Udong Mountain
Udong Mountain
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- W128452 contributionsTop hill - get there early and follow my tipGorgeous gaffe. Hit it early to climb the steps (get dropped off at the top of up street where the climb is shorter and up shallower steps then come down the steep steps to the market. Properly beautiful and great views and love the old stupas as well. We visisted on a public holiday so great to hang out with the Khmer crowds although we got there early to avoid the heatVisited August 2024Travelled with familyWritten 4 August 2024
- DeepakSuva, Fiji347 contributionsA lot of steps but beautiful scenery from the topWe visited the Oudong or Udong Mountains on our second day in Phnom Penh. It's also called the city of old kings and was the former Capital city. There is a walk up of 509 steps to reach the top, and it can get exhausting but good to take short breaks in between and maybe visit early in the morning when the sun is not too high. You will see some monkeys as well along the climb. Surely a tick off the list if you want to see the the village side of the country.Visited July 2024Travelled as a coupleWritten 19 August 2024
- Bcr8tveThe Woodlands, Texas466 contributionsFormer capital of CambodiaVisited by bus as part of AMADARA day tour. Our group received blessing by monks. We sat on carpet with eyes closed. Don't point feet at monks. Then we put shoes back on and walked up stairs to view point on top of mountain. Take shoes off again. Nice scenic view. Staircase is stamped concrete and gently sloped incline.Visited August 2024Travelled as a coupleWritten 28 August 2024
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Mika
Milan, Italy168 contributions
Sept 2023 • Family
Out there
Phon Phen city is a complex of temples frequented by them. Not particularly well kept and not of particular importance. More interesting are the teeming stalls and restaurants with hammocks that crowd around. The 500 steps can be done without any problems
Phon Phen city is a complex of temples frequented by them. Not particularly well kept and not of particular importance. More interesting are the teeming stalls and restaurants with hammocks that crowd around. The 500 steps can be done without any problems
Written 14 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bcr8tve
The Woodlands, TX466 contributions
Aug 2024 • Couples
Visited by bus as part of AMADARA day tour. Our group received blessing by monks. We sat on carpet with eyes closed. Don't point feet at monks. Then we put shoes back on and walked up stairs to view point on top of mountain. Take shoes off again. Nice scenic view. Staircase is stamped concrete and gently sloped incline.
Written 29 August 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ron
Phnom Penh, Cambodia68 contributions
Sept 2023 • Couples
Most of Phnom Penh attractions can be covered off in a couple of days if well-planned. Udong is not on any tourist brochures. Hot, long, tiring return day trip but totally worth it. Hired an English speaking tuk Tuk driver for the day. Fascinating history and new developments. Be prepared for a hot climb (steps) up the hill.
Written 18 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Deepak
Suva, Fiji347 contributions
Jul 2024 • Couples
We visited the Oudong or Udong Mountains on our second day in Phnom Penh. It's also called the city of old kings and was the former Capital city.
There is a walk up of 509 steps to reach the top, and it can get exhausting but good to take short breaks in between and maybe visit early in the morning when the sun is not too high. You will see some monkeys as well along the climb.
Surely a tick off the list if you want to see the the village side of the country.
There is a walk up of 509 steps to reach the top, and it can get exhausting but good to take short breaks in between and maybe visit early in the morning when the sun is not too high. You will see some monkeys as well along the climb.
Surely a tick off the list if you want to see the the village side of the country.
Written 20 August 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
About Cambodia Travel & Tours
Siem Reap, Cambodia715 contributions
Mar 2019 • Friends
Udong is beautiful views and surrounding by jungle, walk up by the stairs case about 369 steps but it not so steeped, there some monkeys living in area. It is the religious places and on the top inside the power , there are more then 5000 statues, it is beautiful to walk around the central tower on the top. It open from 06:00 AM until 06:00 pm everyday .
