I was very apprehensive about visiting Cambodia after our experience in Vietnam and I had heard some pretty bad scams happen. This coupled with the terrifying events over recent years with a corrupt government still in power I really didn’t know what to expect.
I needn’t have worried though as Cambodia is a truely incredible country. It has little infrastructure, severe poverty, serious failings in health and education and yet I have fallen utterly in love. Besides the breathtaking scenery of the undeveloped landscape and incredible opportunities for once in a life time encounters with endangered animals along with world renowned temples and ruins, the people we met in Cambodia in the city, villages and at the coast were just amazing. Never have we been somewhere that has been such a giggle non stop and all owed to the people we have met along the way. It has been incredible yet equally heart breaking to think the very people that have welcomed us live in such desperate conditions without requesting any sympathy or pity.
Phnom Penh:
We arrived in darkness from Vietnam by the border crossing bus and were dropped off in the city centre a tuk tuk ride away. We were instantly surprised by how quiet the streets were. All shops were closed and only a few street food vendors were open. Nothing like the other cities we have visited in Asia that really come to life when the sun goes down. We arrived at our hostel in a very dubious part of town tired and unsure of how the next few weeks were going to pan out. We dumped our things had some great food and had an amazing couple of nights drinking with the locals and learning their perspective on life. Not a bad start at all!
Whilst in Phnom Penh we hired a motorbike to seek out the cities sites. We had been warned that police will stop you if you’re not riding with the proper licence. G has a motorbike licence in the U.K. and the international driving permit and confident riding in Asia so we risked it and had no trouble. We rode past several police stops and were asked to pull over just once. I went to jump off the bike looking in my bag for our documents to find the police officer smiling and waving us off. I still have no idea what that was about but we quickly took them up on this and left before they changed their mind!
We visited the cities temples, palaces, watched the Cambodian ‘Pradel Serey’ boxing (the original Muay Thai) and with heavy hearts visited the Killing Fields and the S21 museum.
As the infrastructure in Cambodia is so poor we found that to go east, west or north you really have to go via Phnom Penh so had to keep coming back but we didn’t mind as we stayed in the same welcoming place each time.
Kratie:
I only wanted to visit Kratie to see the Mekong River dolphins so had planned just a 2 night stop there. If we had longer in Cambodia then we would have stayed longer. We arrived by the Sorya bus we ended up using for all our bus journeys as we had no complaints with at all after reading some horror stories online. Our guesthouse had a balcony with great views of the sunset over the Mekong river and served lovely food and again very friendly staff. We arranged a full day tour with a tuk tuk driver come guide who was just fantastic, Mr Cheats.
We headed to see the Dolphins first as he explained they prefer to play in the morning and the river would be busy later in the morning. I could not believe when we walked down the steps to board our own boat that there was literally no one else there at all. Not even on the river as far as your eye could see. Our luck well and truely upped the aunti when after around only 5 mins we spotted the dolphins and were treated to an hour long show! The river was completely silent with only the sound of the dolphins splashing and blowing. It was definitely a top moment in my life so far. Perfect!
After the dolphins we drove through tiny wooden villages on stilts with wild palm trees lining the way, children shouting hello as loud as they could beaming from ear to ear, cows, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats all getting on with life on or near the dirt track road. It was just what I pictured a small Asian village in the jungle would look like. However these scenes were Cambodia. This wasn’t one village, it is country wide.
The turtle sanctuary was next located in the Buddhist temple complex and explained how hard the people living along the Mekong were working to protect the near extinct soft shell turtles from natural predators and from the food industry in Vietnam and China.
We also hiked up sambok hill accompanied by some of the village children on their push bikes. By this time the rain was particularly heavy so we couldn’t see the view below so we grabbed some fried banana snacks and headed to the floating fishing village at the other end of Kratie.
Sihnavoukville:
We arrived by the new train service through paddy fields and views of the mountains making the 7 hour journey in uncomfy seats worth it. We hired a scooter (again against all advice but we were not stopped once) to explore Sihanoukville and as we just wanted the ultimate chill before Christmas settled on spending 5 nights at otres2 as in all honesty the rest of the place really wasn’t attractive to us and I imagine if we had spent any time elsewhere in silhanoukville we may not have left Cambodia saying every single day was incredible.
The beach was beautiful the sea was beautiful the people were beautiful and each day ended with the most magnificent sunset. If we hadn’t already booked our trip to Australia then I’m sure we would have found it very difficult to ever leave.
Siem reap:
We were flying out of Cambodia from Siem Reap so we headed there for our Christmas holiday. Siem Reap is really geared for tourists but still not too developed or commercial. We enjoyed a Christmas Day roast dinner on Bar Street as well as the very cheap beer on offer!
We also enjoyed hiring mountain bikes to explore the beautiful countryside surrounding the city including the incredible temples and Angkor Wat complex.
I have utterly fallen in love with Cambodia. I didn’t spend a single minute in this beautiful country not completely inthralled by the people the landscape and incredible history. I would urge anyone to go and see Cambodia for yourselves 😉
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