Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Psar Chhnang & Fishing dock (see inset)
Tonle Sap
N
Transport to
Battambang
and the north
Tela Petrol
Station
Fishing
dock
Psar Leu
Rowing
boats
Acleda Bank
2
Transport
Stop
Vietnamese
Friendship
Monument
Psar
Chhnang
Kompong
Chhnang
Prison
Independence
Monument
ACCOMMODATION
Chantea Borint Hotel
Sovann Phum Hotel
1
2
Canadia Bank
EATING
Soksan Restaurant
Sovann Phum Restaurant
1
2
0
200
KOMPONG CHHNANG
metres
Phnom Penh
and throughout the year supplies of fresh fish are packed with ice and loaded daily
onto a fleet of trucks to drip their way towards the city. The fishing families,
primarily ethnic Vietnamese, live on the lake on
Phoum Kandal
, almost within
touching distance of the shore, and
Chong Kos
, further out over the waters to the
northwest - both far less touristy than the floating villages around the north end of
the lake near Siem Reap (see p.157). Locals offer village tours in tiny wooden boats,
rowed standing up - quoted prices can be on the high side, but, with a little
persistence, can usually be bargained down.
The villages themselves are a fascinating sight, with each house floating upon its own
miniature pontoon fashioned out of lashed-together bamboo trunks and other wooden
flotsam. Dwellings are arranged around a neat grid of miniature “streets” busy with
small fishing vessels, rowing boats and other craft, while tiny children paddle
themselves, seated in large cooking pots, between the buildings. Some of the houses are
little better than floating sheds; others are surprisingly luxurious, with comfortably
furnished interiors complete with TVs and generators, their roofs sprouting satellite
dishes and their pontoons festooned in miniature gardens of potted plants.
Phnom Santuk
3km west of the centre • Moto $5 return
Phnom Santuk
is a mound of huge boulders in the grounds of the wat of the same name;
climb to the top for views over rice paddies dotted with sugar-palm trees and the Tonle
Sap. It's worth hiring a moto for the trip as they can weave their way across the rice
paddies to the pot-making villages afterwards - a route you'd never find on your own.
Ondoung Rossey
7km northwest of Kompong Chhang • Moto $8 return; follow the Battambang road about 5km north from Kompong Chhnang and look for
a small sign for the village on the left
The best-known of the pottery villages surrounding Kompong Chhnang is
ONDOUNG
ROSSEY
, where locals work at preparing clay and spinning potting wheels in the shade of