Written 28 March 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Honisoiquimalypense
Derby, UK1,306 contributions
Dec 2017 • Solo
Took a tuk tuk from the hotel to here and it was a nice ride out - about 1 hour and 20 minutes. From a distance it just looks like 2 small bumps on the flat plain but as you get closer it certainly becomes more impressive. NOTE - there are no signs or maps in English only Khmer. There are 2 stairs leading up - a modern steep set all newly painted with 509 steps (and monkeys - don’t lay anything down - it will be grabbed by them) - there are 3 platforms you can take a rest on! There is also an “ ancient” stairway with 600+ steps.
There is a visitor information centre at the base of the steps and also a clean WC that you can pay to use ( it is clean).
The first stupa you see after the 509 steps is the “new stupa” - all new and beautifully carved with nice marble stairs and marble platform to walk around.
TIP - you have to take off your shoes at the top to get to the stupa. Take a plastic bag with you and carry your shoes with you as after you leave the “new stupa” if you want to continue on up the hill to see the other stupas and shrines - the ground gets very rough and stony any our poor Western feet cannot take the roughness and sharpness! On top of the hill the locals all have their shoes on.
Moving on and up from the “ new stupa” you get to the :
Damrei Sam Poan” stupa (1623) - it is in reasonable shape. Key points are the elephant heads on the lower sides. Next is the
Tray Treon stupa (1891) - it is in reasonable shape and it has neat ceramic tiles and motifs on it. After that is a descent down a very rough set of steps and if you have you shoes with you is is a breeze to go on but if you are on your bare feet is extremely tough - most tourists stop here. Down these stairs is the
Chet Dey Mak Phnom stupa (1927?) - it is in good shape and is very ornately carved and has the 4 faces on its spire. Again a lot of tourists stop here but it is worth it to keep walking further along the hill crest and descend to see some of the less well visited shrines - generally in poorer shape but it is worth it to get to Preah Atharas at the end.
The next shrine is:
A small shrine with an “African” male statue in it, dressed as an army General, complete with uniform, medals and hat. Really bizarre! Next is
Preah Neak - it is in bad shape but there is a statue of Buhhha sitting on a giant snake that has multiple heads above him.
Next is a small shrine with some Buddhas in it. Further on you get to
Preah Ko, a small dark shrine with a statue of a bull in it - it was the sacred mount of Shive. Down some more steps and up a few more is
Preah Atharas (13th century) - a biggish Complex that was pretty much designated during the civil war - and only one part of the Buddhas shoulder was left. There is an active restoration programme underway - the 11m high Buddha is re built and painted ( a good job too) and the wall frescos are pretty much done and 2 of the huge pillars have been re-stuccoed. The roof is just corrugated iron on a metal frame. Despite this it is worth the effort to get here.
One final note - Oudong mountain is riddled with beggars and folk selling all kinds of stuff. There is a million kids hastling you too. Some folks get upset about this but if you ignore it land let it all wash over you it is OK.
This could be a really great tourist destination but the Government and the Buddhist authorities need to spend some time and effort on cleaning it up.
I spent just under 2 hours strolling about here and did it all comfortably (except the big climb)!! Almost forget - you get great views of the plains and the rivers and countryside from the “new stupa”!!!
There is a visitor information centre at the base of the steps and also a clean WC that you can pay to use ( it is clean).
The first stupa you see after the 509 steps is the “new stupa” - all new and beautifully carved with nice marble stairs and marble platform to walk around.
TIP - you have to take off your shoes at the top to get to the stupa. Take a plastic bag with you and carry your shoes with you as after you leave the “new stupa” if you want to continue on up the hill to see the other stupas and shrines - the ground gets very rough and stony any our poor Western feet cannot take the roughness and sharpness! On top of the hill the locals all have their shoes on.
