Cambodia - Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville
Sorry, I know I haven't blogged in a while it's just been mental at the moment and it was driving me mad that I couldn't blog. But I'm finally on my travels with STA that I mentioned in my New Year post and it's so exciting! I am currently writing this from a bus before crossing the border into Vietnam, but I wanted to keep you all up to date with all my travels and thought a country by country basis would be best. So here is my first country - Cambodia.
As my first port of call after flying into Bangkok, Cambodia was amazing! We spent 5 days across 3 different cities - Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. It is so vastly different from anything I've seen before, as expected, but if you've not travelled or visited Asia before then it's a very new and different experience...I know it was for me.
First things first, Cambodia is a developing country with a recent history that is shocking and is a subject you need to be careful around (I will come back to this later).
Siem Reap.
My first point of call and favourite city was Siem Reap, but we had to cross the border first. This had to be done by foot and in between the Thai and Cambodian borders there was an area that belonged to neither country but had casinos and hotels in.
Once the formalities were done we headed for Siem Reap and settled in to our room at the Mekong Central Hostel we took Tuk Tuks to a local farming village for dinner.
In the village we went on a tour where they taught us about their day to day life. We then had a home cooked meal, which was glorious and played with the local children to help them practice their English.
After this we returned to the main town by Tuk Tuk and went to the night market to buy some souvenirs.
The next day was a busy day with an early morning trip to the Angkor Wat for sunrise and then a trip around some of the surrounding temples, including the one used to film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It was very hot and sunny, which meant we struggled with all the exploring but that didn't put us off.
The Angkor Wat at sunrise.
Typical tourist photo on the steps of the Angkor Wat.
The temple complex which had areas used to film Tomb Raider.
We then returned to Siem Reap and went quad biking in the local village (unfortunately the Cambodian Guide didn't trust me driving - I wonder why) which was amazing and we got to experience more areas than you would on a touristy trip.
We stopped with the intention of watching the sunset with a beer but monsoon season and the weather had other ideas, so we watched a storm roll in instead.
After we had showered off all the mud from quad biking we went out out to some local bars and clubs.
Phnom Penh.
Whilst nursing our hangovers we all got a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. Although this city had some amazing sites and experiences, it really highlighted the poverty of the country which we hadn't really noticed before. A 2 second walk from our hotel, there was a shanty town and market in the middle of the city. We went on an orientation walk through this area to the river front.
The market.
Although locals buy food at this market as it is cheap, it is not the most hygienic but is an experience to see in itself (but watch your bags).
Following our city exploration, we went for dinner in a river front restaurant that used its proceeds to help orphaned children.
They did an amazing Chicken Amok (a Cambodian coconut curry cooked normal in a banana leaf) with some creative decor and then went for drinks at a rooftop bar with an infinity pool which served beautiful cocktails with a gorgeous view.
Decoration in the restaurant.
Cocktail at the Skybar.
The next day we took a few trips to look into Cambodia's history. We visited the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek, situated about half hour out from the city and the S-21 Prison, now the Tuol Sleng genocide museum, which used to be a secondary school. This was an intense morning but an interesting experience. From the S-21 prison, there were 7 survivors out of an estimated 17,000. There are now only 2 survivors(Chum Mey - A Mechanic and Bou Meng - An Artist) left and we were lucky enough to meet both of them. Their stories are sad and they both endured immense levels of torture but want to make sure their stories are heard so history doesn't repeat itself.
Cambodia experienced mass genocide following the Civil War the Khmer Rouge regime began with their rise to power in 1975-1979, which is scarily recent (my parents were alive then, so this is only 1/2 generations ago for Cambodians). I'm not a history teacher and don't want to get any facts wrong; but there were 150 extermination centres/prisons and numerous killing fields with over a million people being killed during the 4 year regime. Their processes were brutal and inhumane. I strongly suggest it is something that you look up as I don't think we know enough about it as in Europe as we focus on our own history.
The S-21 and conversations we had with survivors meant it was quite an intense morning. In the afternoon we went to visit the Grand Palace which was closed and on our way back we got caught in a monsoon downpour (storm included).
To relax and wind down for the rest of the day as the rain persisted we went up to the Rooftop infinity pool and bar at the Sun and Moon Urban Hotel, it was one of our favourite places on Phonmh Penh. After this we went and had drinks at a backpacking bar with amazing happy hour called "The 11 happy backpackers hostel and rooftop bar". It was a great place for a cheap drink and food!
Sikhanoukville.
Up bright and early for our coach trip to Sikhanoukville (a beach side resort and our last stop in Cambodia), whilst nursing a bit of a hangover. As we were all in a similar state we stopped at "The Stop -coolest restaurant on Highway 4" -and it really was cool. The decor was amazing and food was so western (which isn't what I'm here for, but they're BLT sandwich and Yorkshire tea did me wonders!!!)
After checking in we took a tour to the waterfalls in a nearby reserve and splashed about, which was great fun in a group of 13!
We then detoured via the "Monkey temple", a Buddhist temple where they train the young monks but is known for the amount of monkeys that inhabit the premises too, we fed the monkeys Lychees by hand and there was a baby one that was about 6 months old, it was so cute!!
We also watched the sunset from a hill top viewpoint where we had a gorgeous panorama view.
In the evening, we headed to the beach for seafood, we ate in a restaurant on the beach called "In your dreams" and had the most amazing charcoaled seafood - the escallops were to die for and the chips were heavenly as they had been battered in flour and twice fried, and it was super cheap for what we got! Adam and I loved it so much that we actually went back to the same restaurant the next night too and sat on bucket chairs on the beach to eat.
The next day we did a typical touristy snorkelling trip for almost the whole day. It included free alcohol all day which was fab, a party on the beach at lunch with barbecued fish and rice cooked on the beach.
Unfortunately, Sikhanoukville has a lot of sea urchins which I was weary of as we didn't have flippers and they are poisonous. After we got back we went for a traditional Khmer back, neck and shoulders massage which was glorious, although strangely you had to don provided pyjamas for the massage.
I absolutely loved Cambodia and it is definitely a country I would go back to! The people are so friendly and welcoming and the country side is beautiful! I personally wouldn't return to Phonmh Penh mainly because I have a preference to the countryside over the cities. Although Siem Reap was my favourite place in Cambodia, I would also recommend Sikanhoukville.