Things To Do In Kampot – Budget Travel In Cambodia

Visit Kampot, Cambodia and enjoy a sleepy, peaceful town filled with crumbling, colonial buildings. It is situated on the Kompong Bay River, where boats take tourists on sunset trips.

After falling ill in Kep, it was time to travel the short distance to Kampot and hopefully continue my recovery.

As usual, I had little knowledge of Kampot or what it had to offer prior to arriving. During our travels, we rarely looked beyond the next destination. Once we arrived in a place, that was when we would begin trying to find the quirky bars, the hidden delights and the more local events.

Durian Roundabout

One thing I had noticed on Google Maps prior to arriving, was that Kampot had a big Durian in the middle of one of its main roundabouts! This was very exciting. I had developed a curious fascination with durian and how it completely divided opinion to both extremes. After first trying it in Bangkok, I was completely undecided. I could see how people described it as creamy and buttery but I also got the ‘eggy, gassy’ taste that put people off. The smell didn’t bother me and I did like how, despite being banned in many establishments, you could see durian traders in just about every South East Asian town. It’s the punk rock of fruits and I love it for that reason!

The roundabout pays tribute to other Asian fruits such as mangosteen, rambutan and longan, but it was obvious that durian was king.

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Things To Do In Kampot

First of all, Kampot is a great place to simply relax. It has cool coffee shops and bars, cheap and good quality restaurants and enough boutique shops to keep most tourists happy. It is also very pretty, with many of the old French buildings still in use.

Bokor National Park

We booked a package trip from ‘Mad Monkey Hostel’ (though they were only acting as resellers) which included a boat trip in the evening. The trip up Bokor Hill was a long, steep one. Don’t attempt this with bicycles! Our first stop was to look at the old King’s summer house, now left in disrepair. Like the abandoned villas of Kep, it was very eerie walking around these old buildings, now covered in graffiti and the onset of nature.

After spending some time at the Big Buddha, we then continued to Sampov Pram Pagoda, the highest temple in Cambodia. There were some awesome views from this point.

Then we moved on to Bokor Church, which was abandoned, neglected and covered in graffiti.

Finally, we finished at Bokor Hill Station. Until very recently, this hotel was abandoned like many other buildings in the area; a ghostly reminder of an elegant past. However, it had been renovated and was now about to open as a hotel again. The prices were ridiculously high. There was been a lot of Chinese investment in this area and there was already a huge casino and other luxury hotels. The locals were not happy as they felt they were losing their identity in the process. This had recently happened in Sihanouk (a place we were heading to next but had been advised to skip as it was nothing more than a bomb site).

The views were still great but it was a disappointing finale to the trip.

Bokor Night Market

Despite staying only 5 minutes walk from Bokor Night Market, we didn’t know about it until we saw it from the sunset boat trip. There were barely any tourists here. Cambodian language films were shown and it seemed popular with young Cambodians on dates. It had a nice atmosphere to it and is worth checking out, if you’re nearby. Map.

Bokor Night Market Opening Times: 4 pm – 10 pm, every day.

Kampot Night Market

A lively market near the durian roundabout that is also a popular hangout spot for localfamilies. There were some good bargains to be found and a number of food stalls; I managed to get some great grilled meat! Map.

Kampot Night Market Opening Times: 8 am – 10 pm, every day.

Sunset Boat Trip

This was included as part of our Bokor National Park trip but we would have done this anyway. For just $5 (includes 2 beers) we enjoyed a near-90-minute return boat ride on the river, stopping to spot fireflies. There were many boats on the pier (to the left of the fish market) and they all offered the same thing. Have a listen to the music they play and the clientele on board before making your choice. We sat at the front of the boat and enjoyed a couple of beers as the sun set over the river. It was a real highlight. Boats leave at approximately 1730 and they do get busy so it is better to get there a little early and get a good spot.

Is Kampot Worth Visiting?

I REALLY loved Kampot. It was a great place to enjoy coming back to life after my illness in Kep. It had wonderful coffee shops, good and affordable restaurants and at least one very cool bar. There were a lot of worthwhile initiatives taking place, mostly led by foreign residents, that made the place vibrant and forward-thinking. The architecture was a real treat for the eyes. DEFINITELY add Kampot to your Cambodia itinerary.