Moving on and up from the “ new stupa” you get to the :
Damrei Sam Poan” stupa (1623) - it is in reasonable shape. Key points are the elephant heads on the lower sides. Next is the
Tray Treon stupa (1891) - it is in reasonable shape and it has neat ceramic tiles and motifs on it. After that is a descent down a very rough set of steps and if you have you shoes with you is is a breeze to go on but if you are on your bare feet is extremely tough - most tourists stop here. Down these stairs is the
Chet Dey Mak Phnom stupa (1927?) - it is in good shape and is very ornately carved and has the 4 faces on its spire. Again a lot of tourists stop here but it is worth it to keep walking further along the hill crest and descend to see some of the less well visited shrines - generally in poorer shape but it is worth it to get to Preah Atharas at the end.
The next shrine is:
A small shrine with an “African” male statue in it, dressed as an army General, complete with uniform, medals and hat. Really bizarre! Next is
Preah Neak - it is in bad shape but there is a statue of Buhhha sitting on a giant snake that has multiple heads above him.
Next is a small shrine with some Buddhas in it. Further on you get to
Preah Ko, a small dark shrine with a statue of a bull in it - it was the sacred mount of Shive. Down some more steps and up a few more is
Preah Atharas (13th century) - a biggish Complex that was pretty much designated during the civil war - and only one part of the Buddhas shoulder was left. There is an active restoration programme underway - the 11m high Buddha is re built and painted ( a good job too) and the wall frescos are pretty much done and 2 of the huge pillars have been re-stuccoed. The roof is just corrugated iron on a metal frame. Despite this it is worth the effort to get here.
One final note - Oudong mountain is riddled with beggars and folk selling all kinds of stuff. There is a million kids hastling you too. Some folks get upset about this but if you ignore it land let it all wash over you it is OK.
This could be a really great tourist destination but the Government and the Buddhist authorities need to spend some time and effort on cleaning it up.
I spent just under 2 hours strolling about here and did it all comfortably (except the big climb)!! Almost forget - you get great views of the plains and the rivers and countryside from the “new stupa”!!!
Written 31 December 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Vincent M
New Orleans, LA2,256 contributions
Feb 2017 • Couples
Oudong was the royal capital for over 250 years, and is considerably more historic than Phnom Penh. I recommend you go, but with caveats. Unfortunately, while Oudong is only 40 km from Phnom Penh via a national highway, the highway is undergoing major construction just now, so it might take you almost two hours to get there. If not for that, I’d recommend Oudong over any attraction in Phnom Penh, save the palace, national museum, and Tuol Sleng. But don’t go expecting an Ankhor Wat.
Oudong was Cambodia’s royal capital from 1601, when the Thais attacked and took their former capital, until 1866, when the French Protectorate strongly suggested the capital be moved post-haste to Phnom Penh on the Mekong. When King Norodom left, pretty much every man-jack in Oudong went with him, leaving only a handful of monks. The Khmer Rouge deliberately destroyed most of Oudong, on grounds that it represented feudalism, including the fabulous temple-cum-royal-treasury Arthaross, which they blew to Kingdom Come with explosives. Luckily some important chedi where kings were interred, including the first one built, survived along with monastic hermitages and some smaller shrines. (To clarify, a chedi is a distinctively Thai-style Buddhist stupa; I believe it’s Khmer name is dagoba, which may come from the Chinese pagoda; for simplicity, I’ll call them chedis.) One major new wat was built recently, and the ashes of Prince Norodom Sihanouk were interred there in 2014. A quarter-century ago, Cambodia proposed that Oudong be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UN hasn’t gotten back to them yet; probably some hitch in the mail system.
If you can afford the higher cost, go by air-conditioned car, NOT tuk-tuk. If you go by tuk-tuk, be sure to take a breathing mask or Cambodian scarf and sunglasses to protect your eyes, nose and mouth from the dust where the highway’s torn up. The drive itself is not without interest: through the Muslim section of Phnom Penh, with a few occasional glimpses of the Tonle Sap, through an emerging industrial complex and out into a broad agricultural floodplain dotted with fishponds and then, to the left, Phnom Oudong itself. You can’t miss it; it’s the only hill rising out of the floodplain,
“Oudong” means “high” or “supreme” and it’s the only defensible heights. After the Thais has routed the Cambodian royal court out of Longvek, this seemed the safest place to run and hide. Under the circumstances, whoever named these heights Oudong Meanchey (Supreme Victory) must have been suffering from serious denial. I was told that an alternate name for it is Elephant Mountain, and that makes more sense: it consists of two hilltops, and actually does have a silhouette like a resting elephant: trunk, head (lower hill), and back (higher hill); see Oudong Elephant photo. You turn off the highway and go through a rural countryside which is notable for something you rarely see in SE Asia: numerous white cattle—a relic of the pre-Ankhorian trade and cultural connections between this part of Cambodia and India.
