Ohhhh Cambodia! Filled with ancient temples, a wild night life, and gorgeous islands, Cambodia is a country I really wanted to love - but for some reason I just didn't. Don't get me wrong, it IS a beautiful destination filled with incredibly nice people, but if I had to rate it out of all the Asian countries I've visited, it would probably rank pretty low on the list. Perhaps it is because Cambodia was the last country visited during my Asia adventure so I was already feeling a little skeptical going into it. Not everyone would agree with my logic on this, but one of the main reasons I found it so hard to love this place was because it just seemed really expensive... especially after traveling around Vietnam for so long. The last thing you want to do is travel to a country that ends up costing you more than what you budgeted for. The crazy part is that the American dollar is used and accepted everywhere in Cambodia, which I will discuss further in the blog. Although they do have their own monetary system called the 'Cambodian Reil' - rarely will you see it being used by tourists. Perhaps this is why everything seemed more expensive than it actually was. But, I've also heard different opinions from other travelers saying the exact opposite - that Cambodia was one of the cheaper countries in Asia. Who can really say? I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. Below, I will share my own experiences about Cambodia, and you can determine if this is a place that you would like to someday visit :) siem reapIt was about 2:30 p.m. when our plane finally touched down in Siem Reap. We had already spent the majority of the morning traveling so our biggest concern now was making sure we were able to obtain a proper Visa and check into our hostel without any issues. Well...wouldn't that have been nice? Ha. If there's one thing we've learned throughout this experience, it is that nothing...and I mean NOTHING ever comes easy while traveling. You would think that now that we have embarked upon a new country, new territory - that things would have become just a little easier for us. Nope. It was HOT AF as we walked off the plane and into the smoggy, dry, heat of Cambodia. Ew. The airport was super small so everything was fairly easy to locate. My one regret prior to arriving in Cambodia was not taking out cash needed for the Visa beforehand. Because of that minor set back, me, along with 75% of the other passengers on the plane, took our place in a long line in order to withdraw money from the only ATM that appeared to be working. Awesome. Thankfully, the line to obtain a Visa wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be - it actually went quickly. Note to self: always bring at least 3 extra passport photos. My second biggest mistake was just that - not bringing enough passport photos. Luckily, they only added on an extra $2.00 fee for not having one, which honestly was not a big deal, but kind of pointless. In total the Visa ended up costing $32.00. See what I mean? So far....expensive! Waiting for our visa approval stamps literally took forever. I felt like I was in the middle of a very loud, unorganized, chaotic auction. Not only was there no system for handing back our passports, but it was basically a free for all. As the Cambodian officials called out your passport by name (which, lets be honest, was next to impossible to understand) you had no choice but to push past large crowds of people to the front of the line in order to get your passport. After several long lines and even longer waits, we finally made our way outside to locate a Tuk Tuk driver and GTFO of that place! You are basically given 3 options at this point: 1. Take a Tuk Tuk 2. Take a taxi 3. Take a private car All three come with a flat rate price and are easily organized for you. We obviously chose the first option, which was also the cheapest option! ($6.00 for a 15 minute ride) Like I mentioned before, everything is dealt with in US dollars....so it adds up quickly! Eventually we arrived at our hostel. At first we were dropped off along a main street, without any direction or explanation as to where to go next. Surprised? No, not really.... The hostel was located down a long alley way. Not completely off the beaten path, but not terribly convenient to find either. Tired, sweating, and as always, starving....our goal was to check in as quickly as possible and find some good, but cheap, food. The ladies at the reservation desk could not have been more annoying. First of all, they couldn't seem to locate our itinerary in their computer system. Then, they tried telling us that the price we originally booked the rooms for was no longer the going rate for the night. I know what you're thinking......can't anything just ever work out for these two girls? I'm still not entirely sure what they were trying to do, other than apparently rip us off since we were tourists, but luckily for us, we had a copy of the itinerary from the website. Thanks hostelworld! Not amused at all by their sheepishness, we were led to our room. Cambodia - I'm not loving you so far! The room was a shit hole compared to the rest of the hostel. And nothing was given for free. Security deposit, towel deposit, key deposit...I mean shit...you would think we're staying in this lavish hotel that wreaked luxury or something. Absolutely not the case. Good thing they at least had a nice pool and decent happy hour....geeze. We only spent a few short days in Siem Reap....but I can assure you, it was enough. If the heat wasn't enough to drive you away then the massive amounts of bugs and mosquitoes could surely do the trick! (Bring that spray, friends!) Below I will provide a brief outline on the highlights of Siem Reap that we experienced. I will also include the costs, location, and hours of each place visited. mad monkey hostelLilypop resturaunt
