Cambodia in June

The Jellies at Ta Prohm

Living in Asia without taking a trip to Cambodia is like eating a pavlova without whipped cream or a hamburger without the bun - it's just not the done thing. Leaves a funny taste in your mouth too. How can you live this close (2 hour flight) and not visit?

So, without further ado let me recap the amazing 8 nights/9 days of our family holiday in Cambodia.

We flew out on the 22 June, unaware that it was the rainy season and therefore off peak for tourists. It was however the second week of the kids four-week-long-mid-year holiday.

As for the weather, someone forgot to let Cambodia know their rainy season had started. We had fantastic weather. Cloudy at times, but mostly sunny with exactly two rain showers that lasted between 30 mins - 1 hour. It rained heavily one evening, but when you're asleep, tucked up in a clean, dry room, who cares?  Apparently, the best time to travel to Cambodia is October to April. However, late June works well too.

What I loved most about our itinerary was that we got a mix of temples (history), beach (relaxation) and city life with the Cambodian culture shining through in each location.

Day 1: We flew direct from Singapore to Siem Reap. The immigration process goes a whole lot faster if you arrange your visa online beforehand. (So glad hubby thought to check visa requirements the week before we left and make the necessary arrangements online. Love that man!)

Airport transfer at Siem Reap

We arrived at dusk and were greeted outside by two tuk tuk drivers from The Moon Boutique Hotel ready to whisk us and our luggage off to their establishment. I had booked accommodation with them because of recommendations on Trip Advisor and we weren't disappointed. The Moon Boutique Hotel was small, quiet, friendly, met all our requests, had a great pool to cool off in after the dust of the day and we'd stay there again in a flash. The Moon Boutique Hotel is a couple of kms from the hubbub of town, markets and Pub Street but with complimentary tuk tuks and a handphone provided to call them for pickup whenever we wanted, it was easy and suited us just fine.

Day 2, Saturday: Off to the temples! We almost didn't hire an official guide, but am glad we did in the end. Our official guide cost USD$25 and he met us at our hotel just ten minutes after we decided we'd like a guide after all. After finding out how far we actually planned to go, our hotel arranged for two local tuk tuk drivers to be at our disposal all day at $15 each.

I found it interesting that commerce is transacted in USD throughout Cambodia. Never in US pennies or cents though. That's when you use the Cambodian riel. If something costs $2.50 and you hand over $3.00, you can expect the change in colourful riel notes. Useful for donating to the numerous beggars or giving back at the market when they won't drop the price of that T-shirt from $2.50...

Detailed bas relief carvings all over Angkor Wat

Our tuk tuks took us north from Siem Reap to the world heritage, world famous Angkor Wat. I've seen many friends' photos, but it really is something to get up close and personal. I still can't quite believe that tourists are allowed to wander in, up and over these ancient ruins. Go now, before they realise their restoration projects will never keep up with the wear and tear of thousands of daily tourists and conservation laws are inevitably passed. I won't go into the history of Angkor Wat and the Khmer temples here - National Geographic or Discovery channel will do a much better job. But I will recommend Angkor Wat as a must see. The guide really came into his own describing the amazing frieze reliefs carved into the stone and translating the Khmer social rules laid down on huge columns of stone on the way to the Thousand Buddha Gallery. I loved it. The teenagers in tow enjoyed the carvings and stories too, and we all took the trek up the super steep 70 degree angled stairs to the very top of Angkor Wat. Due to dress code, some people weren't allowed. Be advised that you need to have your shoulders covered and shorts to your knees for access to all areas.

Bayon temple with its giant faces

After a couple of hours at Angkor Wat (make sure you're carrying water) we tuk-tuked off to the nearby ancient capital city of Angkor Thom. Our main destination there was the Bayon temple. This was my favourite of the three temples we visited.  Very different from the sprawling, well laid out Ankgor Wat, the temple of Bayon is intimate with passage ways twisting every which way. Over it all are the famous giant faces looking out in every direction. All the temples, though in ruins, are still functioning temples with buddhist statues still being tended to and worshipped by visiting monks and locals.

At Bayon with one of the Buddhist shrines

Our guide did a great job of explaining the Buddhist and Hindu beliefs still adhered to in the places we visited.

