Travel Cambodia - The Shortest Itinerary & Travel Tips

TRAVEL CAMBODIA
The Shortest Itinerary & Travel Tips

UXO – unexploded ordnance – never step off the roads, tracks or trails even for toilet. This is serious. All the most visited places are safe now, but even temples of Angkor are not completely cleaned of UXO. Never ignore small red sticks on a ground with such short word “UXO”. Keep out of them.

Do not miss:
1) Temples of Angkor.
2) Boat ride through Tonle Sap River from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.
3) Phnom Penh itself.

Temples of Angkor:
We visited 80% of all temples and the most interesting are:
1) Angkor Wat itself – main and the biggest.
2) Bayon – huge stone faces
3) Ta Prohm – tree roots squeeze the stone walls. Maugli style temples.
4) Banteay Srei – the best preserved reliefs of amazing pink stones.
5) Beng Mealea – the most remote and rarely visited temple. Huge stone remnants of that temple sank in a sea of jungles and are not cleaned yet as area just recently was freed from khmer rebels. You probably will be alone there. Do not refuse local guide who is obligate. Usually we refuse such service, but it is really worth in Beng Melalea. Guide is necessary to avoid dangerous areas with UXO and to visit such parts of ruins which you never visit yourself. This is the first time in my life when I was happy to have a guide.

General notes from own experience:

You do not need a car in Cambodia. You always can take a car with driver for nothing. Much cheaper than rent-a-car. We paid 20 USD for taxi for 4 pax with baggage to take a taxi from Vietnamese border to PhnomPenh. We stoped anywhere we wanted to make pictures. We had an unforgettable fun as there are no bitumen roads in Cambodia. All roads are unpaved. Including main highways. They are just red soil with huge holes, dust and dirt.

Same cost for taxi from Thai border to Siem Reap (Angkor).

We took a fast boat (Russian “Raketa” ) to ride through all the Tonlesap Lake and river Tonle between Siem reap and Phnom Penh. Cost nothing.

So there is no need for car in Cambodia. Any guesthouse, any hotel may arrange driver with car or minibus. For group of 3 -4 pax it costs nothing per person (the cheaper your accommodation – the cheaper all other services provided and arranged - from food to transport). You are free to stop wherever you want and to go wherever you want. Besides drivers are locals and its interesting to communicate to them as well and its worth to listen their advise sometime (not too often).

Forget about hotels. Stay in guesthouses and similar backpack accommodation. You just need to make sure that guesthouse has shower in room or at least has good recommendations in Lonely Planet. Besides you are always welcome to check room first before check-in. If you like it you stay – if not - you go next door. People in such accommodations is a special experience to chat, have some fun, share impressions and get wise advise (much more objective and reliable than you can get from locals who normally do not aware what is beyond their yard fence).


Typical shortest itinerary from West to East:
DAY 1:
Early morning or later before noon cross the border between Thailand and Cambodia. Aranya Prathet on Thai border and Poipet on Cambodian Side.

Take a taxi to Siem Reap (town near Angkor temples). Takes about 3 hours (160 km). Taxi ride is comfortable as taxi cars are specially reconstructed by locals for riding their ugly roads. You will be impressed. Any normal car will die after just couple hundred meters of such ride. My friends and me – we remember those Cambodian taxi cars as the brightest experience of the country. We experienced both bus and taxi. Bus trip is real extream even for me. 8 (!) hours of bumping and dirt into the open windows. Sit infront of me just broken at one moment out of bus floor and jumped on me together with guy sitting on it. the rest of the way i was riding the furious bull jumping and fighting trying to catch myself and to hold the guy infront together with his own sit. Unforgetable fun.
Taxi was very comfortable and just enjoy.

Arrive Siem Reap. Find accommodation. Arrange local driver with minivan to drive afternoon around nearest temples on the same day.

There are temples just nearby to all accommodations and you can visit them just on a first day upon arrival. Bayon and Ta Prhom are the best to plan for today. Afternoon is preferable for nearby temples as morning hours are more for herds of organized tourists. We visited Ta Prhom during evening dawn and stayed there inside till dark fallen down. It was extra mystery on top to mysterious atmosphere of this temple. Wildlife woken up and we were rambling around like Mauglis in a company of monkeys - Banderlogs - shouting non-stop.

Alternatively you can visit these temples before sunset and then go to farewell the sun on special sunset point – this is famous place. There will be a lot of people but its not a problem as view of sunset and temples is unforgettable. Yura did it.

DAY 2
Start that day on a sunrise point. This is another one famous point to view Sunrise with views of temple. I did it.

Then proceed to Angkor Wat Temple. It will take a couple hours to climb around temple rooms, steps etc.

Then drive to remote temples like Bantei Srey and Beng Melalea (they are pretty far to the North East– about 40 km. But its worth. This is something beyond the route. You’ll like it. You know that art and architecture is the last what may cause interest for me. But I really liked reliefs of Bantei Srey. Thrilling experience of wild jungle temple of Beng Melalea is just unforgettable.

Our Driver took 80 USD for two day job, including long drive to remote temples. He worked about 4 hours on a first day. Then he started early before sunrise on day 2 and finished late afternoon, drove around 250 km, and half of them unpaved. First day he drove Landcruiser and the second day it was minivan (while Landcruiser should be more preferable for remote drive as roads around Angkor Wat and nearest temples are the only well paved roads in the entire country but remote temples has only unpaved access, though suitable for normal cars and vans).

DAY 3
Take a ride early in the morning from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh by fast boat across Tonle Sap Lake and Tonle river. About 3 hours. Book it in advance right upon arrival to Siem Reap.

Phnom Penh is interesting to walk around the streets which are also unpaved except some streets along the waterfront. We met an elephant and monkey right on the central street. There are a lot of street vendors and comedians, shopping everywhere, herds of foreigners and locals. Amazing French style cafes, restaurants and patios with Asian cuisine. Be careful and do not take table outside on ground floor. You will be unable to eat. Poor people stay write in front of your table watching at your mouth and begging for food ignoring any attempts of staff to get them out. It is simply impossible to eat in such atmosphere. Sit inside or take a table on a balcony of the second floor. Cambodia is very poor country and very cheap, but we met beggars only on the central streets of Phnom Penh.

We did not have an opportunity to visit Royal Palace but people say its worth to see. Try it and tell me then.

Day 4
Take a morning taxi to Vietnamese Border about 200 km 3-4 hours

You will cross a Mekong river by ferry en route what is remarkable itself.

Cross the border to Vietnam. Bavet village is the nearest on Cambodian side and Moc Bai town on Vietnamese side. Border post itself do not have any settlements there are just 200 meter of neutral side with 2 block posts on both sides.