Country 2 - Cambodia

4-8 August 2018

On arrival into Cambodia we are greeted with 35 degree heat and about 98% humidity. We enter the arrivals hall and line up for our visa on arrival. The visa process is one of the best production lines I've ever seen. You submit your paperwork, photo and of course money at one end of the counter and about 10 people later your passport appears with your visa inside. We collect our bags and make our way to the hotel to meet up with our tour group ready for the next adventure.


We spent 3 nights in Siem Reap and find we have a great mix of Irish, English, Welsh & Aussies to spend the next 2 weeks with on our tour. Siem Reap is not a big city but has enough traffic to make you think it is. Our first tour day we visit the Beng Mealea Temple Ruins, a 1000 year old temple partially recaptured by the rainforest. These ruins seem like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. It is simply stunning.


Next we're off to the Chong Kneas floating villages on an inland lake that depends entirely on monsoons to keep their houses afloat. It was simply amazing to see how this village lived. Where an inlet met the open lake the water was so choppy it seemed like their banana boats would capsize without notice. But their balance is unparalleled and we saw children as young as 2 or 3 years old getting rocked around without a care in the world. No bedrooms or showers were visible in their houses, just simply a hammock and singular room floating homes house families without effort.

Cambodia is renowned
for it's temples and one of the most recognised sites would have to be the 1000 year old temple of Angkor Wat. We visited these beautiful grounds on our 3rd day in Siem Reap. Approx 1.2km long and 1.3km wide, we walk around huge gardens & through corridor after corridor amazed by the intricacies of the carvings that are adorned on the face of every surface. 3 hours in the intense sun and heat we retreat to a cafe at the entrance and take advantage of the limited air conditioning while we wait for our guide.

Once back on the bus we head off to the royal fortified city of Angkor Thom crossing a mote into order to gain entry. Here we visit the Buddist temple of Bayon - the smiling temple. Face after face carved into stone smiling from you from every direction. The last stop for the day is Ta Prohn, a non-rebuilt temple made famous in the first Tomb Raider movie with the tree root covered door way. Here nature has has taken control and engulfed these ruins enhancing their beauty and making them awe inspiring.




Just as we feel like we got our feet on the ground we're headed back to the airport and onto the capital Phnom Penh. No rest for the wicked and we're off to the Royal Palace, National Museum and Lady Penh Mountain, the name sake of this great city. While at the museum, the heavens opened and torrential rain appeared and within no more than 20 mins the streets were flooded & mini waves were caused by all the traffic yet the locals continued their day like nothing was happening.




On our last morning in Phnom Penh we visited the Genocide museum, on the grounds of the notorious S21 prison. 3,000,000 people, around 40% of the country, were exterminated by the ruling communist party, Khmer Rouge, between 1975-1978, who dreamt of a farming utopia of no more than 1.5-2 million people. There are no words to describe what happened here but from what our guide informed us of, the Cambodian government is still very much trying to keep this quiet with not allowing photos in the jail. Our guide begged us to take as many photos as possible to share it with the world for people to understand what his country went through only 40 years ago.

Cambodian people are happy people. They don't have a lot, their wage system is poor and their government is as corrupt as they come but they do their best to provide for their families. With very heavy hearts we head back to the airport and board our plane to Vietnam. 

Travelers tip - Cambodia uses USD as their main currency so if you find yourself traveling there no need to get the Cambodian Riel.

Travelers tip - Happy House = toilet. If you're on a guided tour you'll be asked if you need to visit the happy house on each stop.

Travelers tip - Visa on arrival for us Aussies so make sure you have a couple of printed passport photos and exact USD for the visa as no change is given.