Cambodia

We are back from our holiday, the girls are back in England and I’m starting to think about my next outing in just over 3 months time.

Although I’m back home I’m too lazy/busy to write a blog entry so pinched this from wikitravel or somewhere like that.  It sums up our holiday pretty well.

Get in

You can get there by plane to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.  It’s inexpensive and runs frequently, but the bus is cheaper.  It does mean that you arrive late and tired but think of the planet and your bank balance.  You can save a bit of time and money by taking a sleeper bus but these can often be replaced by a regular bus with reclining seats so you don’t actually sleep at all and spend the next day recuperating.  The people in the reclining seat in front of you will try to recline their seat, crushing your knees and make sitting impossible.   If they attempt to do this, brace your legs and defend your space.

Sleep

The Green Garden Home in Siem Reap has a lovely pool.  The Cove Beach has great views but you pay a hefty price for them.  The Chhaya Hotel is a self contained backpacker ghetto and very cheap.

See

The ancient city of Angkor is well worth a few days and is so good they named a beer after it.  The vast Tonle Sap lake and surrounding waterways.  Serendipity Beach, which should be renamed Predictability Beach as every bar sells exactly the same as all the others.

Drink

Angkor beer at any time but especially during happy hour, which usually runs from 5pm to 10pm.  Try to ignore the taste and believe its tag line, “My country, my beer”.  You can also get Mojitos crammed with mint.

Eat

Cheese burgers, a mild creamy curry akin to Thai but different, crunchy salad with a mouth-numbingly volcanic chili dressing and fried eggs every day for breakfast.

Do

Get a massage from trained masseurs who really know what they are doing. The next day your back will feel like it’s had a tough workout.  Swim in a crystal-clear, turquoise-blue, coral-filled tropical sea.  Cycle around and clamber over ancient ruins and marvel at the carvings. Travel by boat through a birdwatchers paradise to Batambang, Cambodia’s second biggest, but quietest, city.

Get

A pedicure on the beach.  A foot massage in a night market.  Various hippy bracelets sold by children everywhere.  Cheap t-shirts that won’t survive the first wash.  Sunburn after swimming too much swimming without sunscreen.