Enchanting Cambodia - So much more than just its temples
 

Hello fellow travelers,

My husband and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Cambodia and Singapore. We are a couple in our 30s from New York. We spent 9 days in Cambodia and ended our trip with family in Singapore.

We fell in love with Cambodia and its people and hope that our trip report encourages other travelers to travel outside of Siem Reap and see more of what this country has to offer. Cambodia is more than just its temples. It is moving, enchanting and you will leave with memories of places and people who will always be in your heart.

Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 0 – Fly from JFK to REP on Korean Air. Reach Siem Reap late at night
Day 1 – Temples
Day 2 – Temples and a trip out on the Tonle Sap Lake to Kompong Phhluk
Day 3 – Temples (go further out to Banteay Srei), spend the evening in Siem Reap
Day 4 – Morning in Siem Reap, taxi to Battambang in the afternoon
Day 5 – Battambang, explore the countryside, bamboo train
Day 6 – Battambang, cooking class and another trip out to the countryside
Day 7 – Morning bus to Kampong Chhnang, explore the floating villages and Ondong Rossey
Day 8 – Morning bus to Phnom Penh
Day 9 – Phnom Penh
Day 10 – Fly to Singapore on Silk Air

In Siem Reap, we stayed at the Bopha Angkor. Lovely hotel, great breakfasts. We stayed by the pool side, but the pool was closed. We got an internet special rate of $55 pn with the 4th night free, so worked out to about $40 pn.
In Battambang, we stayed at the Star hotel in a suite for $25 pn. Clean, comfortable and great staff.
In Kampong Chhnang, we stayed at the Sokha Guest House for $8 pn. This was a basic room with a fan but no AC. It was very pleasant with the rains, so didn’t need an AC.
In Phnom Penh, we stayed at the Manor House for $48 pn. Lovely hotel, quiet location, nice pool.
All reservations were done via email except for the Sokha guest house, which we booked by calling them from Siem Reap.

Had we more time, we would have loved to add Kampot and Kep to our itinerary.

Two weeks before our trip, typhoon Ketsana struck Cambodia. Even though its impact on Cambodia was negligible compared to the Philippines and Vietnam, it did take a heavy toll in some areas. For several days, parts of Siem Reap were flooded in knee deep water, including our hotel, Bopha Angkor. We were a little concerned about access to our hotel and temples. But, by the time we got there, the only evidence of the flooding was a closed swimming pool and damaged roads. Of course, outside of town and in Kampong Thom province, the damage was severe with houses and crops destroyed.

While we were there, we mostly had blue skies with hot humid days and pleasant evenings. It rained on a few occasions, but it was usually in short very heavy spurts. It never rained for more than 2 hours at a stretch.

Our trip report is actually a photo report – here’s the URL.
http://culturesconnected.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia

There are many galleries – one for each day of the trip. We have only completed Days 1 through 4 so far. We are working on the rest of the report and will post an update as other sections are completed. We have tried our best to filter the enormous number of pictures that we took, but there are still many pictures posted. Please feel free to browse or skip as you please. We hope you enjoy!

If you have any questions, let me know, and I’ll do my best to respond. Thanks to everyone on this board who shared their stories of Cambodia that helped us plan our trip.

- Seema

So glad that you saw more than just the temples. It is a festinating country with such friendly people that have enjoined so much. Hopefully you may come back and see those places that you missed in the south and northern regions. Thanks for the report

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report. Great detail and beautiful pictures. Can't wait to read more - thanks for sharing.

Thanks Scotters and absolutkz. I'm glad there is someone following along.

Day 1 in Battambang is now complete and available at the same URL
http://culturesconnected.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia

We hope to get the rest of our Battambang stay done this week.

A fabulous report! I appreciate the detail: fine writing. And the pictures are a huge addition. The integration of the two work so well. One of the very best trip reports I've read! I'm looking forward to the next installment.

I'm also enjoying your report. I feel the same way about Cambodia. Unfortunately a lot of tourists fly in to Siem Reap, see the main temples and fly out again. They don't know what they are missing! Looking forward to more.

Thanks so much for the positive comments WhitePelican and silverwool. We really appreciate it.

WhitePelican - I saw your Burma pictures, they were absolutely amazing, especially the portraits of people. Those pictures do tell a story.

Are any of you headed back to Cambodia in the near future?

Our daughter lives in Siem Reap so both my wife and I make annual visits. Usually in July. We are farmers so have to travel separately. Mary did Vietnam and Cambodia this year while I did Sabah, Sarawak and Cambodia.

I went from Phnom Penh to Battambang by local bus and then by boat to Seim Reap. On my next trip I want to head up to Kratie and look round in that part of the country.