From Bayon we tuk-tuked to Ta Prohm. This is known as the tomb raider temple or jungle temple and was on our itinerary because we wanted to see temple ruins that had trees growing amongst them. We weren't disappointed. Our guide took us efficiently from one amazing root entwined ruin to another leading us through hallways and windy paths the whole while. These were some of the temple ruins that featured in the movie Tomb Raider (one doorway in particular) - so we will be watching it again soon to look for the places we walked.

I loved that the three temple sites we visited were all completely different and do-able in one day. Ta Prohm was a very close second as my favourite temple.

Ta Prohm - the living ruins

Thoroughly hot and exhausted we got the tuk tuks to take us to Pub Street. The All Blacks were playing the Irish and the game was being aired live at Molly Malone's Irish Pub so we enjoyed some seriously good and cold chocolate milkshakes with a delicious late lunch.

After the game we wandered around the corner to the Old Market for a bit of typical market shopping. The scarves selection is truly inspiring and I bought some gorgeous silk/cotton scarves.
Dinner that night was a selection of Khmer food. Hubby, the foodie, had been reading up on Khmer cuisine so we let him order for the whole family. Favourites were fish amok and ginger chicken. We tried fish amok three times during our holiday. It was different each time, although the first two times were very reminiscent of a green Thai curry dish.  The third time (in Phnom Penh) it was red, still a coconut based dish but with a very different texture to the fish and the sauce - it was the most delicious in our opinion.

Traditional Khmer wedding performance with ring-ins

Day 3, Sunday: We had put aside the morning for the Cambodian Cultural Village and were pretty disappointed. Unless it undergoes a significant revamp, our advice would be - don't waste your hard earned US dollars here. Although it was amusing that hubby got pulled in to participate in a traditional Khmer wedding demonstration to act as father of the groom, the whole place was quite run down, badly signposted and seems very reliant on the shows as a source of information for visitors. We only saw one show (traditional Khmer wedding) - and it was in Cambodian so only partially informative. Hilarious with tall, white hubby amongst it all, but not particularly enlightening. At $12 each, we felt a little cheated.

We weren't ready to give up on learning something more though so we headed off to the Angkor National Museum. For the same price ($12 each) we much preferred this air-conditioned, well laid out and carefully designed venue. Although the displays were mostly 'same, same' with statue after statue, they were interesting if you took the time to read some of the inscriptions and watch the displays. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours and even the teenagers got something from it. We all agreed it beat the Cultural Village hands down.

Night market at Siem Reap

We went to the Night Market for some dinner and shopping. It was amusing to actually track down the 'official' night market with it's thatched roofs.  Plenty of markets open all over town for the night shoppers. There were still more scarves to be purchased...

Day 4, Monday: After another delicious breakfast at The Moon Boutique Hotel we packed up all our bags for one last complimentary tuk tuk ride back to the airport. A pleasant one hour flight on Cambodia Angkor Air, complete with muffin and water, got us to Sihanoukville. They fly that route Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the moment (2012) and for us it was preferable to the alternative 9 hour car journey.

Otres beach, near Sihanoukville

We had arranged accommodation and a complimentary transfer with The Secret Garden. We were met by their friendly gardener who gave us the tour of Sihanoukville and it's port in his double cab ute. Secret Garden is fairly new and the only luxury bungalows at Otres Beach. Otres Beach is about seven to ten minutes drive from Sihanoukville and wonderfully underdeveloped. There were more cows than people on the beach - just the way we like it. Secret Garden has the only swimming pool in the area too. I'm not sure how much longer Otres Beach will remain secret - with the road and footpath development happening now, the signs are there that in ten years time it will be completely unrecognisable from the current sleepy, untouched beach.
The sand was white, the water warm and safe. Secret Garden is simple, but comfortable accommodation (read, air-con). They do great food too.

Day 5, Tuesday: A hundred metres up the beach was a rental place where hubby took the kids out on a catamaran and we played around in kayaks for a while. There were a couple of islands within view, one within kayak distance, but frankly the onshore breeze made the 40 minute kayak trip look like too much hard work this time. The sailing was a much better option. You can take any number of boat trips out to the islands from Sihanoukville for swimming, snorkelling or diving. With the rainy season we heard that the snorkelling was OK, but not that great. We were happy right where we were.

