We were long overdue for a getaway, so this February we finally made it out to Cambodia!
Getting to Cambodia was fairly easy. It was a seven hour flight to Singapore
(free!), and a 2 hour cheap flight the next morning. Our stopovers in Singapore were the bookends
of our trip, and though our time there was very limited, it’s an impressive
destination in itself and I’m sure we will be passing through again in the
future. We took a romantic late night
stroll through the botanic gardens, which was somewhat illuminated. But most of
our time en route was spent in Changi Airport.
Oh, Changi Airport.
How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
Swimming pool, check.
Nap area with reclined seating, check.
Plenty of outlets, short immigration and security lines, touchscreen
rating systems, movie screenings, check!
But that’s not all ---there's a butterfly garden!!
Yes, people actually build those, and this one was amazing. And I probably would have missed out on that,
and the fun social tree, if a friend hadn't clued me into it. (thanks!
J)
But anyways, moving on.
Siem Reap
Entry to Siem Reap was a little slow, if you have the time I
recommend doing the online tourist visa ahead of time so you can get out of the
airport quicker. As far as trip details,
4 nights in Siem Reap felt adequate, though we were reluctant to leave and
could have happily stayed much longer.
We stayed in a gorgeous hotel, Golden Temple Residence, which was in a good
location. They also had nightly performances of traditional dance, which was
great. Mostly we stayed there because my
better half is a bit of a hotel snob, but I’d like to try one of those $8
guesthouses sometime. February was a
good time to go, weather is starting to get a bit hot, but it’s still the dry
season.
Around Town
I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tank tops, tie pants, and other touristy goods for sale along the streets. Our
favorite area to shop was the Noon Night Market, that’s a little walk from Pub
Street. The vendors here were much
easier to barter with and friendlier, than what we experienced in Thailand and
even Bali. I’m a little disappointed we
didn’t make it home with a whole stuffed crocodile, but there are a lot of fun
things to buy here. Our favorite was a cobra eating a scorpion in a jar. The husband and I make a pretty damn good haggling team. Guess which is the bad cop and which is the good cop? :) The Sombai shop is even
worth checking out, even though asking prices are a little steep. They sell infused rice-liquors that are
pretty tasty.
Pub Street and the surrounding area was a blast, we loved
the decidedly relaxed standards of dress and the throngs of young people
milling about, tuk-tuk drivers vying for attention, traditional music playing
in the streets, fish pedicure tanks and massage parlors lining the road. A few carts that sold fried tarantulas,
grubs, and giant locusts drew small crowds that would linger for a moment and
then think better of it.
Our favorite bar was by far Asana, which is in an alley
called The Lane, between 7 and Pub Street.
It’s in an old wooden house and is a very chill place to hang out, and
the original cocktails use very regional ingredients like tamarind, sugar cane
juice, and ginger. We also liked the
more upscale Miss Wong’s, and enjoyed people-watching on Pub Street at the
outward-facing Temple Bar.
Out and About
On our first morning there, we rose early and watched the
sun rise over Angkor Wat. That was one
of the highlights of the trip, mostly because of the perpetual haze that seemed to cover the sky in Cambodia. We spent
the rest of the day walking around the Angkor area, until we were beat. Ta Phrom was, of course, another amazingly
beautiful set of ruins, overrun with strangler figs. Popularized in the Tomb Raider movie years
ago, it was a crowded stop on the route, but did not disappoint. It was surreal to visit a location that I’d
seen on TV as a kid and been like, “Whoa where IS that???” |
| Ta Phrom strangler figs |
The next morning we took a break from temples and took an
ATV tour out in the countryside. We took
a 4 hour tour, which was a wonderful way to spend the morning, with great views
of rice paddies and rural life in the surrounding villages. Everywhere we went, kids would run out from
their houses, which were often on stilts, to wave to us or try to get as close
to touching the quads as possible, trying to beat out their siblings. We occasionally saw kids as young as 3
wandering about the fields with no adult as far as the eye could see. Some of the houses had scarecrows posted out
in front, pointing an arm down the road, which apparently people put out to
misdirect bad spirits. By the end of the
day we were covered in the fine red dust of the roads, but we had a great
morning.
The ATV tour is a must-do.
I didn’t see much advertising for dirt bike tours, but the quality of
the roads and the traffic is good enough that I would encourage anyone to give
it a try, if you can find a dirt bike rental place.
We also stopped by a local market, where the locals go for
food, and looked around a bit, tried some curry. How we didn’t end up with food poisoning,
I’ll never know.
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| One of the coolest stops in the Koh Ker area |
 |
| In front of Beng Melea |
After this day, we were officially templed-out.
Phnom Penh
Finally, it was time to catch our short hop down to Phnom
Penh, which I think both of us had been sort of dreading. We knew we were on our way to learn more about
Cambodia’s dark and very recent past, and to pay our respects to the victims of
the Khmer Rouge regime, and though it was important to both of us, we still
wanted to linger in sunny Siem Reap a little longer.
We spent two nights at Phnom Penh, which was totally
adequate for us. An ambitious person
could even see the highlights in two days, and one night. And by highlights, I mean things that will
mostly depress the hell out of you.
On the first morning we visited the Choung Ek Killing Field
and museum, and after that headed to the S21 Tuol Sleng genocide museum. As hard as it was to come face to face with
something that horrible without breaking down in public, I think they are both places
that anyone visiting the country should go.
Everything about these places was heartbreaking, and they really deserve
their own post, so perhaps more on that another time. Also I’m afraid my
keyboard will get water damage typing about it. If I had to do it over, I would probably visit
S21 and then Choung Ek, because S21 deserves a lot of time to fully appreciate,
and it would also match the path that some of the Khmer Rouge’s victims would
have taken.
 |
| Royal Palace area |
The other noteworthy things in Phnom Penh are in the
Riverside area, which is a nice place to take a stroll or find a bite to
eat. You can spend about an hour touring
the grounds of the Royal Palace, and the nearby National Museum, which has
beautiful gardens, deserves a couple of hours of time as well.
Good Eats
While in town, we made sure to visit Friends, a tapas spot
near the National Museum, and Romdeng, a restaurant run by the same
organization near the Royal Palace.
These places and their branches in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville train
at-risk youth as waiters and chefs at their establishments. It’s a good cause, and some serious good
eats, well worth the money. At Romdeng,
you can even order tarantulas, but we opted for the less frightening tree ant
stir-fry.
Wrapping up the Trip
We didn’t have much time in Singapore on our return, but we
still managed to make it to the Marina Bay Sands area to watch the laser show
and admire the skyline. It was a nice
note to end the trip on. I realized how
incredibly lucky we were to be watching Singapore at night, after an amazing
trip in Cambodia, on our way home to Japan.
I never imagined I’d get these kinds of opportunities to see the world
without taking the backpacking option. Singapore
reminded me so much of clean, futuristic Tokyo, and yet, the main language was
English, the beautiful variety of people was reminiscent of California, and
people seemed a lot more talkative and relaxed on the train. I’d be excited to revisit this city with such
diverse cultural influences.
If you've been, what was your impression of Singapore? What about Cambodia? I’d like to hear from you if you've been to
these places too!
