Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
6am-7pm)
Internet access.
Pheng Ky Computer
(St 101; per hr 2000r;
Getting There & Around
Pursat is 105km southeast of Battambang and 185km northwest of Phnom Penh along
NH5.
Buses pass through Pursat virtually all day long, shuttling north to Battambang
(15,000r, 1½ hours) and southeast to Kompong Chhnang and Phnom Penh (20,000r, four
six hours, 11.30am) and Siem Reap (US$6, five hours, 7.30am) via Battambang.
Share taxis serve Phnom Penh (24,000r, three hours) from NH5 just east of the bridge.
Share taxis to Battambang (16,000r, two hours) depart from NH5 on the west edge of
town.
Pick-ups and share taxis to the remote Cardamoms town of Pramoay (Veal Veng;
30,000r, three hours) via Kravanh (one hour) and Rovieng (two hours) leave from next to
the old market, Psar Chaa.
Phnom Pech Hotel rents out bicycles (US$3 a day) and motorbikes (US$10) and can ar-
range a round-trip
remork
to Kompong Luong for US$15 for hotel guests or US$20 for
outsiders. A
moto
round trip to Kompong Luong is about US$10.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Kompong Luong
POP 10,000
Kompong Luong has all the amenities you'd expect to find in an oversized fishing village
- except that here everything floats on water. The result is a partly ethnic-Vietnamese
Venice without the dry land. The cafes, shops, chicken coops, fish ponds, ice-making fact-
ory and karaoke bars are kept from sinking by boat hulls, barrels or bunches of bamboo,
as are the Vietnamese pagoda, the blue-roofed church and the colourful houses. In the dry
season, when water levels drop and Tonlé Sap shrinks, the entire aquapolis is towed, boat
by boat, a few kilometres north.
The population of this fascinating and picturesque village is partly Vietnamese, so - re-
flecting their ambiguous status in Cambodian society - you may find the welcome here
slightly more subdued than in most rural Cambodian towns, at least from adults. Khmer
Rouge massacres of Vietnamese villagers living around Tonlé Sap lake were common-
