I can’t begin to describe Cambodia, it is a country full of surprises, a sad history and lovely friendly people. I loved Siem Reap with its jungle temples of Angkor and the huge lake of Tonle Sap with its floating villages. Then there is the capital Phnom Penh on the junction of two rivers with the beautiful and ornate Royal Palace.
I visited Cambodia with Explore on their Simply Southern IndoChina tour, there were 13 of us on the main tour. We arrived by train from Bangkok and spent the first 3 nights in the Bou Savy Guesthouse in Siem Reap. From there most of us took the optional full day tour of Angkor with our Explore guide.
It turned out that our guide was also an authorised guide for Angkor and with our Explore minibus he was able to fit in an amazing full day tour of 4 temples.
During the morning we visited the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom, then Ta Prom, a harmonious union between the temple and jungle and then a drive to the beautiful Bantey Srei.
We then spent the afternoon at the amazing Angkor Wat
The next day we had the opportunity of another optional tour to the Tonle Sap lake. We travelled by tuk tuk to our private river boat for a relaxed tour along the Tonle Sap river to a floating cafe/bar on the lake.
Along the way we stopped at the main village for a walking tour of the local school and fish smoking. We visited at the end of the dry season so the village was high and dry, with the tall stilted houses lining the road. When the water level is high, these stilts are submerged.
The next day we travelled in our tour minibus for 3 hours to Cambodia’s second largest town, Battambong. In the evening we visited the bat caves there where at sunset visitors gather for an incredible spectacle of nature: the nightly exodus of around 6.5 million bats from the cave entrance. It takes about 20 minutes for all the bats to leave, all flying in the same direction.
The next day we travelled over 300k to the capital Phnom Penh and arrived at our hotel, the Pacific hotel in time for a walking tour to the river and a sunset cruise
The next day another optional full day tour which took in the Royal Palace, the Cambodia National Museum, the temple of Wat Phnom, the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields.
Several of our group did not want to visit the Killing Fields because of the atrocities which took place there, but in fact it is quite a peaceful place compared to the Genocide Museum which I found very traumatic.
The next morning we went off to the bus station to take a public non-stop bus for the 6 hour journey to Vietnam.
Check out the amazing tours below
