Last Updated on March 28, 2023 by PowersToTravel
Many of the travel tips Cambodia apply to every traveler, not just diabetics. Cambodia is a vibrant, engaging place, however it requires attention to your health and safety so that you not end up relying on Cambodia’s poor health system.
I’ve written a full soup-to-nuts article on Diabetic Travel Tips for International Travel. Check it out before you continue on. Skip over the diabetic parts if you are not, but there’s plenty of health tips which apply to all travelers.
Vaccines and Travel Clinic – before you go
Like most Southeast Asia countries, typhoid and hepatitis A are a risk and should be vaccinated against. Hepatitis B is recommended for diabetics because of the greater risk that we may end up in a hospital or health care environment where improper blood handling may occur. See the CDC website for details.
Don’t drink the water!
I’m now starting to echo the same concerns I’ve documented for Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam: Don’t drink the water!
Siem Reap was the one location in the entire 65-day trip where I fell sick to a vomiting / diarrhea bug. That occurred the afternoon of a Preah Vihear day trip, on the way back. Luckily what occurred on the way back was just the preliminary vomiting! (The rest was yet to come.)
I treated it with Azithromycin for the bacteria, Reglan for the vomiting, and Immodium for the diarrhea. I think I took a total of 3 Azithromycins (as directed by the travel doctor ahead of time) over the next 12 hours – one when we got home mid-afternoon, one before bed and the last one at breakfast. I was up and about and ready to sightsee the next day.
We never could figure out for sure what caused the problem. I had neither drunk nor eaten anything uncooked or different than Greg EXCEPT I drank the freshly-squeezed orange juice in the hotel that morning. Hmmm – bacteria on the exterior of the orange found its way into my drink during the squeezing process? It’s possible. I don’t drink freshly squeezed orange juice anymore in bad-water areas. It’s not that I really like orange juice that much anyway.
Avoiding the Moquitoes
Take your malaria pills if prescribed by your travel clinic. (Malaria pills may not really needed for Cambodia during the dry season depending on r itinerary, but due to our entire itinerary, and the fact that we chose Preah Vihear to visit, we were on malaria pills the entire trip!)
Wear your DEET! The mosquitoes don’t just carry malaria, they carry dengue fever and there is no vaccine or pill to protect you from that, just avoidance.
Work around the healthcare system and make sure you get evacuation with your travel insurance
The reputation of the hospitals in Cambodia is extremely poor. Our guide for our Wildlife Alliance day trip out of Phnom Penh described a colleague’s visit to the Phnom Penh hospital in which the nurses and doctors huddled over a PC trying to solve the problem via Google search.
Our Seam Reap guide’s type 2 diabetic relatives make a trip across the border into Thailand every two months for doctors’ visits and medication. Our guide suspects that the type 2 medication dispensed in Cambodia is not full-strength, and they rely on Thailand.
The understanding is that if you need a hospital you had best get yourself to Bangkok. We paid for evacuation travel insurance specifically to do that.
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
Diabetics are at a much higher risk from severe dehydration complications than an ordinary person.
Cambodia can be very hot, and we sweated more than we thought possible. Bottled water was our best friend. Oh, that is to say, bottled water was my best friend. Dr. Pepper was Greg’s best friend!
Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy
We absolutely loved Cambodia. We loved its hustle and bustle but press of people in the cities was nonetheless more friendly and courteous than in Vietnam. Cambodia’s temples were beautiful, and the countryside vistas, with the water buffalo and old-fashioned farming techniques made us feel as if we had entered an entirely different world. Additionally, do not go to Cambodia without learning about its terrible past. Do go see S21 and the Killing Fields, preferably with a guide who can educate you about the genocide that happened and what shapes the country today.