Also I was a wuss and gave the fish massage a miss but my wife tried it and enjoyed the experience. However she went to the night market the next night and thought she'd try it again. The fish were not interested so they must be removing dead skin!

I agree that the experience of talking to the locals can be priceless.

Thank you for commenting on my Burma photos,seemaskt. I hope to return to Cambodia where I spent only a week two years ago and to Burma in the near future. I'd like to do a trip somewhat similar to yours in Cambodia since I've only been to Siem Reap and PP. Two weeks in Cambodia and another two in Burma. . .maybe.

I read your terrific trip report on Rwanda in the Africa forum. I've visited the gorillas in Uganda, a country I love, and Rwanda is on my list. Your report made me even more eager to get back to the gorillas!

silverwool - That's wonderful to be able to visit your daughter and also be able to combine that with some travel in Asia. If you don't mind my asking, what does your daughter do in Cambodia?

I was a bit of a wuss initially too about the fish pedicure, but after watching my husband for a few minutes and determining that he actually wasn't being eaten :-) I decided to give it a try. You should too, when you're in Cambodia next. It's definitely interesting!

Sounds like a great plan, whitepelican. I'm envious. Looking forward to the pictures.

Oh, and I forgot, day 2 in Battambang is now complete and available at
http://culturesconnected.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia

This includes details of the cooking class that we signed up for (a must-do for anyone that enjoys cooking and interested in other cuisines).

My daughter teaches English in Siem Reap. She has been there for 4 years and loves it. Only thing she misses is the authentic cinema experience as opposed to watching movies on DVD. Still the occasional trip to Bangkok or HCMC fixes that.

I loved your market photos, the colours and textures reminded me of the tastes. I want to go back! I found water snake a bit stringy and ho hum. There are a lot more exotics available in Cambodia. Spiders and crickets for example. (I tried a spider and do not intend to repeat the experience but cricket is quite tasty.

Thanks for your interesting post. Very much enjoyed it.

Thanks travelblogger.

silverwool, local markets are so colorful and so much fun, aren't they? Just looking through all the pictures again while we were posting them was making us crave Khmer food. We've got to go to chinatown soon to shop, so we can recreate the recipes we learnt.

And wow, you are so adventurous with your food, much more than I ever hope to be! We saw the fried exotics later on in the trip, but couldn't bring ourselves to try any of it.

Our musings and pictures for Kampong Chhnang are now up
http://culturesconnected.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia

This was one of our favorite days in Cambodia, so we hope you enjoy.

Our trip report is finally complete. Our 2 days in Phnom Penh have been added.

http://culturesconnected.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia

Thanks for reading along thus far. For all you Cambodia lovers, we hope it brought back fond memories of your trip.
For those traveling to Cambodia in the near future, we hope this gives you ideas on what you can do there and stirs up excitement about your upcoming trip.
For those unsure about Cambodia and those who may have not have considered a trip there, we hope this encourages you to consider this amazing country for your next vacation.

I'll be back in a few days to post some additional thoughts/comments about the trip.

- Seema

Just wanted to add I loved reading about your journey and seeing the photos. I'm happy to see you ventured so far afield for your first visit to Cambodia. I've been twice, but only to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. For my next visit I'm considering Battambang.

Thanks Kristina! Lucky you, being able to make 3 trips to Cambodia. When are you planning your next visit?

Fantastic report. Your details and pictures helped provide a visual for a book I just finished. It also gives alot of appeal to traveling more into Cambodia beyond the typical tourist areas. I've had to postpone my plans - hopefully next year I can go.

On a side note - I read your Rwanda report. Gorilla treking is on my top ten must travel list - awesome photos. Looking forward to reading about Tanzania.

Thanks absolutkz! That was my primary intention behind posting our report on this forum, since there is already a lot of information available here for Siem Reap and the temples. I hope you can go next year.

Thanks for checking out our East Africa reports and glad you're enjoying them. Rwanda and the gorilla trekking will be an experience you will never forget. Happy planning!

Some random thoughts/comments:

#1: I had booked us on JetStar for the flight from Phnom Penh to Singapore. The flights were booked 3 months ahead. About 3 days before we departed for Cambodia, I got an email from JetStar that they had cancelled our flights and had put us on the flight leaving the next morning. When I called, I was told that all M/W/F departures had been cancelled, so we could either leave the day before/after/or get a full refund. Given our schedule, we ended up cancelling with JetStar and booking expensive flights on SilkAir ($70pp versus $315pp).
The JetStar refund came through in a week.

The point being, if you have a flexible schedule and are ok with moving your plans around by a day or two, JetStar is a good choice, if only for their reasonable fares. I have no other experience with them. But, if you are on a tight schedule, then I'd recommend not booking with one of the lost cost carriers.

