Last Updated on 31 January 2026 by Cycloscope
The second part of our Cambodia bike trip. Cycling from the beautiful Kampot through the creepy Takeo. A visit to Phnom Chisor and a nightmare in Phnom Penh
This is the second part of a detailed description of our Cambodia bike tour. Coming from Thailand in August, we crossed this beautiful country, heading to the only border with Laos.
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Here’s the description of the 172km from Kampot to Phnom Penh. Some people ride this in one day, we rode in 4, taking our time to explore the rural areas around.
Kampot to Takeo – 92 km
There are several ways to reach Phnom Penh from Kampot (check our Kampot article here). The longest route is to head to Kep along Route 33 and then join National Highway 2 to Takeo; the shortest routes are National Road 41 or Highway 3.
We chose a mix of Highway 3 and 2, with some detours on dirt tracks when possible, which meant we followed the roads marked on OpenStreetMap.
This stretch is not the most beautiful, whatever road you choose, being mostly plains with monotonous rice paddies and ugly little towns. The more you can detour from the highway, the nicer it can become.
However, National Highway 3, despite its name, is not busy at all, with good pavement and usually a wide enough shoulder to avoid boredom from the few trucks.
As usual, along the Cambodian main roads, there are accommodations more or less every 40/50km. We overnight at Chhuk, where there’s a beautiful, cheap (7 USD) guesthouse just at the beginning of the unpaved road 133A, heading southeast. Take the room on the pond with a huge terrace, one of the best ever seen in Cambodia.
33 more km along Highway 3, before making the cut, brings us to the provincial capital of Takeo on Highway 2, after 12km. Takeo is big by Cambodian standards, and we found it pretty ugly and gave off a sense of unease (just a sensation). It’s sadly famous for prostitution; indeed, we found some fake eyelashes in our hotel room.
Most of the guesthouses are on the road into town from the west. The city center really has nothing to offer but a night market where we eat and get sick, so we advise you to get a room before coming downtown to have more choices.
Takeo to Phnom Penh – 80km
There are several Angkorian temples near Takeo area, most require an entry fee and all are off the main roads, for a full list with location visit this page.
We decided to visit Phnom Chisor, which is not far from Highway 2 on the way to Phnom Penh. We found a side road to get there from Takeo, which made for one of the best cycling days of our Cambodian bicycle tour.
Head north from the city center, across the shallow lake full of lotus flowers, then follow the track on the map below.
A beautiful 32-kilometer unpaved road, crossing traditional Khmer villages and rice paddies (literally inside the fields). A marvelous glimpse into Cambodian traditional life: beautiful houses on pillars, some even 5m from the ground. This area is certainly not the poorest in Cambodia, but the lifestyle is tied to the old times.
We did this road during the wet season, and it was ok, maybe after a big downpour, some stretches could be tricky, your choice if you want to take the risk. In the dry season, the mud turns to dust, and breathing can be hard when there are many cars.
Phnom Chisor
coordinates N 11° 11′ 15.5″ E 104° 49′ 20.7.“
Phnom Chisor (or Phnom Chiso) is an 11th-century Angkorian temple set on a hilltop with a cool view. It used to be a pretty big temple, but now lies in ruin, being bombed by the American Air Force during the Vietnam War.
The site, however, is worth a visit. Most likely, you’ll be the only tourist around, and the atmosphere is magnetic; the central altar is still used for religious purposes, and we met a monk praying inside.
To reach it, however, a staircase of around 400 steps must be climbed. I have been here around noon, and I’m feeling sick from food poisoning in the Takeo night market, so when I went down, I almost fainted, having to lie under a shed for about 30 minutes. It’s damn hot in Cambodia.
On the foothill, there’s a box for offers; no official ticket seems necessary, and although people may ask you for money, I easily walked away.
On the hilltop, there’s also a modern Buddhist temple, with a reclining Buddha, some frescoes, and dorms for monks. Leave the money to them if you want to leave any.
There are two guesthouses nearby, one on the wetland before the temple and another right at the feet of the hill, on the west side. Carrying on is 6 more km to get on Highway 2, where there’s another guesthouse 5km after the junction.
Nearby Phnom Penh
Back on Highway 2, the road gets busier and less interesting. Maybe Highway 3 could’ve been slightly better, but given its proximity to Phnom Penh, I won’t bet on it.
Leaving Highway 2 for Choeung Ek road at Krang Svay, we pass beside the biggest and most infamous of the Khmer Rouge killing fields, 10km before Phnom Penh.
Cycling in Phnom Penh is a nightmare; it’s one of the worst cities in Southeast Asia and thus in the whole world. Drivers are crazy, rules are nonexistent, temperatures are near boiling, and roads are narrow and full of potholes.
Luckily, it’s a small city, so you won’t have to suffer for long. We spent a few days here, exploring the best tourist attractions in Phnom Penh while deciding whether to head north into Laos or cross the border into Vietnam.
More about Cambodia
- Cycling Cambodia – Everything you need to know
- For the first part of the itinerary, from the Thai border near Koh Khong to Kampot, click here.
- For part 3: from Phnom Penh to the Lao border, through Kampong Cham, Kreatie, and Stung Treng, here.
- At the bottom of the article is the map of the whole Cambodian tour. Click on the track to get the elevation profile.
- For general hints and tricks to keep your budget extremely low while traveling in Cambodia, check out this article.
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