There’s no entry fee, and from the parking lot, you can go up a 500-step stairway to get to the top of the higher hill, walk across to the lower hilltop, and head down from there. The trick is to go the other way round, starting at the steps leading to the lower hill, then crossing the ridge to get to the higher hill. That way, you go down the 500 steps, rather than up them you build up to the grandest chedis and wat. Whichever way you go, take plenty of bottled water with you. Heat and humidity make clambering up and down the rough-cut stone stairways a thirsty enterprise. If (a) you’ve difficulties walking and climbing or (b) it’s raining, don’t come here. On weekends Oudong’s relatively packed; weekdays, it’s well-nigh deserted, except for monks, mendicants, and a few local venders of water, etc. For me, that means: avoid weekends; but I know others will prefer going when it’s crowded.
The lesser hilltop, although not as impressive, is not without charm: some of the small chedis have Ankhorian touches, and one of the small shrines has a long curving double balustrade of golden nagas (see Lower Hill and Naga Balustrade photos). There’s even a small mosque on it. Crossing the ridge, you’ll see an important group of three chedi which survived the Khmer Rouge: The first, with the four Buddha faces in the cardinal directions, is Mak Proum, the funeral stupa of King Monivong, who died in 1941. The second holds the ashes of Ang Doung, the last king to die while Oudong was still the capital. The third, Damrei Sam Poan, built 400 years ago, is where Soriyopor, the king who founded Oudong, is interred. From the hilltop, you can get good views of the floodplain in all directions, and of the large and picturesque modern Kandal pagoda (see New Wat 3 and Kandal photos).
The new wat, surrounded by four elevated platforms, holds Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s ashes, and has a shrine at its base with thousands of Buddhas. Buddhists praying inside and giving alms are blessed by an unsmiling monk at the doorway. He holds a silver bowl, chants over it, and hands it to the pilgrim, who takes it outside, to a water cistern with lotus flowers floating on the water, fills the cup, and purifies him/herself by bending over the cistern and pouring the water over his/her head back into the cistern. And of course, then returns the bowl to monk, who still doesn’t smile. This wat is quite impressive architecturally, in white marble with quite nice lines and decoration. From here, look for the main stairway with orange railings on either side; that’s your way down. Beware the stairway going down the mountain from the three chedis; it’s going the wrong direction. As you descend, you’ll see two small fish pools. When we were there, a local lady was standing between them and selling, among other thing, food for the fish. The fish apparently know the drill, because as you walk up to the pool they converge on you and voraciously fight for their snack. (See New Wat 1, 2, and 3 photos and the Main Stairway, Fishpool, and Voracious photos). Lower down, you’ll find a memorial to local villagers clubbed to deathat Khmer Rouge killing fields around Oudong; about 1,200 bodies recovered from mass graves have been interred here.
A word on locals, real guides, and hot days: Locals: they’re good rural folk, but they’re poor. It’s no surprise that the locals try to get a little food on the table via foreign city-slickers coming to see Oulong. Little children are taught to beg; older ones try the self-appointed guide scam, ladies too old for the paddies, peddle up here instead. My inclination is to (a) make merit by alms to the little urchins, many of whom really are seriously undernourished, (b) get rid of the wanna-be tour guides asap, and (c) buy something from the ladies if you’ve a notion to: water and fish-food at the pools for example. Real guides: you’ll miss a lot if you tour Oudong without a knowledgeable guide (even if only a Cambodian or ex-pat friend) and you’ll also miss a lot if you’re with a big tour group on a tight schedule. Many of the best things here are difficult to find, and impossible to understand, on your own. Hot days: TA asked me, as I tried to close this review, whether this is a good hot day activity? I answered Yes; dress for heat and take water, but this is surrounded by a floodplain in southern Asia--it's gonna be hot. The only thing that would tone down the heat a little would be a good rain; but I would never ever attempt going up and down this site on a rainy, muddy, slippery day. You need it dry, which means hot.
