Hanchey Bamboo Resort — Hotel in Kampong Cham

I don’t normally bother to leave reviews but I felt compelled on this occasion.

We very nearly skipped this place due to the negative comments. We are very pleased we didn’t. We highly rate Hanchey.

It’s worth noting the context. Hanchey is outside of tiny and remote Cham which is a great little town. The town, like all towns, has its problems. Cham is clearly still in a state of recovery. The development of places like Cham is not something I have the capacity to wade in on - but I can only imagine the people here are building their lives with many challenges. I question the ethics of some reviewers who have come here expecting to be pampered TBH. This shouldn’t put you off at all - especially if you are keen on an adventure, and a beautiful reward for a tiny bit of discomfort.

The positives: Beautiful location. Amazing views. Peaceful and tranquil - perfect to relax and reenergise (a perfect writing or creative retreat). Excellent staff who host well. Delicious breakfast (the restaurant is generally brilliant). Excellent, spacious, well thought out and private feeling rooms. Beautiful pool area. See notes below. Adjacent to some interesting things to do (Cham, the Bamboo Bridge, the French Lighthouse and Prej Nokor are all worth a look). Despite some reviews saying otherwise our room had great fans and AC. We didn’t need to AC as the fan was plenty. They have a good coffee machine that they can use well. We met a puppy to snug.

Things to be aware of: WIFI only in the common areas and not the rooms (just use your SIM in the rooms). There is low pressure warm water in the rooms but it’s not a scalding hot shower. You are remote out here, if you aren’t keen to chill by the pool, write, read and relax - make sure you book a driver or are confident on a motorcycle. The road out to Henchey from Cham is rough and takes 30-40 mins. Book a tuk tuk, negotiate to around $10 USD and enjoy the experience of real Cambodia. On closer inspection the pool wasn’t really useable. The filters don’t seem to run much and it was not very clean in the water. A real shame as with the pool in good order this place would be perfect. We didn’t swim but relaxed in the pool area.

Importantly Hanchey is part of an NGO that works to support the development of people in the area. They have a restaurant in town called Smile which is good, and they have great practical trade training initiatives. This too is an important consideration when choosing your stay I think.

We...

Great concept…. Poor execution. Staff are trying but seem unsupported. It may be lovely if you are travelling slowly and have lots of time on your hands.

Not sure if it’s an off-season thing, but the place almost looked like it was abandoned, and rubbish and equipment just thrown around near the pool area and generally really untidy. There is no yoga or mediation as advertised, which was disappointing and whilst the food at the restaurant was good, it took nearly an hour to get breakfast each morning and the same for dinner, and you don’t have any other options to eat in the area.

Also disappointing for an eco resort is that guests must be dropped at the front and walk in with their bags down gravel paths, however there were cars just parked on walkways inside the ‘resort’ and outside the restaurant.

Our first night was ok, food that was available was certainly the highlight of the stay! Recommend the mango salad and the papaya salad.

We stayed in a family house as this was the only room available when we booked, this was less than ideal in wet season as you need to go out of the room to the toilet and get eaten by mosquitos! We would have been much better off in 2 of the smaller houses which have bathroom access through the bedroom.

The next night was a bit of a disaster with a huge group arriving taking up most of the restaurant and using it as a conference facility, then after waiting for over an hour for our dinner to arrive a swarm of bugs resembling some form of biblical plague descended (and lasted for hours) meaning you could not eat or have lights on, we all Had to retreat to our rooms inside the insect nets, as it was the only way to avoid them! Not sure why the hotel did not just move everyone to the enclosed conference room so they could eat?

At 5am the next morning we were all woken by the conference group doing some sort of loud activities outside our hut!

Location is a very long way from kampong Cham, we loved kampong cham, but would recommend staying in town to anyone considering a stop off between Siem reap and Phnom Penh/other souther...

We thoroughly enjoyed our 3-night stay in Hanchey Bamboo Resort. Great place to do digital detox (no wifi in bungalow), and unwind from city stress enjoying nature and trying/practicing yoga twice a day in a very nice setting of the Lotus Meditation Hall. Yoga classes are FOC. When it gets hot during the day, swimming pool with cool water is the perfect escape. Keep in mind that resort is quite isolated, hence your only dining option is the local restaurant: not a bad choice at all - nice variety of local dishes with a great view over Mekong river. Resort provides bicycles FOC, which is great; however bikes are not too well looked after: for a short trip, like to the closest pagoda complex, they are more than fine. For a longer trip I'd refrain - breaks don't work well, some seats are not adjustable, speed switch is semi working etc. Bungalows are nice and spacious. Keep in mind, there is no AC as resort positions itself as eco-friendly, with 2 fans - a ceiling fan & a floor one. For Nov-Feb - it's perfect, over night it cools down enough to use a thin blanket provided. Not sure how it's like in April-May, hottest months in Cambodia. It's very commendable that resort tries to use as little plastic as possible - drinking water is provided in glass bottles that could be refilled in the restaurant. Would be great if they did not use melamine bowls in the restaurant serving hot dishes - ceramic bowls would be just fine; replacing plastic electric kettle in the bungalow with a stainless steel one and not using strong softener on bed linen would also be a better way to be health conscious and environment friendly. Keep in mind there is no safe in the bungalow. If you manage to wake up early enough you could enjoy marvelous view of the sunrise over Mekong river.

Would recommend this place...