Last Updated on March 16, 2023 by PowersToTravel
When we travel, each night I download our photos to our tiny laptop. We select the best of the day and create a photo collage, and email it off to family and friends, and post it on Facebook – kind of like a newfangled postcard.
This means that I have an entire folder of our trip in a nutshell with pictures and text. All that is missing is the sounds and smells – and I often keep a log of those in addition! So, our gift to you is our 13-day Cambodia adventure and itinerary, in a nutshell, complete with the text we sent home, describing our days.
Thirteen days was perhaps two days too many, but on a 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey I felt we would need some downtime in which to rest, so planned it for Siem Reap. If you are planning your own trip, perhaps you might want to trim off a day or two. I’ll let you decide.
Day 1 – Arrival in Phnom Penh via Speedboat from Chau Doc
Phnom Penh
We’re now in Cambodia!
Suddenly it is scorchingly hot! It is only December!
We left at 7am on a speedboat north from Chau Doc, which is a Vietnamese border city, heading north to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The boat had to stop first at the Vietnamese border station, everyone get out, have passports stamped, and then back on the boat. Then the boat stopped at the Cambodian immigration post (Greg is standing in front of it in the pic) where all sorts of strange lines, pictures and passport stampings occurred. Then back on the boat heading north.
The total trip took five hours. After we entered Cambodia, the nature of the river changed. We saw more groves of coconut trees, and large scale agriculture and fewer small fishermen / houses along the river. We saw many temples from the river. The one in the pic is the best we could do at that speed and distance from the shore. We did also see a lot of white cows right by the river, and just a couple water buffalo. The land at this point seems to be quite a bit higher than the river level.
The boat was cramped, with airline-style seats in the body of the boat, and two bench seats on the back. It fit 38 people and there were 33 passengers today. The airline style seats were very small, and the bench seats were above the motors so they vibrated horribly. The best seats in the house were on the little deck out front, where two or three people could sort of lay there. I was one of those people, getting out of the claustrophobic cabin.
We arrived in Phnom Penh to find a city with a buzz of traffic, but not as busy as Bangkok or Saigon. And they don’t drive their scooters on the sidewalk!!! But, they do park them there, so the walk we took to the grocery store was rather precarious, trying not to fall into the traffic, with the sidewalk full of parked scooters and cars, and the concrete-tile sidewalks more holes than flat. With hot temps predicted for the next several days, and the sidewalks in the condition they’re in, we’ll probably be tuk-tuk-ing around. I was really sad in Saigon that they don’t have tuk-tuks.
The main boulevard is very pretty (picture) but we haven’t seem much more yet. The picture of me with the rabbit is from a Korean clothing store near us. (Today was a bit light on the picture-taking).
Our hotel is the Villa Langka, and we’ll be here for 4 nights. It’s on a side street near the main drag, and has high walls around it, and is kind of a hidden garden. It really was lovely to enter from the street, however the room itself is a little less engaging. As usual, the bed is hard, and it looks a little bit like it was furnished out of a 2nd-hand shop. But it has a great pool area and I’m sure we’ll be happy.
We are even more happy to know there is a very highly rated American restaurant just a half a block away (The Lone Pine Cafe). Ummmmm, Philly Cheese Steak, a Cheeseburger, Tex-Mex – what should we have?
Hotel: Villa Langka (closed)
Day 2 – Downtime in Phnom Penh
Statue of King Father Norodom Sihanouk, Botumvatey Pagoda, Wat Botum Park, Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, Krom Ngoy Garden, Pencil Store
Today was our “free day”, and after the relaxing Mekong Cruise we were ready to do some sightseeing. But the sun and humidity had something to say about that. We did take a 2.5 km walk through some public green-space (which sadly had few green trees or shade), to visit a temple (2 pics), the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument (no pic – not enough space!), looking for the “Pencil” store. We also passed several animal statues – I chose the elephant as my spirit animal, because I go traipsing around the world with my heavy suitcases – not a light traveler, and Greg chose the griffin or whatever that strange winged creature was (pic).
If this itinerary sounds weird to you, it really was weird. Last night we went to the Lone Pine Cafe, where the owner served Dr. Pepper. Greg asked him where we could get it in Phnom Penh and the answer was “The Pencil Store”. He gave us the directions and address and today we went in search of the the Pencil Store.
