We spent a month in
Cambodia and traveled from
Siem Reap in the northwest to
Kampong Thom, and
Phnom Penh in the center, to
Sihanoukville Otres Beach in the south, and finally to Kampot in the southeast.
Cambodia, officially called Kingdom of Cambodia is located in the southern portion of the
Indochina peninsula. It is bordered by
Thailand,
Laos, and
Vietnam. The population of Cambodia is over 15 million. The official religion is
Buddhism with over 95% of the population following
Theravada Buddhism. Phnom Penh is the capital and biggest city of the country. The currency is
Riel (KHR). From 1863 until 1953, Cambodia was a
protectorate of France. After its
independence in 1953, Cambodia got tangled up in the
Vietnam war and was heavily bombed between 1969 and 1973. After the war, the
Cambodia Coup in 1970 led to the installation of right wing pro-US government. The
Khmer Rouge emerged as a major power during this time and took over Phnom Penh in 1975. Khmer Rouge carried the
Cambodia Genocide from 1975 to 1979 killing between 1.5 and 3 million Cambodians. Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnam in 1979 which started the
Cambodian-Vietnamese war which lasted until 1991 following the
Paris Peace Accords. Cambodia was briefly governed by UN mission between 1992-93 until elections were held and power was transferred to the government elected by people.
Cambodia is in an interesting state of development. As it was described by
Human Right Watch's Southeast Asian Director, David Roberts. "Cambodia is a vaguely communist free-market state with a relatively authoritarian coalition ruling over a superficial democracy." However, as we visited the towns and cities of Cambodia and met local people, they were just like other people we met in Thailand and Laos, very down to earth, polite, friendly, and very helpful.
One thing that was interesting for us was how the transactions were carried out everywhere in both Riel and US Dollars. It was perfectly seem-less to pay for one single transaction in either Riel or USD or a combination of both. It was very frequent that you pay in USD and you get change back change in Riel or vice versa. This was the first country where we saw two currencies being used so commonly.
We started our travels in Cambodia in Siem Reap and we loved our visit to
Angkor Wat which was near the town (
Read about our Angkor Wat visit here). It was generally a busy town but we stayed a bit outside the center where it was calm and quiet. The other highlight of our stay was the place we stayed, called
Saralya (
https://www.saralyasiemreap.com/). It was a magical place built by a Belgian person named Amaury, who was a teacher living in Cambodia for over 7 years. The place had a salt water swimming pool, a large kitchen and entertainment room on the roof top, and a never ending supply of ripe mangoes from the mango trees on the property. There were some guests staying long term and others like us staying just for a week or two. Guests shared their meals, had long chats near the swimming pool, and were willing to help each other whenever there was a need. There were regular events about yoga, meditation, sports, and other social topics. It was more of a communal living space. Amaury had a unique vision to make this place into a space where everyone could create whichever type of vacation they wanted to have, and he made it possible with his vision and hard work. We had a wonderful time here. If you ever visit Siem Reap, you should definitely check-out
this place.
From here we headed towards the capital city of Phnom Penh, but we took a break for few days and stayed at a small town called
Kampong Thom. It was a very small place with one or two restaurants. We got most of our meals at the street side vendors understanding the concept of how they cook and serve their meals. We also got lucky while we were staying here as we could witness firsthand a traditional
Cambodian wedding. Even though we could not watch the wedding activities from our second floor room balcony, we could hear the ultra loud music and announcements that started played from around 5 in the morning. It was a nice relaxing time for us here.
From here we headed to the capital city of Phnom Penh. Our first observation was about how loud and busy the city was. Our opinion did not change until we left the place. The highlight of our stay here was our visit to a
Wildlife Rescue Center. We rented a
traditional Cambodian tuk-tuk for the full day and went to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center and spent most of the day there. It was really wonderful to see animals that were rescued from poachers and illegal hunting and were given a forest like environment to recover. We were even able to walk through some of the enclosures and see the animals up close without any fence between us.
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| Traditional Cambodian Tuk-Tuk (Image Source: www.indochinavoyages.com) |
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| Nora and Kathi taking a walk in Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center |
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| Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center |
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| Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center |
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| Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center |
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| Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center |
From here we headed down south to
Sihonukville on the only
train route active in Cambodia. The train ride was very unique. The compartment where we were seated was more like a cafe or a bar with long cushioned seats with large windows along the seats. The train ride was fun and the views were beautiful. We had interesting conversations and fun time (especially Nora) with our fellow passengers.
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| Cambodian Railways. Train ride from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville |
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| Cambodian Railways. Train ride from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville |
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| Cambodian Railways. Train ride from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville |
We stayed in
Sihanoukville Otres Beach for a week and it was a very relaxing time for all of us. We went to the beach every morning and spent a few hours there. The water at the beach was very shallow so Nora was able to stand in the water and walk and play with water and sand without a lot of help from us. There were small shops in the town where we could buy groceries and cook at a small kitchen in our room. Our hosts were a Cambodian-Swiss couple with a two year old baby. We spent nice time with them talking about life in Cambodia and in Europe.
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| Sihanoukville Otres Beach |
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| Kathi and Nora watching sunrise from our room at Sihanoukville Otres Beach |
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| Sihanoukville Otres Beach on a day with low tide |
From there we stopped at a small town called
Kampot before heading to Vietnam. Kampot was a small town close to the Vietnam border. Kampot was famous for its
Pepper plantations and they export pepper all over the world. Even though we did not get a chance to visit a pepper plantation, but we saw a few people drying pepper on the streets. We went to a local museum that was displaying art by a few local painters. Incidentally, we picked up a copy of a cartoon strip that was at the Museum about reducing waste in Cambodia prepared by
EXO Foundation. It was a detailed and first full picture of how plastic waste is affecting the communities in Cambodia and what can be done to address the issue. You can read the comic strip in English
here.
Our other biggest memory from Kampot other than eating local food and Nora playing with local kids was our push to reduce plastic use. Our guesthouse offered us to buy 1/2 litre water bottles that Kathi was passionately opposed to using. We wanted to find a solution without us having to produce 30 bottles of plastic trash. We went on a search to find a market where they sold 20L bottles. We found a store not too far from our Guesthouse and made a deal with them to return the bottle after use and get our deposit back. It worked out wonderfully and we let our neighbours fill their bottles a few times so they could also save some money and produce less plastic trash. We were proud of this fun project.
A month in Cambodia was wonderful. People were nice, food was great, and the country felt very safe wherever we went. We met a lot of wonderful people and made a lot of wonderful memories in Cambodia. Off to Vietnam....
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