Kampong Chhnang

The name means port of pots, and pottery is the local trade: villages such as Andong Russey and Ondong Rossey make cooking pots and water jars by a hand-building technique in which the potter walks backwards around the pot rather than turning a wheel, shaping it with a paddle and anvil, and firing in open bonfires. Workshops in the villages take visitors. The other half of the town is on the water: a large floating village of Cham and Vietnamese households sits where the river opens toward the Tonle Sap, houses and shops on pontoons that move with the season, and boats run out among them. The town itself is a quiet provincial place on the road north from Phnom Penh.

What you actually see

• Walk-around potting - vessels built by circling rather than on a wheel.
• Bonfire firing - open firings in the village yards.
• The floating village - pontoon houses and shops on the water.
• The seasonal shift - how far the water reaches at different times of year.

When to go

November to March. Water levels are highest just after the rains, which changes where the floating village sits; boat trips are easiest then. Pottery is made year round but less in the wettest weeks.

Honest expectations

Boat trips are hired whole and prices are negotiated, often quoted high. The floating village is people's homes and photographing them from a boat needs some care. Pottery villages are working places with no visitor facilities. The town has little accommodation.

Nearby

Phnom Penh lies south; the Tonle Sap opens north.