We found it in a little storefront next to a much needed Dairy Queen. The store had a little front, but was actually a large supermarket. Strangely it had no air-conditioning. It was stifling inside, but it did have Dr Pepper! (It also had Coke Zero in 2-liter bottles, something we haven’t been able to find since Thailand, so we bought 2 as well.) Then it was to the Dairy Queen where a tiny air-conditioner barely lowered the temperature.
We took a tuk-tuk back to our hotel with our huge bags of cans and collapsed from the heat. We did go out for lunch at a real sandwich shop (ham and cheese sub!) and picked up our laundry. Picking up our laundry gives me such a happy feeling – ah! fresh clothes, and they didn’t lose them! (always my fear.)
We were planning on the pool for the afternoon, but it BUCKETED rain. We were so happy we weren’t out and about at the time.
So we napped, then went out to a Mexican cantina for dinner. We took a tuk-tuk to the Night Market (see pic of lit-up building). The Market merchandise was not interesting – just watches, belts and clothing, but the colorful lights on the buildings, the lights in the fountain of the Independence Monument were awesome. It is so lovely riding in a tuk-tuk with the driver swerving in and out of traffic, honking his horn, the wind in our faces.
Tomorrow we visit the Wildlife Alliance, which is a large non-profit organization trying to prevent poaching. They have an animal rescue center and we get to help feed the elephants and monkeys and visit the gibbons, tigers, bears, and who knows what else. A couple more hot days and then cooler drier weather arrives.
Day 3 – Wildlife Alliance
Chillin’ with the wild animals at Phnom Tamao
Today was still a very hot day, but we spent the whole day with the Wildlife Alliance. This non-profit group rescues animals and releases 80% of them back into the wild. They are also very important in the fight against poachers and traffickers here in Cambodia. So we paid a large amount of money (contribution) to get a behind the scenes look and feed some of them.
It still was a zoo, and a very disorderly-looking place, kind of what you might think of if someone says Cambodia or Southeast Asia.
However we really had a great time feeding two of the elephants. Greg also got to go into the macaque monkey cage and feed them. I was concerned about my pump because we had been instructed to take every removable item off (glasses, jewelry, etc). I was afraid that one would get inquisitive and pull the infusion tube, so I held all of Greg’s paraphernalia and he got poked and prodded by the little creatures. It was hilarious as the monkeys, thinking a mole/mark on his arm was food, kept try to pick it off! We also got to watch as a keeper inspected one of the elephants, Chanouk, and replace his prosthetic foot.
We saw tigers, bears, leopards, otters, gibbons, jungle cow and other animals which live or used to live in the wilds of Cambodia. At the lunch spot there was a wild boar and several piglets running around, being something of a beggar. A local Cambodia family must have been feeding them, because the boar didn’t really come close to us at all.
Tour: Wildlife Alliance
Day 4 – Sightseeing in Phnom Penh – the beautiful and the horrific
Royal Palace, National Museum, Wat Phnom, S-21, Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, Russian Market
Today we had our first day with our new tour guide from Backyard Travel, Songthea (known as “Tia” for short). He took us to the Royal Palace (pic), the National Museum (pic), and “Grandmother Penh’s Temple”, which is a temple on the top of a hill. This temple was built originally by an older woman hundreds of years ago who found a bag of 4 Buddha figures in the river, having come from who knows where. She got people to create a small hill and they built the temple there. It has been reconstructed several times since then. Our guide bought us lotus flowers, and taught us how to prepare them (fold them), and present them to Buddha, how to light the incense, and pray for good luck. There I was trying to be on my knees unable to bend them due to the bowling injury I sustained when Greg and I first met. Oh well.
From these beautiful buildings and art we went to S-21, which was a former high school which the Khmer Rouge turned into a security detention center and tortured hundreds of thousands of perceived dissidents during the reign of Pol Pot. It was a terrible place and they have now filled gallery after gallery with the pictures of the people tortured and killed. The Khmer Rouge documented every person killed there with pictures and words. There were two old survivors there at tables selling books they had written. Supposedly only 7 people detained there survived. One of them was an artist who was able to prove his innocence by demonstrating his art skills. I didn’t understand the story exactly. However we bought his book, and got our picture taken with him, and can read his story.