Bottom line: Oudong is close enough to Phnom Penh to be do-able in a day—with luck, in half a day. The view from the heights adds to the pleasure of going there. Oudong is much older than Phnom Penh and particularly worth going to if you won’t be seeing the Khmer ruins in the north. I do recommend you go; but I’d be surprised if UNESCO ever makes it a World Heritage Site.
Oudong was Cambodia’s royal capital from 1601, when the Thais attacked and took their former capital, until 1866, when the French Protectorate strongly suggested the capital be moved post-haste to Phnom Penh on the Mekong. When King Norodom left, pretty much every man-jack in Oudong went with him, leaving only a handful of monks. The Khmer Rouge deliberately destroyed most of Oudong, on grounds that it represented feudalism, including the fabulous temple-cum-royal-treasury Arthaross, which they blew to Kingdom Come with explosives. Luckily some important chedi where kings were interred, including the first one built, survived along with monastic hermitages and some smaller shrines. (To clarify, a chedi is a distinctively Thai-style Buddhist stupa; I believe it’s Khmer name is dagoba, which may come from the Chinese pagoda; for simplicity, I’ll call them chedis.) One major new wat was built recently, and the ashes of Prince Norodom Sihanouk were interred there in 2014. A quarter-century ago, Cambodia proposed that Oudong be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UN hasn’t gotten back to them yet; probably some hitch in the mail system.
If you can afford the higher cost, go by air-conditioned car, NOT tuk-tuk. If you go by tuk-tuk, be sure to take a breathing mask or Cambodian scarf and sunglasses to protect your eyes, nose and mouth from the dust where the highway’s torn up. The drive itself is not without interest: through the Muslim section of Phnom Penh, with a few occasional glimpses of the Tonle Sap, through an emerging industrial complex and out into a broad agricultural floodplain dotted with fishponds and then, to the left, Phnom Oudong itself. You can’t miss it; it’s the only hill rising out of the floodplain,
“Oudong” means “high” or “supreme” and it’s the only defensible heights. After the Thais has routed the Cambodian royal court out of Longvek, this seemed the safest place to run and hide. Under the circumstances, whoever named these heights Oudong Meanchey (Supreme Victory) must have been suffering from serious denial. I was told that an alternate name for it is Elephant Mountain, and that makes more sense: it consists of two hilltops, and actually does have a silhouette like a resting elephant: trunk, head (lower hill), and back (higher hill); see Oudong Elephant photo. You turn off the highway and go through a rural countryside which is notable for something you rarely see in SE Asia: numerous white cattle—a relic of the pre-Ankhorian trade and cultural connections between this part of Cambodia and India.
There’s no entry fee, and from the parking lot, you can go up a 500-step stairway to get to the top of the higher hill, walk across to the lower hilltop, and head down from there. The trick is to go the other way round, starting at the steps leading to the lower hill, then crossing the ridge to get to the higher hill. That way, you go down the 500 steps, rather than up them you build up to the grandest chedis and wat. Whichever way you go, take plenty of bottled water with you. Heat and humidity make clambering up and down the rough-cut stone stairways a thirsty enterprise. If (a) you’ve difficulties walking and climbing or (b) it’s raining, don’t come here. On weekends Oudong’s relatively packed; weekdays, it’s well-nigh deserted, except for monks, mendicants, and a few local venders of water, etc. For me, that means: avoid weekends; but I know others will prefer going when it’s crowded.
