Cambodia

In 2022 I spent about 2 weeks in Cambodia. You can travel through Cambodia easily from East to West or West to East and enter or exit to or from Thailand or Vietnam. If you come from Vietnam your route could be as follows: Phnom Penh – (Kampot) – Sihanoukville – (Koh Rong Sanloem) – Koh Rong – (Battambang) – Siem Reap. I didn’t do the ones in brackets () because I was already tired of moving around every 2 days so I spent more days in Phnom Penh, Koh Rong, and Siem Reap. If you come from Thailand your route would be the same but reversed.

Safety

I had read a lot of bad stories about pickpocketing in Cambodia before I went there on the internet, so I was a little concerned. But on the other hand, I also knew from experience that on the internet things are often exaggerated. So I just wanted to go, see what’s going on, and then decide for myself if I have to be extra careful or not. A good indicator to get to know about any situation is the opinion of the locals. The locals always know what to do/where to go and what not to do/where not to go. So from my experience if the internet says A but the locals tell you B then you can easily do B without any problem. But if the internet tells you A and the locals tell you A too – then you should probably follow A. And this is exactly what happened. All the locals, hostel staff, and even taxi drivers were constantly advising me (and other travelers) to be very careful with our stuff because of pickpocketing, etc. So I took this very seriously and was going out with very little stuff and always carrying my phone and money on my body (inside of my Bra) – The last time I was walking the streets like that was when I was living in Brazil in 2014 as the situation was also not that good at that time. I don’t want to scare you but yes be careful.

Currency

Another thing I would like to mention here is money. Cambodia officially deals with two different currencies: the Riel (their own money) and the Dollar. I have been to countries that use Dollars as their currency because they don’t possess their own currency but I have never been to a country where they accept two currencies everywhere - Cambodia was the first one. Usually, prices are written in Dollars and Riel or just in Dollars. The conversion rate varies from shop to shop or restaurant to restaurant. Sometimes you can even pay or get the change in 2 different currencies. For example, if you pay 3$ with a 20$ bill they could return you a 10$ bill and then 7$ in Riel which would have been 28.000 Riel in 2022. So you get 10$ and 28.000 Riel in change. You always need to calculate and make sure all is right. It’s funny though!!

 Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s capital. The city is very beautiful, especially the architecture and of course the riverwalk. I stayed for 2 days which was enough. Things to visit are:

• the independence monument
• the royal palace and the Silver Pagoda (were closed when I was visiting)
• the river walk (you can also take a boat tour for sunset here)
• Wat Phnom, the most important temple (entrance fee 1$)
• the central market
• the genocide museum about the Khmer Rouge (entrance fee 5$). If you visit the genocide museum you should get the audio guide for 5$ because there are very few written explanations
• the killing fields: they are a little outside of the city so you can go by a taxi or a tour

From Sihanoukville, you can take the ferry to Koh Rong or Koh Rong Sanloem (1-hour ferry for 12$). I went to Koh Rong and LOVED it! I never imagined such a place in Cambodia! The sand was white, the sea was turquoise - and it was empty! To be honest this beach is more beautiful than many beaches in Thailand. I was there for about 5 days. The island is very remote, and there was nothing near the hostel (due to Covid all other hostels and bars were completely shut down) so I had to eat and drink at the hostel. The food was amazing but it was a little expensive. It was ok for some days, but if you want to save money you can maybe bring some snacks with you. The next shop or restaurant would be 20 minute walk on the beach and through a huge river where the water can cover up to your hips or through the jungles to get to the next village. So come prepared :D

From Koh Rong, I took the ferry back to Sihanoukville (12$) and then the night bus to Siem Reap for 13$. Siem Reap is the place where Angkor Wat is located. There are different tickets depending on how many days you want to visit the temples. When I visited the ticket was 37$ for one day but you got another day for free – so 37$ for 2 days. There are almost 80 temples in the area so you can’t visit all of them. In two days you can probably visit around 10 temples. And the temples are far from each other. You can rent a bike, a motorbike, or a tuk-tuk for a day. I went on a guided tour which was 27$ for 2 days. I think it was worth it because the tuk-tuk would have been more expensive for 1 person. If you find people to share the tuk-tuk with then I would recommend you to do that.

Temples we visited on the first day:

• sunrise at Angkor Wat which was amazing
• Ta Phrom Temple where Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie was filmed
• Ta Keo temple
• Bayon temple with 216 smiling Buddha faces
• Angkor Thom Gate

Temples we visited on the second day:

• Pre Rup temple
• East Mebon temple
• Ta Som temple
• Preah Neak Pean
• Preah Khan temple