You can only ever truly understand the complex and diverse make-up of Cambodia once you start to explore its lesser known corners. Our plans to travel to Kampong Cham were originally set out to be a quick stop there in order to break up the long journey we were taking from the southern coastal town of Kep to the eastern jungle lands of Mondulkiri via a bus change in Phnom Penh.
When we arrived, the city felt so bizarre that my friend and I wondered if we had made the right choice to decamp here for a night or two. Local life moved at a slow pace, backpacker hangouts and hotels appeared eerily quiet and empty, there were far fewer tuk-tuks and people traffic, and the easily navigable area from the riverfront to the other side of town seemed to lack character.
Since I had been living in Siem Reap at that time, I had grown to like the bustle of Cambodian cities and this was very different. But how wrong we were that nothing at all was happening there.
The spontaneous visit was actually a welcome surprise and there was plenty to see, do and explore in the end. So much so, that I advise you not to make this a fleeting day trip. I spent two days and one night in the city and it fast became one of my favourite destinations in Cambodia. It oozed charm; an underrated, hard-to-explain-unless-you-are-there-living-it charm that made it interesting. We were not hassled and nor were we ignored.
One of the main Kampong Cham attractions was the Koh Pen bamboo bridge that connected the mainland to a small lake island. I had always wondered why a Khmer friend of mine from the town had once told me about it with such bounding enthusiasm.
