Kampong Chhnang attractions

Kampong Chhnang attractions
Places we went to on a weekend trip (from Phnom Penh, two days and one night in Kampong Chhnang), not comprehensive.

1. Bardez stupa (assassination site 1925)
2. Abandoned airport
3. Ferry across Tonle Sap river
4. Phnom Kong Rei
5. Details about travelling

1. Bardez stupa (assassination site 1925).
On google maps only in Khmer as ចេតីយ ប៉ាដេស ភូមិក្រាំងលាវ in front of Wat Balang Reangsey (highway 145, dust road). Coordinates 12.2344, 104.557.

Stupa erected to commemorate the assassination of French ambassador while collecting taxes. I was not aware of this bit of history, and there is only little literature in English on the internet, e.g.

Stupefying tale behind the ‘Beast People’ August 30, 2019
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/638658/stupefying-tale-behind-the-beast-people/

Nearly a century after the bloody murder of a French colonial official, a village still bears the mark of the ‘beast’ 19 January 2018
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-life/nearly-century-after-bloody-murder-french-colonial-official-village-still-bears-mark-beast

And an article on Wikipedia, but only in Polish:
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Louis_Bardez 

It seems no maintenance since erection, it is in a beautiful state of abandonment/decay:

There are flowers growing on the stupa:

Statue of the woman who assassinated Bardez is a later addition:

2. Abandoned airport
South entrance at 12.2436, 104.5666 blocked for cars, mocy would be able to pass on the grassland. My friend translated from farmers living nearby: access blocked to prevent locals from racing on the runway and leaving a mess. For more (history of construction during Red Khmer, how other tourists managed to get to control tower) read here:

https://www.kathmanduandbeyond.com/abandoned-cambodia-former-khmer-rouge-airport-kampong-chhnang/ They managed to get in. At that time grey weathered concrete, now painted yellow.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kampong-chhnang-airport
Recent pictures (yellow painted tower)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Chhnang_Airport

Concrete runway looks like new. Farmers and security keep everything in good condition.





3. Ferry across Tonle Sap river
It’s rare that I take a ferry, even rarer with car, so this is worth mentioning. The ferry leaves about every 30 minutes from “Kampong Leng Ferry Dock” (the blue dotted line on google maps ends at a place that is not the ferry port), and takes the shortest route to “Kampong Leaeng Ferry” (not the longer route blue dotted line on google maps). Just twenty years ago, most crossings of rivers in Cambodia were by ferry. Now this is one of the few left, and probably will remain as the river is wide at this spot and there is not much on the other side.

There are two ferries. On going upper passenger deck open, on return upper passenger deck with roof.

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4. Phnom Kong Rei
For details (folktale story) read e.g. here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Kong_Rei It took us about 1 hour to get up, with ample rests. Start of stairway (with car park and shelter and an old man who will tell the story of the mountain and a kind of map) at 12.3073, 104.7145.
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View of mountain from pier (West side of Tonle Sap River):
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From there it's 244 steps to a level place with shrine. The man who built the stairway ? (T suggested a donation of 5 USD for  maintenance work and to buy more concrete to continue construction) lives there. It's a few 100 m detour to the East to a well. The man who lives there drinks this water all the time, and after B had a glass, I had a glass of water from the well as well.

40 more steps, then path on soil or rock. I continued counting estimated steps and it would be 965 steps to the top. On google maps it's 280 m vertical distance from parking to top. End of stairway:

About halfway up, a rock with a shrine and view West over Tonle Sap River to Kampong Chhnang town and Aoral mountain in background.

Top of the mountain another rock with shrine and great views. Picture is view to the South.

5. Details about travelling
A friend B suggested we go to Kampong Chhnang for sightseeing on the weekend, i.e. he had some ideas where to go, I have the money to pay for a rented car, and I added some places I wanted to see.

Sat11sep2021 Phnom Penh to Kampong Chhnang
Everyone (B who will drive, his friends T and J, car from car rental delivered to my hotel) is ready in the morning for departure 8 am. I pay 200 USD for car (Lexus 300, 60 USD rental for one day and 140 USD deposit, there are probably cheaper options but I left all planning to B).

Car dashboard was in non-metric units (MPH, MPG, deg F). No USB charger. Fuel pointer not working/disabled points to Empty all the time, because car converted to CNG/LPG, with an indicator lamp not visible from passenger front seat, but B says there is an indicator lamp that shows low fuel level.

Delays in Oudong due to construction work on road. This has been going on for months and it takes about 1 hour to pass 10 km (Oudong town and construction site).

Bardez Stupa and abandoned airport to plan. But then B tells me we are going to J’s grandpa’s house for lunch. They want to have lunch there to save me money. Next time have to tell them that not money, but daylight is my limiting factor. When we pass a hotel, he mentions “This is the hotel.” (What hotel? This is a daytrip!). I ask about ferry: It takes one hour and the last will be soon, we can’t do it today (ferry crossing and Phnom Kong Rei). I have nothing important for tomorrow, so I resign on an unplanned overnight stay in Kampong Chhnang (just like in Thailand, I plan to overnight in every province anyway).

Arrive at grandpa’s house. They have fish, but I don’t eat fish during sightseeing trips because I’m afraid of fish bone and it takes me long to eat, wasting daylight time. They would buy a chicken for me, but preparation would take at least 30min. We drive back to town to get food for me and back to grandpa’s house. It starts to rain, so the afternoon is lost for sightseeing anyway, but watch out for the future: no family reunion, utterly boring and waste of daylight!

At Rama Hotel, they don’t have a room for 4 people, so I pay for two double rooms (15 USD each). There are more hotels we could check, but it’s 5 pm and I still have one hour of daylight for walking around in town and taking pictures, every delay would greatly reduce this time.

Sun12sep2021 Kampong Chhnang to Phnom Penh
For lunch after climbing the mountain, the boys want to go to nearby restaurant that has turtle for 8 USD. We have a look at the live turtles, but it turns out the price for a turtle dish would be 20 USD, which I refuse to pay. We have lunch for 4 from menu for 25 USD (I pay).

The boys talk about going to Kep tomorrow and ask me to join. No way! Kep is a bit far for a daytrip, and too close to this trip which was supposed to be a daytrip, but turned out to be over night. Then I learn that the car has to be returned before 5 pm, else another day is charged. Too late already (would take 4 hours to get back to Phnom Penh). Earlier talk about going to Kep tomorrow was based on renting the car one day longer! That makes 3 days x 60 USD/day = 180 USD for car rental.

That leaves 20 USD change, which T wants to share with B as tip for translation and driving, I agree. Kind of: if I have 200 USD (proven by putting it as deposit), I can as well spend it.

T asks about dinner, I say I will eat in my room. “How can we eat?” so I invite them to streetside restaurant. But then I see what the problem is: “You mean you don’t have money for dinner?” – “Yes.” So I give him 5 USD. Get out of here before they ask for money for petrol and food for tomorrow trip to Kep.

Twice as long (overnight instead of daytrip) and three times (car rental three days instead of one) as expensive than I had planned.

When I had a trip with Thai friends https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2015/11/trip-to-nakon-nayok-with-some-thai.html it was a disaster, a complete waste of time and money (I could have gone cheaper and more comfortable alone). 

This trip with Khmer friends did not go to plan (my plan, but maybe they had another plan and it went to their plan?) either, but I saw interesting places that I didn’t even know about, and with some adjustments I would do another trip with them. 

Addendum:

Meme flammable house
"assassination of French ambassador while collecting taxes"

The airport was my change of plan (I did not know we would drive past the airport), taking at least one hour.

Way more expensive than I had planned, but: Money returns, time does not.

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