pub streetsister srey cafe
angkor wat templeBayon templeTa Prohm templegenevieve's RESTAURANT
angkor night marketovernight / sleeper bus #1Hello and welcome to another country that is filled with overnight sleeper buses! I'm sure the question on everyone's mind at this point is - "Have they gotten any better?" Well....no...no, they have not. After a very eventful, tiring, and scorching hot day spent riding around in a tuk tuk to all the temples, relaxing by the pool in a much needed cabana, and enjoying a rather delicious dinner, it was time to say goodbye to Siem Reap! I will admit - it was a fun time exploring the temples (although hot as hell) and not to mention, ginormous (there was just sooo much to see). Now I understand why people do the whole 2-day temple passes. Unfortunately for us, we were pressed on time, as per usual, so we had to hurry hurry hurry! We reserved a sleeper bus from a booking office directly across from our hostel. Oh, and before I forgot, I need to make note of a very important situation that happened to us. I will admit, it was my fault entirely. So, the visa situation... it should've been fairly straight-forward when it came to purchasing them, right? Wrong. Here's what happened - a minor set back if you will. While we were in our final days of Vietnam we had learned that the visa's we purchased prior to departing the USA, were only valid for a single entry. Okay, so what's so bad about that you might wonder? Well the problem with single entry is that once you leave the country, you do not have permission to go back into that country. This would've been fine if we had booked our flights home out of the Phonm Penh airport, however, our final flight was departing out of Ho Chi Minh City....which you may or may not remember is in VIETNAM!!!!! I literally thought we were screwed. There was a brief moment we contemplated just skipping Cambodia altogether and forfeiting our flight, along with all the other travel plans we had made in that country. We obviously decided against that option - I mean.....what was the worst that could happen? So this brings me back to the lovely little travel agency across from our hostel. We explained our situation to the man and he assured us that he could get us another single entry visa into Vietnam so we could catch our flight back home. Okay, perfect!! So what's the catch? The catch was - we had to literally surrender our passports (YES! OUR FREAKING PASSPORTS) our lifeline back into America...... So, with all the trust I could possibly muster up, we gave him our passports, paid him $45.00 USD, and prayed that everything would work out in our favor over the next 24 hours. Guess what?? IT DID! As promised, our passports were stamped with visa's and we were all set to leave Siem Reap on the night bus with the peace of mind that we would be able to eventually return back home. Phew! So.. lesson learned - ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS double check the difference between a single visa and a multi visa. I honestly thought single visa meant for one person and multi meant for many people. My bad. And yes, this is a true story as embarrassed as I am to admit it. Alright, moving on.....overnight sleeper bus, Cambodia style! At this point, we had grown rather used to taking the overnight sleeper buses while in Vietnam, so when the vehicle showed up to take us to the bus, it was absolutely not what I was expecting. First of all, the 'vehicle' that took us to the main bus was literally a tractor on wheels?? I'm not even entirely sure how to fully describe what it was that picked us up...other than super weird. Regardless, it took us where we needed to go - the bus station. My first impression of the bus was - WTF? Ya....it looked nothing like the pictures. Now mind you, this was a "hotel" style bus, so we were supposed to be given a private type room. Well, we were given a private room - that basically consisted of the tiniest space that barely fit two people comfortably. I squeezed on the inside, with all my belongings either on top of me, by my feet, or right above my head. Lovely. Not only was the space super small, but the bus itself was filthy! I can 100% say that we were scammed.....because this looked nothing...and I mean nothing like the display photos....which, let's be honest, is to be expected. Anyways, all the filth, noise, and small aside...we were in for another long haul...so naturally that meant LOTS of sleeping pills.... A very sleepy and nauseated goodnight from Siem Reap. phnom penhIt was around 8:00 a.m. when the "hotel" bus pulled up to the bus station in Phnom Penh. Luckily for us, it wasn't too far from the hostel we planned on staying at. The hostel itself was pretty nice, considering the location, and the staff was beyond accommodating. They allowed us to shower and eat breakfast without any hesitations, and they also helped us plan out an entire day filled with activities and must see tourist attractions. There were many things I wanted to explore in Phnom Penh, but I wasn't entirely sure if