Then after lunch we went to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, about 15 km outside of the city, a rural field where each night they would transport 200 or 300 prisoners, kill them by heavy sticks or other manual means, dumping the bodies into mass graves. It is a really terrible place. We saw teeth and bone fragments just lying in little piles, as each time it rains more bones and teeth rise to the surface and are exposed. People who work there go around every morning before it opens picking up the exposed fragments and putting them together in transparent boxes near the path.
They built a tall monument into which they have placed many skulls and bones in layers. Each skull has a colored dot indicating how they believe the person died. (the weapon used on them, from the evidence of injury.) They don’t have the money to do DNA analysis on all the bones, so have no way of knowing who they belong to.
The additional horrifying thing is that what we saw was S (Security)-21 and the killing field for Sector 21. There were more than 200 sectors throughout Cambodia. They have not made Monuments of all the other ones, just tried to retrieve the bones they can.
What is amazing is that when the Khmer Rouge regime was defeated, after only 4 years, the Cambodians decided to indict only 5 men (the top leaders) on war crimes, and not the others who performed them as well. They gave amnesty to the general population who supported them. We got a long lecture on the history of Cambodia for the past 200 years to put the regime into perspective and why it grew into power. After seeing what had happened there I can’t comprehend the amnesty but our guide seemed to feel it was the right thing.
This has been a very unpleasant email, but part of the day was a very unpleasant but educational thing to observe.
Then we went to the Russian Market, a market which has very little to do with Russians, but a lot to do with souvenirs, and bought a water buffalo for our mantel.
Tour: Backyard Travel, their website and my review
Day 5 – Oudong Mountain to Battambang
Oudong Mountain, Sontte Wat Buddist Meditation Center, Battambang
What a wonderful day we had driving north from Phnom Penh to the town of Battambang.
We stopped at a silversmith village, where almost everyone in the village works in family silversmith businesses, where only one had a shop for shopping. We visited one which makes the canopy covers for temples, and they allowed Greg to try out part of the canopy as a crown. They were quite amused by the strange Americans.
We climbed up Oudong Mountain (509 steps!) to visit a very beautiful pagoda (pic) with stunning views of the countryside. Then we went to a Meditation Center. There were perhaps a hundred painted murals on the walls and ceiling depicting the stories of Buddha.
At Oudong Mountain, there was an old woman with a scale. She charged 25 cents to allow a person to weigh himself. Greg has been wondering how much weight these hotel breakfasts have been costing him, so he decided to weigh himself. There was quite a lot of laughter by the locals, as we thought they were worrying Greg would bust the scale (it didn’t go terribly high). But he didn’t and we found out that that was the first time a Westerner had paid her to weigh himself, and that’s why they were laughing at us. We were allowed a second weighing, which we photographed, but did not consider it notable enough to include in the collage!
After that it was a long drive (> 4 hours) up to Battambang, and we arrived after dark. At our lodge we were given the Angelina Jolie suite however, as we tried to settle in, we found the A/C not working. They couldn’t fix it, so put us in a different room. Greg was very disappointed 🙂
The countryside of Cambodia is exactly what I had expected Southeast Asia to be like – rice fields being manually worked, water buffaloes, strange farm vehicles carrying all sorts of loads – cows, pigs, pots and pans, hay, mattresses!, furniture, you name it. The houses are on stilts to protect them from the wet season floods. We frequently drove through little villages with shops along the road, and little canopies protecting the fruits and veggies they were selling. Many villages have their own specialties, such as the silversmith village we went through earlier, and a pottery village we went through this afternoon. We saw so many little pottery piggies in little stalls at the side of the road, in addition to regular stoneware pots. Tomorrow we are going to visit several more of these little villages. Our suitcase will not be able to cope with my continued support of the economy!
Hotel: Maison Wat Kor Resort
Day 6 – Battambang to Siem Reap
Making Sticky Rice treats, fish-processing, rice paper spring rolls
Today I thought we would be going to some villages that specialize in various products, so I had geared myself up to try to resist more souvenirs.
