Cambodia

My second new country of this trip. We left Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning to try and get to the border at Bavet before the rush. This proved a success and there was no queue as we were stamped out of Vietnam. We walked with all our belongings perhaps a couple of hundred metres to the Cambodia border. As with Laos, I was getting a visa on arrival (it is possible to get an e-visa in advance but you had to print out the confirmation and as I have been travelling since early November and wasn’t sure if I’d have access to a printer, I decided to go with the VOA). I was the only one of the 16 of us needing a visa on arrival (30 USD plus 5 USD stamping fee in cash, no passport photo needed despite what the UK FCO travel advice suggests, could be different at an airport), and as with Laos, I was through the border before most of the rest of the group. And another lovely full page visa in my passport!

We then walked a short distance to pick up our bus in Cambodia and started driving towards Phnom Penh. There is essentially one road from this border post to the capital, and for the most part it seemed lined with shops, stalls and small businesses. The noticeable thing for me was the amount of plastic littering the roadside which made me a little apprehensive as to what state Cambodia would be in.

We stopped for lunch after a couple of hours at a roadside diner, and I had pho (after somehow completely missing it in Vietnam). Pretty tasty.

We drove another couple of hours and arrived in Phnom Penh in the middle of the afternoon. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting in Phnom Penh but it greatly exceeded any expectations I might have had. It sits on the Mekong and as we crossed the bridge into the city, we were greeted by lots of modern, tall buildings, well-maintained streets and public areas and it was very clean with no real sign of the plastic that had littered the roadside most of the way.

After checking into the hotel we had a cyclo tour of the city. Cyclos are 3 wheeled bicycles with a large seat up front for the passenger, which gives you a headlight-level view of the city. We were taken to Wat Phnom, the palace and then dropped off along the river in time for a sunset cruise. It was really interesting to see the city from this angle and I enjoyed the mixture of architecture styles.

We then had about 90 minutes sailing along the Mekong and admiring the views of the city as the sun set. It was pretty glorious to be honest. The Mekong has featured heavily through my journey through Indochina, starting at the Thai-Laos border and sailing for 2 days to Luang Prabang, seeing it again in Vientiane and then again at the delta in Ho Chi Minh City, and finally here in Cambodia. It is so important to life in this part of the world and seeing it through several countries affirms that.

The next day we went to the S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh, and to the Killing Fields a short drive outside of the city. We had a local guide with us who spoke to us about the atrocities that the Khmer Rouge had committed, and told us of his own experiences during these times, which was incredibly powerful and emotional to hear.

Only a handful of people survived S-21 prison and one of those still alive today was in the grounds of the now museum, sharing his story. It was incredible to be able to meet this gentleman, Chum Mey, who is in his mid 90s.

Whilst learning about the murderous atrocities of an horrific regime isn’t perhaps on many people’s holiday/travel agendas, I think it is an important and necessary visit to make, and many parts of that morning will stay with me for a very long time.

I needed some time to decompress in the afternoon. I probably should have consulted the itinerary a little more closely when I booked this trip as this day was also the anniversary of my husband’s death. Always a difficult day and certainly compounded by what we heard about in the morning.

We ended the day, and our short visit to Phnom Penh, on a happier note on a rooftop bar to watch the sunset. I think I’m losing count of the number of amazing sunsets I’ve seen on this trip, and I’m sure there are many more to come yet.

The next day we headed off to Siem Reap. We had a stop off in the morning at a service station which aside from the usual service station affairs, also had a stall selling various fried critters. I did have a go at some of them (mostly crunchy and fried with garlic and soy) but some were a little too large…

We stopped later for lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking a lake. I had chicken and veg in a lotus leaf which was very good.

We arrived in Siem Reap around mid afternoon, and headed out on a tuk tuk tour of the city and countryside. We saw a large mural in the city which has been painted to reflect the experiences of the recent conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, as well as receiving a blessing from a monk in a local temple before driving out to the countryside for some street snacks and yet another awesome sunset. The tuk tuks were all driven by ladies and it felt good to be supporting the ladies in building jobs for themselves.

The next day was the first of 2 days spent in the Angkor complex. On the first day we visited the Bayon temple, Preah Khan and Ta Prohm.

There is a lot of restoration work going on but it is amazing to see these structures, a lot of which date from the 12th century. The detail in the stonework in the galleries is truly incredible.

We had a free afternoon and I spent the time relaxing before we went to an Apsara dance show and dinner in the evening. Certainly aimed at tourists, the food was a 5 course tasting menu of Khmer food which was delicious. The dinner was accompanied by various traditional Apsara dances and some martial arts. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

I was up early the next morning as this was my one chance to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. We left the hotel at 5am and drove out about 20 minutes to the temple complex. It was still pitch black when we arrived and sat ourselves by the moat. Whilst the sunrise itself was disappointing due to it being cloudy, it was pretty incredible to see Angkor Wat emerge out of the darkness.

After breakfast which the hotel had kindly packed for us, we had a tour around the Angkor Wat complex which was very impressive to see up close. At this time in the morning it also wasn’t too busy and the temperature was reasonable too.

Again, some renovations ongoing, but to see the craftsmanship in the stone work and the galleries was really special. It is absolutely worth seeing in person and if you get the chance to come to Cambodia, you should certainly spend a few days here.

After a final evening in Siem Reap, my short time in Cambodia had come to an end and we flew back to Bangkok the next day, back to where I’d started my Indochina journey almost a month earlier. It’s been an amazing journey through 4 countries and I’m grateful to have had the time to be able to do this trip. One of the things I’m trying to do in my extended break from work is to do trips that I can’t fit into a couple of weeks’ holiday, and this certainly ticked that box!!

Now for a few days downtime in Bangkok before heading back to see a bit more of northern Thailand…