, means less problems. On the
other hand it makes also sense to travel to Kampot stay a few
days visit Bokor National Park and move on to
Sihanoukville or Kep. Actually all this places along the
coast are within 2 - 3 hours road travel time and since
transportation is relatively cheap its easy to move
around.
|
When considering a scooter or bike
be extremely careful, road travel in Cambodia is very
dangerous since there are no
rules, everyone does what
he or she like, its even much worst than in
Thailand and in Thailand its already bad on the road.
There is almost no country in the world which has such a
high amount of road accidents with fatalities than Thailand.
If there is a accident in Cambodia
outside Phnom Penh or Siem Reap
there is hardly any qualified medical treatment the
answer to this is, do a travel accident insurance which
includes flying you out for treatment.
When using
Air Asia they offer a insurance package which exactly
includes this and since it only costs less than $ 10,-
its very advisable to take it.
Since it is a Thai
insurer who underwrote this, it is very
|

Phnom
Penh Sihanoukville view
from Phnom Chisor |
|
important to read the small text because as
everyone know they are always making tricks and
lies.
Traveling via Kampot and passing
Tonle Bati
with some marvelous temples, yes there are
temples not only in the Angkor area. There is also a
small lake an a bigger new Buddhist Temple, the whole is
very idyllic. There is a large new Buddha Temple close
to the river and the old temple,more or less same style
as Angkor Thom but much smaller is a short walk beside,
see the
Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville pictures. The area as it
can be seen at the picture above is typical for south
east Asia all the way from the Irrawaddy Delta to
Vietnam, its flat, its paddy, its water and a
overwhelming visual impression.
Travel down
from Phnom Penh makes it evident; there is more than
temples in the country. There is a slow start into soft
adventurer travel, climbing the hill of Phnom Chisor
might not look as an adventure at first sight, but if
you are half way through up to the temples on top you
feel your pump banging since there are thousands of
steps to walk up and they are ascending constantly. The
panorama visible from the top is the reward and that
looks real good.
To do this
rout is best with a car through the green countryside
with large rivers, doing boat excursions from time to
time along the shallow rivers where every couple of
kilometers monasteries popup at the riverbanks. This is
rural Cambodian at its best seen at the picture above,
more pic are in the pictures section. We can’t put more
photos together with the text because the main search
engine has a new fashion they penalize pages with mixed
text and pictures. |
|
|
Phnom Chisor is
the next stop,
a temple assembly
built on the only hill in the area which offers
a breathtaking view over the Cambodia lowlands
which are more or less immense tracts of paddy
fields, but before it needs a hike up the hill,
the constantly rising path will take virtually
you breath away.The scenery over
the whole trip down to Kampot looks like in the
picture above. It is this combination of a
exotic country with friendly people and a high
level cultural background plus unimaginable
vistas which make the country really top notch
as a tourist destination.
|
|
Taking the routing via the south western part
through Sre Ambel
which is about 150km southwest of Phnom Penh and
a small town in the Cardamon Mountains. This is
one of the biggest more or less undisturbed
nature spot in South East Asia with a size of
around 4,420,000 hectares. A survey in 2000
listed around 30 types of mammals, over 450
variants of birds, 65 reptiles and around 30
amphibians plus countless exotic plants and
insects, that a real nature treasure trove.
There is a proven record for tigers, elephants,
leopards, bears, various monkeys and even some
crocodiles have been spotted, if you want to
have a closer look check with this
travel agent
they are located in Sre Ambel.
Visiting the waterfall at Sre Ambel
is a
30 minutes ride with a scooter and about one
hour hike upwards into the hills, thereward is
the beautiful waterfall and a amazing panorama,
this is one of the best daytrips from the
capital and also when starting in the south. For the casual
tourist the most interesting is for sure a day
trip to Sre Ambel Peal Rong Waterfall. The ride from the
main road and the hike to the waterfalls are
really worth the $ 20,- money the motorbike taxi
will ask for. During the wet season when there
is much more water the falls are a spectacular
natural thunder. |
|
About another hour drive towards Sihanoukville
is Tatai
Waterfall or rather rapids the elevation wont
matter it just looks good and one of the other
positive thing is you as a traveler have all
this for you, there are no others around, here
again the same story take a local person maybe
with a scooter and let him carry you there, why,
you wont have any problems and he is happy
because earning some money, thats a excellent
social behavior to let locals participate on the
pleasure we have in their country. |
|
|
Approaching the harbor city from Kampot
needs a daytrip
to Bokor National Park. This is one of the
absolute highlight of southern Cambodia and a
showcase of the past since the French were here.
Again take a tour operator in Kampot book able
including pick from any hotel or guesthouse in
Kampot and them do it. The place on the mountain
is quite large and very interesting it might be
worth to come for another day but the first day
take the guided tour for orientation otherwise
you get lost for sure, this are raw nature
places with dirt treks and no signs if you do
this trek without a basic knowledge you get lost
on top of it it looks as if there are quite some
wild animals around plus mines. On the guided
tour there is always one military guy with the
group carrying a Kalashnikov for security.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|