Khmer Country - Exploring Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

Before I start rambling about my travels to Cambodia, let me share some general information about the country. Cambodia is bordered by Thailand, Laos and Vietnam and the country's population is estimated around 15 million. Only recently in 1993 that the Country was reunited back under the ruling monarchy. Like its predecessor Vietnam, the country has been at war most of the time. The French ruling, the Vietnam War and then the Khmer Rouge ruling. Since the end of the Khmer Rouge ruling, the country has been slowly rebuilding back its foundations from scratch and is now currently expanding and progressing economically by an astonishing average of 6% every year. The main currency used is Cambodian Riels and the exchange rate is about 1USD = 4,000 KHR. Also keep in mind that USD is also an acceptable currency in Cambodia.

There has always been a magical element attached to Cambodia. Either being lost in wonder inside the vast mazes of temples in Siem Reap, or experiencing death at the killing fields in Phnom Penh, the stories that the country portrays are both heartbreaking yet inspiring at the same time and can be one of the most humbling experiences you can experience.

Day 1 :
Me and a group of friends took an early flight from KL and reached Phnom Penh International Airport around 9am. The flight took around 2-3 hours from KL. Arriving in Phnom Penh's airport was just as expected. Airport looked quite shabby and a bit run downed. It kinda looked like the Penang Airport before it was renovated. After going through customs and having my bag opened for random checks (I don't understand why this always happens to me), we re-grouped back at the exit hall of the airport and were to make our way to Siem Reap by bus. On the way out of the airport, we were greeted by our native language. Some one actually greeted us in Malay. Hahaha something we didn't quite expect, in Cambodia. The random guy who greeted us was actually a taxi operator there and used to come to Malaysia during his younger days to learn Islam. He is the head of the mosque in his village and is accustomed to bringing Malaysian travellers around Phnom Penh due to his familiarity with the Malay language. Later on I learned that most of the Muslims in Phnom Penh can actually speak the basic Malay. We told him of our plan that we would be going to Siem Reap first for two days and then only be coming back to Phnom Penh for another two days. If you're wondering why we didn't book our flight to Siem Reap, because the air fare was way cheaper going to Phnom Penh at that time. So there.

The 'ustaz' made some calls and told us that his friend would meet us in Siem Reap. He then asked his friend at the airport to send us to the bus stop because he had to pick other people somewhere else.
The 6 of us squeezed into one small tut-tut and made the 20 minutes journey to the bus stop. Please note that Phnom Penh does not have a centralized bus stop. Different bus companies would depart from different areas. Usually most of the taxi and tut-tut drivers would know which station to drop you off at.

One thing I noticed, unlike Saigon, Phnom Penh actually has a lot more cars on the roads. Like all tut-tut drivers around the world, ours was no exception at being skilled in weaving through traffic, occasionally banging other cars, going up dividers, stopping in the middle of the road just to cool the engine, etc. It was all worth the RM2 I paid. Hahahaha.

After making our way to the bus stop, we headed to the counter and proceeded to buy the 6 hour bus journey to Siem Reap. The ticket was around RM20. The next bus would be around 2 pm and since it was only 10 in the morning, we decided to explore the area just to kill time. While we just started walking, the ustaz from the airport showed up out of no where with his van. After telling him of our bus time, he suggested that he could drop us off at the Phnom Penh's Waterfront area for free and we could board the same bus which would also pass through there. Since we really had nothing to do, it seemed like the best plan at that moment.

So we were dropped off at one of the bus company's offices near the waterfront, left our bags at the office and made our way to the Royal Palace just opposite the waterfront. We didn't enter the palace because of the time but hanged around for a while to take some pictures near the palace and the waterfront.

Bus station

Your destination sir?

The Royal Palace

Travel buddies

The Waterfront, most of the bars and pubs are located along this strip

Stunning Cambodian Hotties! Sorry this picture NEEDS to be in large size.

Around 3pm (the bus came one hour late), we boarded the bus and proceeded with the 7 hour journey to Siem Reap. The road to Siem Reap consists of both paved and village roads. Even the paved roads were not done properly so be prepared for a bumpy ride.

One thing I noticed was that the bus was full of locals, with only a handful of foreigners. Maybe because there are a lot of bus companies that operate the Phnom Penh - Siem Reap route, and our bus was a no-frills type, so less foreigners opted to use this bus.

Usually between July - March there is ferry service that can bring you to Siem Reap on the Tonle Sap Lake. Unfortunately it was kind of a dry season so the services were suspended.

The bus only stopped once at a rest stop a.k.a village house turned restaurant for around 45 minutes. There is a restaurant there and stalls that sells soft drinks, cigarettes, fruits and all sorts of other things.

 We reached Siem Reap around 5pm and there was one of the ustaz's friend already waiting for us at the bus station. He took us to our pre-booked hostel/guesthouse called Happy Guesthouse. For 6 USD per night, you get a basic room with fan, toilet and two beds. If your looking for a cheap place to stay, look no further. We actually booked 2 nights initially but decided to stay for one night only in Siem Reap. The owner was super cool and didn't mind or charge us anything for cancelling the 2nd night.

Freshening up = Poker

The girl's room. With aircond is around 15usd/night.

For the services of the ustaz's friend for the whole two days (including bringing us to Angkor Watt), we only paid the guy like 15 USD per person.

After freshening up for a bit, we made our way to the town of Siem Reap for dinner. There were a lot of pubs and bars in the town but because it was still early, the area was quite empty.

For dinner, we stopped by a pizza shop as some of us wanted to try Cambodia's famous dish, the Happy Pizza. Happy Pizza is basically your normal pizza only with marijuana spread on top. You can ask for mild happy, normal happy, extra happy or extra-extra happy. Your Cambodian trip is not complete if you haven't tasted the pizza. You can forget fried tarantulas, scorpions and all that exotic food, happy pizza is the food you must try if you're here.

Good read : First they killed my father. 

The 'Happy' pizza

The happy face.

After dinner, we headed back to our hostel and called it a night.

Expenses used for 1st day :

Food : 7 USD (including mineral waters, snacks, dinner)
Accommodation : 3 USD per person (one night)
Bus ticket : 6 USD
Tut-tut : 2 USD
Books : 5 USD
Total spent for day 1 : 23 USD*3.5 : RM80 (92,000 KHR)

Day 2 to be continued...