A favourite Phnom Penh Temple, Cambodia

A favourite Phnom Penh Temple. If we’ve got this right, (and we’re not guaranteeing it!), the temple’s called Wat Kean Kleang. Situated a couple of kilometres after the Japanese Bridge with the Mekong bordering one side of the temple grounds and the main highway Number 6 the other. The temple is hard to miss with a large and elaborate, all gold-painted main hall clearly visible from some distance away.

The riverside location makes it a scenic spot and being slightly out of town you’re unlikely to see any other tourists there but what makes it a personal favourite is that there always seems to be something interesting going on there! (Another clincher for us are the lovely paintings to be found on the wooden doors and shutters of the old worshipping hall standing just riverside to the new gold hall and images of these will be posted in a subsequent blog post.)

Since they don’t see many foreigners in this suburban temple a visit is always sure to attract quite a bit of interest with plenty of curious kids and would be English-practicing monks certain to put in appearances.

The great thing is the kids (and adults) are just having fun and there’s none of the ‘1 dollar, 1 dollar!’ or ‘you buy postcards’ encountered at busier sites. Will certainly take along a few prints on our next trip in the hope of coming across the same kids again!

Above a couple of girls posing in front of on the great painted doors of the old temple whilst below, what would have been a fairly dull pic of a lad standing to attention in front of another doorway was made by his little brother (?) peeking his head around at just the right moment!

Our usual reason for visiting the temple is as a stop-off en route for the Koh Dach (Silk Island) ferry which debarks from a couple of kilometres up the riverbank. Next visit is scheduled for mid-October on our Beyond Angkor – off the beaten track Cambodia tour.

You can check out all our Cambodia itineraries at this page. Cheers!