Kampot tide times

Kampot is a provincial town on the Praek Tuek Chhu river in southern Cambodia, 25 kilometres from the Gulf of Thailand coast. The town has developed as a slow-travel destination since the mid-2000s, attracting visitors who combine the riverside character of Kampot with day trips to the coast at Kep, Rabbit Island, and the nearby Bokor Hill Station. The town's most famous export is Kampot pepper — a black, red, and white pepper with a distinctive floral aroma, cultivated on the river valley slopes between the Elephant Mountains and the coast, and considered one of the world's finest peppers.

The river at Kampot is tidal. The Praek Tuek Chhu drains a large catchment in the Elephant Mountains, but its lower reaches, from the coast to Kampot town 25 kilometres upstream, are influenced by the Gulf of Thailand tidal signal. Spring tidal range at the coast near Kampot is approximately 2.5 metres. This tidal signal propagates upstream and arrives at Kampot with a time lag and reduced amplitude — the river level at Kampot rises and falls approximately 1 to 1.5 metres on spring tides, a noticeable fluctuation visible alongside the riverside promenade where the water level against the embankment changes measurably through the day.

The riverside promenade that fronts the town's main accommodation and restaurant strip runs along the eastern bank of the river. At high water springs, the water surface is close to the promenade level; at low water springs, the river drops 1 to 1.5 metres below the promenade edge, exposing the lower embankment and the muddy lower bank. The distinction between high and low water is clearly readable from the promenade without consulting a tide table — the boats moored alongside drop and rise with the river level, and the exposed bank section grows and shrinks through the day.

The estuary of the Praek Tuek Chhu at the coast, near Kep, has tidal mudflats and mangrove that are productive for wading birds during the northern winter migration. Common sandpiper, grey plover, and greater sand plover use the mudflats at low water. Egrets and herons work the estuary edge throughout the day. The meeting of the tidal river and the Gulf of Thailand at the estuary mouth creates a plankton-rich mixing zone that concentrates fish and the birds and dolphins that feed on them.

Kep, 25 kilometres south of Kampot by road, is the coastal town most associated with the pepper-growing region. The Kep crab market, on the waterfront, sells freshly landed mud crab (Scylla serrata) from boats that work the mangrove-lined bays near the coast. The crab boats work the flood tide in the mangrove channels, returning to market as the tide turns. The crab with Kampot pepper (whole mud crab stir-fried with the fresh green peppercorns from the nearby plantations) is the signature dish of the regional cuisine.

Rabbit Island (Koh Tonsay), a 20-minute boat ride from Kep, has basic beach accommodation, a reef in 2 to 5 metres on its southern face, and mangrove channels on its northern side. The island is quiet and sees far fewer visitors than Ko Chang or Koh Rong.

Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. The local tide authority is the Department of Hydrology and River Works, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Cambodia.