Instead we found ourselves part of the production process here. We stopped at a village that makes “sticky-rice in bamboo tubes”, a treat we had first met in Thailand. Now we got to see exactly how it is made, and Greg was instructed in how to carve off the hard bamboo covering. I chose not to get involved with the fierce looking cleaver he had to use.
We went to a fish-processing village, a smelly place, and took some pictures. We did not participate and don’t feel like having fish ever again. There was some mention of worms in the fermented fish barrels, but that they were “good worms”. Oh dear.
Then we went to a village that makes rice paper. I thought it would be like parchment, but it was the coverings for spring rolls. Both Greg and I were taught how to roll a fried spring roll, then a fresh one. That was fun. I only ate my fried one fearing the veggies in the fresh one.
Then our guide took us on a short boat ride across the river. That was an adventure! I don’t have a picture of Greg having to get on the flat bottomed boat and perch on a stool only about 2 inches high. Then our guide had me sit on the front, with my legs on the prow. Then somehow our guide crawled past me to the center of the boat. By that time we had gathered a crowd of onlookers on the far side.
The boatman in the back was able to paddle us to the far side, and then it was just as unusual an adventure to get the 3 of us off the boat without falling in. Then I had to climb a lot of stairs to the street level. Half way up I did a big curtsy and “ta-daaaaa” to the on-lookers. Did you see us on You-Tube?
There’s also a pic of a strange-looking farm vehicle which they use to plow, and then to transport product to market. Its max speed is about 20 mph, has to be passed by cars and buses, and has no brakes.
We also went to an old picturesque temple, and had a long drive in the afternoon to Siem Reap, where we are now at rest in what will be our hotel for the next seven nights.
Hotel: La Residence Wat Bo
Day 7 – Rolous Group and Angkor Wat
Rolous Group, Ox-Cart Ride, Angkor Wat, PHARE Circus
These collages are coming to you one day late. Yesterday was an exciting and LOOOONNNG day, and we didn’t get to working on pictures until now (the next day at 4:30pm!). It was such a big day, that we have attached 2 collages.
We first went to several temples built earlier than Angkor Wat which were very interesting, and because our guide took us there early in the day, we were able to get good pictures without other people in them.
Next it was off to an ox-cart ride. That was a hoot. We slowly trundled down a country lane in our cart (as shown in the pic), with our “chase car” (our driver and guide), following at a discrete distance. Due to a series of vehicles, we ended up leading a procession of ox-cart, guide car, tour bus, other car and motorcycles. We just smiled and waved at the little children as we passed, and I took pictures of the bamboo houses in the countryside (pic).
We went to lunch and a siesta and then it was off to Angkor Wat, our 2nd most important destination of the trip. We went in the afternoon when the sun was properly on the temple, and then very late, at almost sunset, the color changed on the rock and it was beautiful. There’s an entire collage dedicated to Angkor Wat. There were a lot of people there, but with the help of our guide we were able to get good pictures. A traditional dance group was there, and for a dollar a person we could get our picture taken. They made us do about 4 or 5 different hand-gestures and pictures, each from the particular dances. It was a lot of fun for us as well as the other people watching.
Dinner, and then we went to PHARE, the Cambodian Circus, which is a specialty troop graduated from a local arts school dedicated to teaching disadvantaged children. They did acrobatics, dance, art, music, juggling and acting. They performed a story of a Cambodian girl traumatized by the Khmer Rouge, and how she healed and grew up and teaches other hurt children now as well. It was a very professional show and very gripping.
We finally collapsed in our hotel room at 10pm.
Activity: PHARE Circus
Day 8 – More Siem Reap
Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, Bayon Banteay Srei, Night Market
Today was the day for the less tidy temples. They were really picturesque. Our first was Ta Prohm, which is the temple featured in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We visited 3 others and I don’t have the names at my fingertips, and we’re rather tired tonight, so I’m not going to look them up for you!
Especially interesting was one with faces carved all over. Thirty two towers with four faces on each tower equals 128 faces. That king sure liked himself.
We finished the night having ice cream at Swenson’s and wandering through the Night Market. The lights on the bridges were very beautiful.
