Teuk Chhou rapids: hammocks and cold water

A short ride north of town to where the river tumbles over rocks out of the hills, and Cambodian families spend whole afternoons in bamboo huts over the water.

Area

Bokor & the river

Start from

Kampot

Distance

about 8 km each way

Time needed

half a day

Best season

All year; busiest on weekends and holidays

Difficulty

Easy

Transport

Bicycle, scooter or tuk-tuk

Tickets & rules

Small entry fee; hammock hut rental

Why go

Teuk Chhou is where Kampot people go to cool off. The river, deep and slow in town, here comes rushing out of the foothills over boulders and shallow rocky steps, and the water is fresher and colder than anything near the coast.

Along both banks stand rows of bamboo huts on stilts with hammocks and mats, rented by the afternoon. Families order grilled chicken, fried fish, papaya salad and bags of ice, then spend hours eating, swimming, sleeping and talking. It is a lovely, unpretentious scene, and almost nobody there is a foreigner.

The rapids are not a waterfall and not a wild place: there are vendors, music and plastic inner tubes. But on a weekday morning, with the hills green behind you and the water roaring past, it is one of the most relaxing half-days in the province.

The story

The name Teuk Chhou is the same river name you hear in town, Praek Tuek Chhu, and the rapids are where it leaves the hills for the plain. Upstream lies the Kamchay hydropower dam, built in the late 2000s and opened around 2011, which changed the river’s flow; the rapids can be fuller or lower depending on how much water is being released.

For generations this was a picnic place for Kampot families, especially around Khmer New Year in April and during the Pchum Ben festival. Later a small zoo and other attractions grew nearby, and the huts multiplied along the banks.

Cambodian picnicking is an art. People bring cool boxes, rice cookers, sometimes a portable karaoke speaker, and they stay until the sun goes down. If you are sitting near a family, you may well be offered something to eat.

The countryside on the way is classic Kampot: durian orchards, palm sugar trees, small pagodas and wooden houses on stilts. The ride there is half the pleasure.

Getting there

Follow the road north from Kampot along the river; the rapids are signposted and roughly 8 km from town. It is an easy, mostly flat bicycle ride, or fifteen to twenty minutes by tuk-tuk. A small entry fee is usually charged at the gate.

A suggested plan

1. 8:00 amCycle or ride out of town along the river road.
2. 8:45 amArrive at the rapids before the crowds; rent a hut over the water.
3. 9:30 amSwim in the calmer pools at the edges; float in a rented tube.
4. 12:00 pmOrder grilled fish or chicken and papaya salad at the huts.
5. 2:00 pmRide back via the orchards and small pagodas, stopping for sugarcane juice.

Where to stay

Stay in Kampot. The riverside guesthouses north of town are closer, and from some of them you can cycle to the rapids in half an hour.

Good to know

• Go on a weekday if you want quiet; weekends and holidays are packed.
• Agree the price of the hut and the food before you sit down.
• Bring a swimsuit and a sarong; Cambodians often swim in clothes, so dress modestly.
• Water shoes help on the slippery rocks.