Serendipity beach, Sihanoukville

Having said that, we did get a tuk tuk (cost $5) into Serendipity beach at Sihanoukville for the afternoon. We'd heard about giant inflatables in the water. Yep, sure enough, there they were for $1 per person, for as long as you wanted. The kids had a great time. Personally though, I didn't like Serendipity beach at all. Lined with bars on one side of the footpath and beach chairs and umbrellas on the other, I much preferred the solitude of Otres. I found it impossible to relax with beggars or beach vendors approaching you every two minutes. At Otres beach we had one beach vendor come visit once a day. Of course, this may be different during the high tourist season. We had dinner at a restaurant a couple streets back from Serendipity serving more delicious Khmer food. We really didn't have a single bad meal during our Cambodian tour.

Day 6, Wednesday: There was mutinous talk of leaving the beach to visit the nearby National Park, but my persuasive powers won out and we spent a full day at the beach and our pool doing nothing very much and making new friends. Perfect.

Day 7, Thursday: Secret Garden had arranged a driver as requested. $55 got us an air-conditioned, comfortable, but dang scary drive from Otres to our accommodation in Phnom Penh. It took about 4.5 hours and we pulled up to Hotel Nine on Street 9 just before 1pm.

Phnom Penh

I don't say this often about many cities, but I like Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh makes sense and was easy to understand. It has wide streets, full of cars and scooters but it's not crazy busy like Ho Chi Minh.

Hotel Nine is a newish, small hotel with a very small pool but is clean and comfortable. The Australian owner, Franco, suggested Laughing Fatman restaurant for our evening meal if we wanted good quality, cheap local food. We took his advice and had a wonderful meal there before walking around to Dairy Queen along the river front for dessert. Earlier in the afternoon we caught a tuk tuk to the Russian market. This was the most relaxed Asian market I've been to yet. Bartering is still required if you want a good price, but it was nice not to be aggressively hassled to buy something. I had reached my scarf quota by now, but we found some other goodies for Christmas gifts.

Day 8, Friday: We had rung Blazing Trails the night before and arranged a half day quad-biking tour for the morning ($55 each). We were picked up at 7.30am by tuk tuk and taken 15km SW of Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek Road, otherwise known as the Killing Fields Road.



We had a farm quad each and headed off with a guide in front and a mechanic following behind. We travelled through villages and paddy fields stopping a couple of times at local stalls for water (paid for by the guide). So amazing how vibrant the old ways still are in these rural communities.

Once we got back to base we were tuk-tuked 200m up the road to the Killing Fields genocidal memorial centre.  This is where my hazy knowledge of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields finally gelled. I was surprised at the emotion that surfaced as I placed incense and flowers at the stupa of skulls (not as creepy as it sounds) in respect of the millions of innocents that died under the Khmer Rouge. I'm so glad we went; the little museum with its old 15 min film were just great.

Just down the road from the Killing Fields we stopped at a roadside table where a large tray piled high with fried crickets lay waiting for hungry customers. It just seemed like the right time and place to give it a go.  Without looking at it too hard and just eating it whole, I'm pleased to report that it was completely edible. Crunchy like a potato chip. Just a shame that the legs get stuck in your teeth sometimes... We got back to our hotel mid-afternoon to a welcome shower to wash away the layers of dust gathered from our quad ride.

A quick word here about Khmer massage... it's rough. Similar to Thai massage, but rougher. You have been warned.

That night for dinner we treated ourselves to a fantastic Italian meal at Le Duo (La Potenza). Very pricey for Cambodia, but great food and still cheaper than if we had bought the equivalent meal here in Singapore. The chocolate mousse was amazing and the restaurant was very cool. We enjoyed a couple of games of pool before we left.

Day 9, Saturday: Time for a quick breakfast before hopping in a taxi to Phnom Penh airport. From there it was a direct flight back to Singapore. We were back in our own place just after lunch.
Cambodia was a fantastic trip and I was especially glad of the following:

• that all the places we stayed had swimming pools
• that mosquito repellent has been invented (I got lazy one night though and now have the ugliest bites around my ankles - be sure you use plenty when you go!)
• that you can get a kilo of laundry done for $1 on just about any Cambodian street, next day service.

Would we go again? Probably not. Would you eat a second pavlova when there are so many other great dishes still to try?  It was a great pavlova though, and I thoroughly recommend it if you haven't been yet.