kampong thom

Kampong Thom is a city in Cambodia that is the capital of a province with the same name. It is located east of the Tonle Sap Lake. The National Highway 6 passes through Kampong Thom, and its location is roughly halfway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, so it’s great place for travelers between the two cities to stop for a short break before they continue their journey.

We stopped at the Kampong Thom Market area during our van ride to Siem Reap. The driver told us that we had about fifteen minutes to stretch, using the restroom facilities at one of the restaurants, and get snacks and drinks. He also warned us to watch the time and don’t venture too far from where our passenger van was parked, so when it’s time to leave, it’s easy to gather everyone and we could continue our journey without much delay.

After a quick bio-break, Kristi and I hung out outside the restaurant near our passenger van — heeding to our driver’s advice. We still had some food that our hotel packed for us in the morning, and I wasn’t that hungry, but I did purchase a can of Coke Light to drink. It’s nice and refreshing as it was getting warmer outside. I thought it’s interesting that they called it Coke Light there (same in Vietnam) instead of Diet Coke. You don’t see many overweight locals, so I guess the concept of ‘Diet’ was not really that popular there.

Kristi ventured a little bit further and found a fresh fruit cart and bought a plastic bag full of freshly cut pineapples. I had a little bit of that — it was great, fresh and sweet. The American girl in our van went to get a num pang sandwich (similar to the one we had for breakfast the day before).

As we gathered near the van and got ready to leave, our driver tried to make some conversation with the foreigners using his broken English. When he found out that the gentleman who sat on the front seat was from England, he smiled and started mentioning Wayne Rooney, a famous soccer player from Manchester United. I also overheard them chatting with the American girl as well. Where the American girl who was an English teacher in Phnom Penh wanted to go to Siem Reap to celebrate New Year’s Eve, the British gentleman was apparently on a spiritual journey, going from places to places in Thailand and Cambodia to visit Buddhist temples and monasteries. It was quite interesting, as he was doing it as a way to retreat from the fast-paced life in western cities especially around Christmas holidays.

Our Cambodian driver also tried to make conversation with the American girl, and asked her where she would be staying in Siem Reap. He seemed to just wanting to be nice and hospitable to the foreigners, but I could tell the American girl was taken aback with that question (especially since she was traveling alone). She mumbled a place’s name — I wasn’t sure if that’s really where she was staying, but the driver just smiled and the conversation kind of stopped there. Then he continued talking with me and Kristi, asking if we’re a married couple. I told him that we’re actually cousins. I wasn’t sure if he understood what I said; he just smiled, nodded his head, and then moved on and talked with other passengers.

After that short pit stop that was quite welcomed as a break in the middle of the five-hour drive, we continued our trip to Siem Reap.

The photo below was taken just outside the restaurant in the Kampong Thom Market area where we stopped for a break. You could see our van on the left, a couple of passengers from another van walking around checking the area, and the restaurant on the right where we went for bio-break and where I got my Coke Light.

The van ride we decided to take from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap turned out to be an interesting experience. We wanted to see the Cambodian countryside and experience travel like the locals, and the trip didn’t disappoint. It took about five hours to get from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, including a fifteen-minute break in the middle in a town called Kampong Thom. The tour company that arranged our trip was right; taking the passenger van, though it’s about the same price as taking the bus, was actually faster because the passenger van is smaller and can move faster and navigate around slower traffic better than the bus.

During the ride, it was interesting to observe the passengers inside the van. On the front row, next to the driver was a British older gentleman who was traveling alone. Next to him was a Cambodian man who seemed to know the driver as they had talked with each other like friends during the trip. I sat in the middle of the second row. On my left was a Japanese gentleman who carried his Canon DSLR with him. We picked him up at a hotel just after the van picked us up at our hotel. Before he left, we saw him giving a local person a hug — seemed to be someone who had helped him during his travels so far. During our trip, I saw him uploading the photos from his camera to his laptop, then he spent some time reviewing the photos. He had many portraits of local Cambodian in rural areas; beautifully taken and seemed to have one theme: showcasing the people of Cambodia (many if not most were smiling — wonderful to see in a country that many considered as among the poorest in the world). On my right was my cousin Kristi, who spent most of the time during the trip taking a nap.

Behind our row there were two more rows of passengers (5 more people). One of the passengers was the American girl who was a teacher in Phnom Penh (as I gathered from listening to her talking to a couple of other foreigners right after our pick up from the hotel). The rest of the passengers were local Cambodians. The American girl also spent most of the trip taking a nap. One Cambodian gentleman who sat in the back row provided an interesting ‘entertainment’ during our ride. Apparently he was conducting business during the ride. His mobile phone must’ve received calls every 5-10 minutes, and he talked to his colleague over the phone. Some calls were in Khmer, some were in English. Quite interesting to observe…

The scenery varied as we passed towns and rice fields. Once in a while I noticed roadside stands with people selling what looked like glass bottles of drink (brownish in color, looked like alcoholic drink). I wasn’t really sure what that was — later on I found out that it was people selling gasoline for motorcycles (unless you’re in big city like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, you rarely see gas station). As I mentioned in my post about National Highway 6, we passed people with various modes of transportation that are slower (oxcart, bicycle, etc.). Our driver didn’t slow down much, driving between 60-100 kmh and honking his horn to get people to notice that we’re about to pass them.

The photo below was taken when we stopped in Kampong Thom for a break in the middle. Here you can see our passenger van getting refreshed during the trip. It was quite a new Ford Transit, which we saw quite a bit in the Southeast Asian countries we visited (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam). Ford seemed to do quite a good business in the region to supply the vans for intercity travels.