That’s it. Short.
Day 9 – Tonle Sap Lake
Kampong Phluk
Today was had only a half-day of touring – we drove to an area on a small river that empties into the Tonle Sap Lake, a large lake here.
We took a private boat ride with our guide to see a village on stilts called Kampong Phluk. Because it was dry season once we got there, we were able to walk on land at the front of the houses. The rear of the houses were still in the water. We were met by a older woman who was selling coloring books and pencils. The plan was that we would buy the pencils or books and give them to the children, so we did. We bought three packs of pencils for $5! Then Wendy got to hand them out to very excited children. Wendy is pretty certain that it was a money-making scheme, in that the children probably sold them back to the woman for less, and then she probably sold them again to the next tourist! Our guide said, “No.” but we still think that is so. In any case we had a lot of fun and so did the children.
It was a gray, chilly morning and we were on a moving boat. There is a splint on my wrist in the picture not for pain reasons but because the splint, which I carry in my purse, kept my hand warm! I hugged my purse in my lap for an extra layer of warmth as well. Greg didn’t even have a long-sleeved shirt to wear. But by the time the boat trip was done, the skies were clearing.
We saw some very wet rice paddies that were quite picturesque.
Greg is looking through a fish net.
The sad thing is that this large village/town does not have running water. The sewage goes right into the river, and they drink, bath and wash laundry right in that river.
Then we went to a craft school where they teach young and disadvantaged students to be artisans. (no pic).
Then we had lunch and Greg chose the “Crocodile Pizza”, which he said tasted if anything, like chicken. It was hard to find it in all the tomato and cheese. I had a ham and cheese sub – no mustard (don’t like), no lettuce, no pickle, no tomato. As you can tell, we’ve been choosing American or Western-style restaurants lately. I’ve been very, very happy that I haven’t gotten sick to my stomach at all on the trip. I’ve been very careful.
Speaking of being careful, we were supposed to go on a “Foodie” tour late this afternoon, visiting the very local market and seeing and eating if we wanted, tarantulas, beetles and spiders, plus taking a trip through another very local market to try other delicacies. We had seen the frogs and rats and worms and bugs in other markets already and did not want to repeat, so we cancelled out of that expedition. The agency was good as to transfer those funds to a night out in several days at a local dance show.
Tomorrow is our “free day” and we still don’t know what to do with it. We are not tired and stressed from too much sightseeing, but we still don’t know what to do on our day. It’s actually been too cold to swim.
Day 10 – Free Day and a Horse Cart Ride, woo-hoo!
“Country” horse-cart ride, Weddings we’re not invited to
Well, we chose to go for a horse-cart ride. It was supposed to be a country ride, but turned out that half of the ride was on busy streets to get us to the “country” area, and then the “country” area was being developed by foreign investors and half filled with very nice homes, right next to the bamboo Cambodian homes. It made for a very strange contrast.
How would you like your shiny new house next door to that water buffalo?
The long vehicle is another look at that strange plow-cum-transport. This time it was transporting far too many people. They certainly like to put as many people as possible on/in a vehicle. They really do ride 4 to a motor-bike, and Greg once saw 6 on one bike. I missed that one. Our guide said that the van transports from town to town which are constructed for “15 passenger capacity” run with at least 30. I’m glad we decided on private transportation for this trip!
We had lunch (tacos for Greg and spaghetti carbonara for Wendy) and then headed back to our hotel for an afternoon swim. The hotels usually have robes in the closet so we can go discretely to the pools and not flash too much flesh around in these more conservative countries. In this hotel we got kimonos which Greg really liked, so you get a picture of us and the kimonos.
The music and DJ is still blaring outside our window. This is wedding season here. The rice crop has been harvested, the money is available for all the brides to have their weddings. Most weddings here are held in the street. They hire a rectangular tent about the width of a road, and plunk the tent down in the middle of the road, block off the traffic and have a party. The music has been going since just after dawn. It has been competing with the chants of the monks on loadspeakers coming from the temple nearby and the screams of the children at recess at several schools just over our wall. TripAdvisor said that this hotel (La Residence Wat Bo) was in a quiet residential area. Even if a hotel is not in the noisy downtown area of a Cambodia town, don’t think that it will be quiet!
