Cambodia forum

DONT DO IT!!!! Took this marathon journey about a week ago and it was hellish. Billed as 3 hours, took 7.5. Overloaded boat with some tourists forced to sit on the front prow (no shade, no seat, no cushions). Inexperienced captain kept banging into the side of the banks and near-missing oncoming vessels more than once. (Even less 'rules of the river' than rules of the road!!)

The water was so low that, having initially started the journey in quite a civilised fashion, after about 1.5 hours, the whole boatload was transferred onto three smaller boats for the remaining 5 hours of the journey. I can't imagine there'll be more than a cupful of water by end Feb or later. Locals get pissed off with the boat anyway as it causes washes and waves over their little house boats moored on the banks.

Also, I think the Lonely Planet reviewer of this trip must have been on magic mushrooms when he/she took the trip, describing it as 'some of the most scenic' in Cambodia. The river banks were piled high with rubbish and although one or two villages were scenic, in the main, it was considerably less scenic than, say, the Mekong at Kratie or the riverbank at Phnom Penh.