Wat Maha Leap is a 19th-century wooden pagoda about 25 kilometres south of Kampong Cham, one of the last surviving traditional teak-built temples in Cambodia. Most of the country's wooden pagodas were burned or stripped during the Khmer Rouge years; Maha Leap escaped because the regime used it as a hospital. The main building rests on enormous teak columns, each cut from a single tree, and the interior is dim and cool with painted ceilings and a row of long Buddha images.
The temple is in active use, so the courtyard is usually full of monks and lay visitors. Access from Kampong Cham is by tuk-tuk or, more atmospherically, by boat along a small Mekong tributary in the wet season. The surrounding silk-weaving village of Prek Bang Kong is also worth a stop.