Kampong Cham

Kampong Cham is a riverside town with a French-era waterfront, wide quiet streets and rubber plantations behind it, and for years its signature was the bamboo bridge to Koh Paen island: a structure a kilometre long built entirely of lashed bamboo, put up by hand each dry season after the floods took the previous one away, strong enough to carry motorbikes and small cars, and dismantled or washed out when the water rose. A concrete bridge now serves the island and the bamboo one has been rebuilt in some years and not others, largely for visitors. Wat Nokor on the edge of town is an eleventh-century sandstone and laterite temple with a modern pagoda built inside it, the two interlocking oddly.

What you actually see

• The bamboo bridge - lashed bamboo spanning to Koh Paen, when built.
• Wat Nokor - an eleventh-century temple with a modern pagoda inside it.
• The French waterfront - colonial-era buildings along the Mekong.
• Koh Paen island - sandbank farms and villages across the water.

When to go

December to May is when the bamboo bridge stands, if it has been built that year; it is worth checking rather than assuming. November to March is the pleasantest weather overall.

Honest expectations

The bamboo bridge is no longer rebuilt every year and its future is uncertain, so it may not be there. The town has few other sights and is quiet to the point of sleepy. Wat Nokor charges an entry fee and can be crowded with local visitors on holy days.

Nearby

Wat Hanchey lies north; Phnom Penh is southwest.