visiting the infamous Killing Fields or Genocide Museum ranked at the top of that list. Although I had read up extensively before coming to Cambodia, the idea of getting depressed seemed contradictory to what I wanted from a vacation. Nonetheless, these were two of Cambodia's 'must sees'....so a part of me felt obliged to visit the countries most heartbreaking sites. I had heard a LOT of things about Phnom Penh, not only from all the guidebooks I had explored but also from other travelers along the way - but nothing could of prepared me for what I actually encountered in this city. Poverty. It's the only word that comes so easily to mind when I think about this place. And it's sad because Cambodia itself is such a beautiful country filled with so much history, yet nobody ever really wants to acknowledge the ugly truth, even though its most certainly present. Below I will provide a brief outline on the highlights of Phnom Penh that we experienced. I will also include the costs, location, and hours of each place visited. Onederz hostelgrand palacekilling fields of choeung ekTuol sleng GENOCIDE MUSEUMbus#2After a long, hot, and borderline depressing day spent in Phnom Penh, we decided it was best to keep pressing on and just go straight to Sihanoukville. Aside from everything we had already done, it didn't really feel like there was much else to explore in this city. The bus ride was long and the weather wasn't very cooperative. It was rainy, windy, and the road was obstructed by so much fog. It's no surprise that there hasn't really been a time that I've felt safe while using any form of transportation during my stay in Asia, but this one - it was probably the worst one so far. I don't mean in terms of bumpy roads or cramped space...no. I mean the fact that it was still daylight out and our seats were right smack in the center of the bus. It was impossible not to watch anything other than the road right in front of us. After a very long 5 hour bus ride, we finally arrived. But not before the bus tried dropping us off at some random stop that was nowhere close to ours. You see, this is what they do - they try to scam you by dropping you off at a different location and then "offering" to take you the rest of the way to your destination. However, this isn't out of the kindness of their heart, or by any means for free. They actually end up charging you way more than they should because they make you feel like there is no other option. Advice: ALWAYS make sure to ask what stop you are at BEFORE getting of the bus. A very sketchy welcome to Sihanoukville.... SIHANOUKVILLEI had very high hopes for this place. Maybe that's because every pamphlet you see or blog you come across would rave about the beauty of Sihanoukville. But mostly I was just desperate to get out of the muggy, mosquito infested cities and into a cooler, more relaxing beach town. I won't say that this was the worst place we stumbled upon...because out of all of the major cities we visited in Cambodia, this was by far the best one. But still...it wasn't my favorite. The weather had been overcast, and the rain would come and go every so often. The beach was filthy...filled with trash and broken glass. There was really nothing about this "beach town" that screamed 'stunning!' Despite the weather, we still tried to make the most out of the few days we spent in Sihanoukville. Below I will provide a brief outline on the highlights of Sihanoukville that we experienced. I will also include the costs, location, and hours of each place visited. onederz hostelJack and Daniels barJJ's Bar - 'Glow party'island tour -Koh rong / koh samloem
otres beachovernight bus #3After a long week in Cambodia, it was time to make our way back to Vietnam. But not before one last, miserable, overnight sleeper bus.
The bus came to pick us up around 7:30 p.m. and to our surprise it was another 'hotel bus.' A lot different from the first one. Unfortunately they didn't have a direct route from Sihanoukville to HCMC, so we had to make our way back to Phnom Penh. The bus pulled into Phnom Penh around 1:00 a.m. in the morning. It took us to a bus stop and we were all very disoriented. Luckily there were a lot of tuk tuk drivers out and about, so naturally we weren't given any other choice and had to utilize that option. The tuk tuk piled as many people in as possible and headed to the main bus station, about 15 minutes away. The next bus to HCMC wasn't scheduled to leave until 5:30 a.m....so guess what that meant?! YEP! We had to make ourselves comfortable on the floor of the bus stop and try our best to get some much needed sleep. When the final bus arrived it was already light outside. It was not a sleeper bus either, nor was it comfortable by any means. Of course. The bus stopped a few times along the way, and eventually made its way to the Vietnam border around 9:00 a.m. We all had to disembark off the bus and go through their idea of "customs." This basically just meant that the bus driver collected all of our passports, while we walked through to the other side of the station.....landing us in Vietnam. We got back on the bus and and finally....after a VERY long 16 hour travel day, made our way back to the bustling, noisy, crowded streets of HCMC. Goodbye Cambodia!
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AuthorWest Coast blogger with a love for traveling and adventure seeking. Archives
July 2018
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