Where it sits
Tbong Khmum is the youngest of Cambodia’s provinces, created on the last day of 2013 when Kampong Cham was divided along the Mekong. Everything east of the river became Tbong Khmum, with Suong as its capital.
It borders Vietnam to the east and is dominated by rubber plantations, many established during the French protectorate and still in production.
What to see
The Memot earthworks are the province’s most intriguing feature and among the least understood archaeological sites in Cambodia: large circular embankments in the red basalt soil, dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, well over two thousand years old and predating the Khmer empire by a very long way. They are visible but undeveloped — there is no visitor centre and little signage.
The rubber estates around Chup are worth driving through for the avenues of trees alone, and tapping can be seen in the early morning.
The Mekong forms the province’s western boundary, and the riverside villages have the same unhurried quality as those on the Kampong Cham side.
Practicalities
This is not a tourist province and does not pretend to be. It rewards travellers with an interest in rural Cambodia, agriculture or archaeology, and it is an easy detour on the road east towards the Vietnamese border at Trapeang Phlong.