The lesser hilltop, although not as impressive, is not without charm: some of the small chedis have Ankhorian touches, and one of the small shrines has a long curving double balustrade of golden nagas (see Lower Hill and Naga Balustrade photos). There’s even a small mosque on it. Crossing the ridge, you’ll see an important group of three chedi which survived the Khmer Rouge: The first, with the four Buddha faces in the cardinal directions, is Mak Proum, the funeral stupa of King Monivong, who died in 1941. The second holds the ashes of Ang Doung, the last king to die while Oudong was still the capital. The third, Damrei Sam Poan, built 400 years ago, is where Soriyopor, the king who founded Oudong, is interred. From the hilltop, you can get good views of the floodplain in all directions, and of the large and picturesque modern Kandal pagoda (see New Wat 3 and Kandal photos).
The new wat, surrounded by four elevated platforms, holds Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s ashes, and has a shrine at its base with thousands of Buddhas. Buddhists praying inside and giving alms are blessed by an unsmiling monk at the doorway. He holds a silver bowl, chants over it, and hands it to the pilgrim, who takes it outside, to a water cistern with lotus flowers floating on the water, fills the cup, and purifies him/herself by bending over the cistern and pouring the water over his/her head back into the cistern. And of course, then returns the bowl to monk, who still doesn’t smile. This wat is quite impressive architecturally, in white marble with quite nice lines and decoration. From here, look for the main stairway with orange railings on either side; that’s your way down. Beware the stairway going down the mountain from the three chedis; it’s going the wrong direction. As you descend, you’ll see two small fish pools. When we were there, a local lady was standing between them and selling, among other thing, food for the fish. The fish apparently know the drill, because as you walk up to the pool they converge on you and voraciously fight for their snack. (See New Wat 1, 2, and 3 photos and the Main Stairway, Fishpool, and Voracious photos). Lower down, you’ll find a memorial to local villagers clubbed to deathat Khmer Rouge killing fields around Oudong; about 1,200 bodies recovered from mass graves have been interred here.
A word on locals, real guides, and hot days: Locals: they’re good rural folk, but they’re poor. It’s no surprise that the locals try to get a little food on the table via foreign city-slickers coming to see Oulong. Little children are taught to beg; older ones try the self-appointed guide scam, ladies too old for the paddies, peddle up here instead. My inclination is to (a) make merit by alms to the little urchins, many of whom really are seriously undernourished, (b) get rid of the wanna-be tour guides asap, and (c) buy something from the ladies if you’ve a notion to: water and fish-food at the pools for example. Real guides: you’ll miss a lot if you tour Oudong without a knowledgeable guide (even if only a Cambodian or ex-pat friend) and you’ll also miss a lot if you’re with a big tour group on a tight schedule. Many of the best things here are difficult to find, and impossible to understand, on your own. Hot days: TA asked me, as I tried to close this review, whether this is a good hot day activity? I answered Yes; dress for heat and take water, but this is surrounded by a floodplain in southern Asia--it's gonna be hot. The only thing that would tone down the heat a little would be a good rain; but I would never ever attempt going up and down this site on a rainy, muddy, slippery day. You need it dry, which means hot.
Bottom line: Oudong is close enough to Phnom Penh to be do-able in a day—with luck, in half a day. The view from the heights adds to the pleasure of going there. Oudong is much older than Phnom Penh and particularly worth going to if you won’t be seeing the Khmer ruins in the north. I do recommend you go; but I’d be surprised if UNESCO ever makes it a World Heritage Site.
Written 26 February 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Travelmate-Colombo
Colombo, Sri Lanka37 contributions
May 2019
Oudong mountain is a small hillock about 40km from Phnom Penh. It is an ancient capital and a site of Buddhist monastery and burial of Khemer Kings.
How to get there:
1. Hire a private car : This is what we did and grabbed a Grab Taxi (via Grab App) and it cost 21 USD one way. We talked him to stay for 2 hours and came back for the same price. Since it's far from the city center drives usually oblige otherwise they have to come back empty. Plus there are no taxis for hire at Oudong as it's a rural area.