#2: Cambodia felt very safe to us. We walked around a lot in all the cities/towns we were in and never felt unsafe. In Phnom Penh however, bag snatching is common, so make sure your bags/cameras are not hanging outside the tuk-tuk. This is not unique to Cambodia and happens in many cities around the world, so best to be aware of your surroundings and use common sense.

If I think of anything else, I'll update this page.

Some of our friends had trouble going through our lengthy travel musings (or ramblings :-) ). So, we put together a Best of Cambodia album with pictures only. For those of you wondering if Cambodia is the right destination for you and/or your family, maybe these pictures will help with your decision making.

http://culturesconnected.smugmug.com...17708474_HrSrJ

Happy holidays to all!

Hi seemaskt,

Thank you for your interesting report. We're thinking of spending 2 weeks in Cambodia next year but one of our friends who traveled in the country a couple months ago said there's nothing much to see in 2 weeks and recommended 5-7 days only. What would you think about this, from your own experience?

Hi scomars,

Thanks for taking the time to read our report. Without knowing your travel style and what you enjoy, I can only tell you why we loved Cambodia so much. And hope that you will end up staying for 2 weeks. :-)

We found Cambodia to be a beautiful country and enjoyed every place we traveled to. In fact, we wished we had an extra week to spend more time in Phnom Penh and also get to Kampot, Kep and maybe even Kampong Cham.

We enjoy history, culture and love both urban and rural locales. That's why Cambodia appealed to us so much. Our experiences in the villages near Battambang and in Kampong Chhnang - seeing how the people live, their cottage industries, talking to the locals - were vastly different from our experiences in Siem Riep and PP. We really enjoyed PP too - the urban setting, the great restaurants and shopping. While the temples were breathtaking, our fondest memories of the trip are from our time spent in the rest of Cambodia.

We did have friends question why we weren't visiting both Cambodia and Vietnam in 2 weeks. I think our perspective on what we want out of our travels just differs from theirs.

Hope that helped and I would be happy to answer more questions.

- Seema

I agree with seemaskt. It depends what you want. Some people fly in to Seim Reap for 2 - 3 days and feel that they've 'done' Cambodia. Others spend time and savour the country and the people. I've been 4 times and there is still a lot of the country I have not seen. Next trip I want to head up the Mekong to Kratie and hopefully beyond.

Hi silverwool,

Nice to 'see' you again. :-) Happy holidays to you, Mary and your daughter!

And enjoy your upcoming trips to Cambodia!

Seema

Hi Seema

Happy holidays (and future travels) to you and your family. Our daughter is back in Australia for Christmas so especially happy for us!

Ken

scomars: I did two weeks in Cambodia, and it wasn't enough for me. Did Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Kampot and Kep. Amazing trip. Would be happy to give advice.

Seema, your report and photos are lovely-- they make my heart hurt, because I loved that part of the world so much. Thinking of going back in May... maybe Vietnam this time!

Thanks Jen! Lucky you...going back to SE Asia. Enjoy Vietnam! We hope to get back ourselves, hopefully in the near future.

Happy Holidays!

Wonderful report and great pictures. I loved Cambodia as well, and didn't think another country could compete. Now it is a toss up with Myanmar.

Hello. Nice report. I'm flying from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to Siem Reap Cambodia in early/mid-Jan. Unfortunately, I'll only have 5 days/4 nights to exlpore.

Do you have a suggested itinerary? Also, which airline do you suggest I use? I need to fly out of Kuala Lumpor but return to Penang Malaysia.

Thanks for your help and happy holidays.

Thanks Nywoman! Burma is on our list of places to travel to as well, and before we do, I'll be sure to read your trip report and well as Kathie's.

Looks like a grey and rainy day in NYC today...ugh! Happy Holidays!

WOA, Thank you. With 5 days in Siem Reap, you can do everything we did but at a more leisurely pace and also add Beng Melea and Kbal Spean to your itinerary. We loved our boat ride to Kompong Phhluk, so if that interests you, you could look into a longer day trip to the flooded forest and stilted villages, though I'm not sure what the water levels will be like in January. Also factor is some time to wander around Siem Reap, get massages and just relax.

As for airlines, have you looked into Air Asia? I don't think there is a direct Siem Reap to Penang flight, but you should be able to find one that transits via KL. You can also check expedia.com or kayak.com for suggested routes and airlines to get an idea.

Thanks Seemaskt and Jen for your responses.

Thanks seemaskt for your report!

Topping for Smeagol.

WOA - There are two airlines flying from SR to KL and then onward to Penang on various airlines. Malaysia and Air Asia. Discount Air Asia is by far the cheapest and their flight to Penang is 2hrs after arrival in KL.