Day 11 – Preah Vihear
Preah Vihear, Ta Mok’s House
Today was a long driving day – 3.5 hrs to a mountain-top temple and 3.5 hours back. The mountaintop temple was Preah Vihear, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and as you know, we always try to visit them.
Along the way we saw some interesting houses – a whole “community” or bunch of cookie-cutter houses on stilts. Our guide explained that the houses had been built for the land mine victims. In the retreat of the Khmer Rouge at the end, the Khmer Rouge laid so many land mines in this area as protection, and a lot of locals have been badly hurt or killed. Our guide also said that there is a new technique they are using to find the land mines – using trained rats who can smell them. Once the rat locates the mine, then the professionals can dis-arm them. The rats don’t get blown up in the process.
Once we got to the mountain, to get up to the temple we sat in the back of a 4×4 pick-up truck with padded bench seats, and a metal frame. We didn’t get a good picture of it. The truck climbed the mountain. At first Greg said, “Oh, the Highlander could have done this? Why do we need this truck?” Then the driver stopped, engaged the 4×4 and it started climbing. It felt like a 45 degree angle, with us hanging onto the metal frame and with no visibility to the curves ahead of us.
We finally got to the top, to be faced with a hike up a significant incline over weathered mountain rocks to the temple.
However, to our uneducated eyes, the temple looked just about the same as any of the other temples we’ve been seeing, and we are a bit templed-out at this point. So we staggered around the mountain top, took pictures and then headed back down the mountain on the 4×4. The ride down felt like we were riding a roller-coaster each time we turned a corner.
Finally down, Wendy proceeded to get sick.
We stopped at “Ta Mok’s House” on the way back. He was a leader in the Khmer Rouge and known as the Butcher. His house was on the side of a beautiful reservoir, so I took that picture. We just couldn’t understand our guide’s explanation of why the locals loved him, and have a shrine there.
After a 3.5 hour drive in which Wendy was miserable trying to hold it all in, we finally arrived at our hotel.
Day 12 – Siem Reap – some temples, rest and an Apsara Dance show
Elephant Terrace, Leper King Terrace, Preah Khan, Apsara Dancers
After my digestive issues yesterday, today was destined to be a quiet day here. It is also our last full day in Siem Reap.
We did go out for a few hours this morning with our guide to see the Elephant Terrace and the Leper King Terrace (no pics – you’ll have to wait for my blog!), as well as Preah Khan – 3 pics – me in the window, the good guardian holding the tail of the Naga, and Greg and the huge Spung tree. (How’s that for impressing you with our Cambodian knowledge?)
Then we headed back for a well-needed nap, lunch and a swim in the pool. Our version of a “swim” is jumping in the pool, saying “oh my, this is cold”, taking a couple pictures, then laying on the chaise lounges.
At the end of the day we went out to a local restaurant for an Apsara Dance show. The temple of Angkor Wat is covered in sculpted Apsara Dancers. The Apsara Dancer is a mythological half-goddess, half-human creature who is born from the foam surface of the ocean milk. The churning of the ocean by heavenly creatures and demons, in a search of the elixir of immortality. This is all a Hindu story.
After all of the Buddhist temples and lectures by the guides, Angkor Wat took us by surprise as the temples here are partially Hindu and partially Buddhist. They were built over many years, during a time when the religion was transitioning. So, we learned all about Nagas, Shiva and Garuda. Greg says, “As a guide I’m glad I didn’t have to learn this much stuff!”
Activity: Apsara Dancers at Por Cuisine
Day 13 – Wander around Siem Reap and fly to Lao
Wat Bo, Wat Preah Prom Rath
We spent the morning packing (uuuuggg) and then took a couple hours walk to see two local / modern temples in town. The second one was amazing with colorful statues of oxen, boats, horses, peacocks, and more. They were clearly allegorical, but with no guide we didn’t know what they were trying to teach us!
We had learned it was very impolite to point, so we don’t know why some characters were pointing, so Greg pointed back.
Onward we flew to Luang Prabang in Laos, and arrived safely…
If you want to follow our itinerary through our entire 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey click here for the next country, Laos