2: Public bus : You can take a bus from the bus stand near Central Market. We checked out the price and it cost 4usd per person. It will only take you to the junction in the highway where the branch road starts. You can get a moto from there at 1usd. If your travelling with more than one person it makes sense to get a Grab and avoid the hassle as it cots just about the same.
Entrance fees: 1usd to enter the village. None for the temple
Start the climb along the gravel road to your left (don't go straight up the stairs). This way you can come down the stairs plus you do not have to leave your shoes at the bottom and can explore the rest with shoes on.
Duration: It takes slightly more than one hour for the one way journey. You need about 2 hours at the site. So all in all keep about 5 house for the entire visit.
How to get there:
1. Hire a private car : This is what we did and grabbed a Grab Taxi (via Grab App) and it cost 21 USD one way. We talked him to stay for 2 hours and came back for the same price. Since it's far from the city center drives usually oblige otherwise they have to come back empty. Plus there are no taxis for hire at Oudong as it's a rural area.
2: Public bus : You can take a bus from the bus stand near Central Market. We checked out the price and it cost 4usd per person. It will only take you to the junction in the highway where the branch road starts. You can get a moto from there at 1usd. If your travelling with more than one person it makes sense to get a Grab and avoid the hassle as it cots just about the same.
Entrance fees: 1usd to enter the village. None for the temple
Start the climb along the gravel road to your left (don't go straight up the stairs). This way you can come down the stairs plus you do not have to leave your shoes at the bottom and can explore the rest with shoes on.
Duration: It takes slightly more than one hour for the one way journey. You need about 2 hours at the site. So all in all keep about 5 house for the entire visit.
Written 29 May 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
nicolectomas
London, UK61 contributions
Oct 2017 • Friends
Beautiful temple on nice grounds - it is well worth hiring a guide to provide background information on why it was rebuilt because of the civil war etc. There are a few stairs to climb, but nothing unmanageable. We were fortunate enough to walk in on Monks praying - they were happy enough for us to look on. It is expected that you make donations towards the upkeep of the temples.
It is worth noting that you will get harassed by local children asking for "just one dollar", but it really does not help them as it discourages them from going to school as they think they can make a living from begging. Please avoid giving them money.
It is worth noting that you will get harassed by local children asking for "just one dollar", but it really does not help them as it discourages them from going to school as they think they can make a living from begging. Please avoid giving them money.
Written 8 January 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
iamface
Aberdeen, UK1,759 contributions
Nov 2019
not so big but old enough. that is quiet and good for slow your pace to enjoy this place. the view also worth to hide a half day tuktuk to here
Written 26 October 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We will be visiting this monestary from a river cruise. Two questions, does anyone know how far the ride is from the boat to the monastery and are there public toilets here? Thank you
Written 16 May 2017
I hired a private car with airconditioning & driver from Phnom Penh for US$45 return. The driver actually walked with me up the 590 stairs from the car park up to the top of the hill where the pagoda is located. From the Pagoda you can see the Monastery. From Phnom Penh we drove along the river till close to the town Oudong. I think if you get off the boat near the Oudong town, then it will be only a 15 minutes drive by car to the Monastery. The driver took me to a nice local restaurant for lunch & a beer before we returned to Phnom Penh. Because the driver was very helpful and nice I generously give him a US$15 tip. We started at 08:30 am and arrived at Oudong one hour later. Arrived back in Phnom Penh around 3:00 pm Tuk-tuk is too far for the Oudong trip.
Written 17 May 2017
How do we get a Taxi from Phnom Penh? Or is a tuk tuk ok too - do not want to swallow too much dust.
Written 1 December 2016
Is there any other way other than a Tuk Tuk :) but seriously a tuk tuk is fine we had a great time with driver Lan yet again
Enjoy the trip
Dobbo
Written 1 December 2016
We would like to stay overnight in Udong. Is there anything to stay?
Written 20 June 2016
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