Cambodia

Day: 53
Countries: 6
Stops: 20


Currently sitting on our last overnight train, on the way to our 2nd to the last stop of the trip! But first, let me try and remember what we did back in Cambodia, over 2 weeks ago...


After spending the day in Thailand with Ariane, seeing all of the same sights again (Wat Po, Grand Palace, and Jim Thompson's House), we met up with our tour group back at the hotel at 6pm. Fifteen people, ranging from 20 to 32 years old (with me as the 2nd oldest...pretty much as I predicted!). We did the usual round of introductions and trip briefing, then it's off to Khao San Road for dinner on several taxis, for one last chance at "authentic" Thai food. 


We left early the following day to board two minivans to the Thai-Cambodia border, where we went through one of the most surreal border crossings on my trip so far. Once we got to the border, we got off the vans and had our bags hauled out of the vans and into carts...apparently, there are people who will cart our bags across the border for us, and they'll be waiting on the other side. So we went through passport control on the Thai side, then crossed into what technically is Cambodia, although appears to be no-man's land as we hadn't officially gone through Cambodian immigration yet. There were large hotels and casinos, and we had lunch at a road side cafe. The whole area had a frontier feeling about it, very dusty roads, motorbikes and trucks driving on either/both sides of the road...the reason for this, I was soon to find out, is that they drive on the right side of the road in Cambodia, so the "buffer zone" was essentially used for drivers to switch to driving on the other side. After lunch, we went through immigration (the e-Visa works!) then boarded a shuttle that took us to the bus that will take us all the way to Siem Reap. The change from Thailand to Cambodia was noticeable, with Cambodia having well-paved, relatively narrow highways virtually empty of cars and with most of the traffic consisting of bicycles, motorbikes, and the occasional truck hauling various goods and even people. Most of countryside appears to be rice fields, with the occasional wooden house breaking up the scenery. We arrived at our hotel in Siem Reap in the late afternoon and immediately headed out to New Hope school, where we visited the classrooms for a few minutes before the end of the school day at 6pm, then had a tour of the free medical facilities before having dinner at the on-site restaurant, which doubles as a training facility and also funds their operations. If you're interested in volunteering some of your time, check out their website: http://www.newhopecambodia.com/

Cambodia border crossing

Our full day in Siem Reap was reserved, of course, for seeing the Angkor temples. We left around 5am to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat, along with a thousand other tourists. I actually checked out of the sunrise watching to explore Angkor Wat before the mass of tourists arrived. Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast before heading out again at 9am to see Angkor Thom. We spent the rest of the morning here, and stopped to check out Ta Phrom before having lunch at the local tourist trap cafe and heading back for a couple of hours at Angkor Wat. In the evening, we had dinner at Temple Club and watched a performance of traditional Khmer dances.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom

The next day, we had a morning in Siem Reap before heading to Phnom Penh on the public bus, so Ariane and I joined Joubert on his trip to Ton Le Sap lake and the floating village. Our guide/tuk tuk driver was great at pointing out shrimp and fish farms, and pig pens and chicken coops underneath the stilt houses. It was pretty impressive how people have adapted to living on the lake (or the mangrove, more accurately), with a lifestyle similar to those on land but with a few minor adjustments. When we got back, we grabbed a quick lunch from the local supermarket then boarded the bus to Phnom Penh...one of the longest bus rides I've done on the trip so far. It's possible it only seemed long because of the uncomfortable seat that didn't recline, or the constant blare of the Khmer music videos/videoke playing on the television. It was also traffic in Phnom Penh when we arrived, so we spent probably another half hour just to get to the bus station. Must be all the weddings that we saw passing by. Arrived in Phnom Penh just in time for dinner to figure out our plans for the next day.

Kids playing at Ton Le Sap Lake

Our experience with the full private bus tour in Angkor Wat was sadly lacking, so we all opted to hire our own tuktuks for the day to do our sightseeing. We walked to the Royal Palace, then hired tuktuks from there to take us to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields, then Tuol Sleng (S21) prison. Then a quick walk through the Russian Market before we went back to the hotel. After getting cleaned up, we made the trip up to the FCC (Foreign Correspondents' Club) building for drinks, but missed happy hour (and drinks, let alone food, were too expensive otherwise), so we ended up walking down the street to have dinner elsewhere.

Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Toul Sleng Prison 

Another public bus (and more Khmer pop) the next day brought us to Sihanoukville, the premier beach destination in Cambodia. Four of us immediately booked a dive trip for the following day (and three more came along to do some snorkelling), then had a late lunch by the beach and hung around for the pretty pretty sunset. The next day was the dive, although the long boat ride to the dive site at Koh Rong Samloem, the choppy seas, cloudy weather, and less than spectacular reefs made the whole experience just kind of "meh", as my sister would say. Then it was dinner at the beach for our last night in Cambodia!

Nightlife at Sihanoukville Beach