Michael Batson

Kompong (or Kampong) Thom sits on National Route Six about halfway between Cambodia's two most popular tourist attractions; Siem Reap, gateway to the ancient city of Angkor, and the capital, Phnom Penh. All the road traffic between these two points on the eastern side of the Great Lake (Tonle Sap) passes through the town, and most of it seems to stop at the Arunras Hotel. Every day there’s a line of buses of various makes, models, vintages, and ownership, parked nose in or parallel to the hotel’s curved doorstep, it being on the corner of the main road and the curiously named Democrat Street. Curious because as an observation, I always find it interesting that countries with little in the way of actual working democracy, tend to name all manner of things after the concept, though little in practice exists. Such are these things around here. For one of the largest buildings in town, the Arunras has one of the smallest lobby areas for a hotel that I’ve come across. It can be crowded with barely half-a-dozen people there, including the desk staff. The buses stop to give the passengers some grub, or for a pit stop depending on what time of day or night they’re passing through. For a place many stop but few take the time to stay; things are a-changing. For a byway on the highway, Kompong Thom is starting to step out of the shadows of Cambodia’s other tourist destinations. In Khmer “Kompong” means town or city on the river, and “Thom” is big or grand