Pursat offers access to both the Tonle Sap and the Cardamom Mountains. The name of Pursat refers to a type of tree. For the time being, Pursat receives few travelers and the two main attractions, the Cardamoms and the Tonle Sap require a little initiative on the tourist's part to visit.
There is also an old slow train working between Phnom Penh and Battambang, which stops outside 2 kilometers from Pursat. Pursat province covers 12, square kilometers. The province consists of typical wet plain areas near the Tonle Sap Basin, with rice fields and other agricultural plantations.
Much of the province is occupied by the Cardamom Mountains, a green, forested mountain range in the southwestern part of the province, near to the border with Thailand. The highest elevation is the 1,m high Phnom Aural in the Southeast corner of the country. The population in Pursat Province is about , people or 3. The population density is only 35 people per square kilometer. Pursat's economy is dominated by fishing and rice and fruit agriculture in the north of the province near the Tonle Sap Basin.
The harvesting of sandalwood oil, which fetches huge prices in Asia is another livelihood for locals but sandalwood trees are disappearing fast in Cambodia.
Unfortunately the illegal logging of precious hardwoods and the poaching of endangered species give some people an additional income. In Pursat cool season is from November to March with temperatures ranging from 18 to 28 degrees C. The hot season is from March to May with temperatures ranging from 22 to 34 degrees C.
