Cambodia Recommendations

I often ask colleagues for advice with itineraries when planning a trip. This is partly because I am often so busying with work that I don't have time to focus on planning and also because they have probably been there and can save me some research. One of the great things about being an international teacher is that we all travel and you can get some great tips or even places to stay. For our Chinese New Year trip to Cambodia a colleague kindly give me their suggestions for hotels, attractions, food and bus companies in Cambodia. I used their suggestions plus a few facebook comments to help me out. So, this is basically a rough outline of what we did with some suggestions, tips and information that I wanted the answers to. I'll explore the different areas in greater detail in further posts.

We flew in and out of Siem Reap. You can get your visa on arrival for $30, but you probably have to queue. If you bought your visa online in advance you still have to queue so it isn't going to make much of a difference. If you purchase your visa online you also run the risk that the document you are sent is not genuine as there have been numerous reports of them being hacked into. There is a cash machine by the visa area so you don't need to worry about having the money in advance, but you do need a passport photo and some patience. If your hotel offers a pick up service I would recommend taking it as whatever the time of the day there will be a lot of passengers around.

In Siem Reap we stayed at a couple of different hotels. Our personal favourite was Antanue Spiritual Resort and Spa. We often stay in hostels so this was a step up for us, but not as luxurious as I know many people like. It's in a great location as you can easily walk to some of the main tourist areas, but it is quiet, friendly staff, comfy beds, pool, poolside cabanas and some other nice features. The biggest thing that let the hotel down was their lovely poolside bar that is not open anymore. We did spend a night at Horizons Cambodia and despite the fabulous staff the aircon in our room didn't work. When we considered that it was the same price as Antanue it really wasn't worth it at all, but they are great for booking trips. It is worth taking a second day to visit temples and head further out to Banteay Srey and Beng Melea.

We traveled to Phnom Penh and Kep during our trip. We use Giant Ibis for our bus travel. We also changed 2 of our trip bookings with them for no fee via email with no issues or problems. We did an overnight bus, which I would only recommend if you can live without sleep. As someone has slept through earthquakes you'd think I could sleep on a bus. Ordinarily I'd agree, but the road is little more than a construction zone or dirt track the majority of the way. The buses have air conditioning and wifi, which turned out to be quite handy as we streamed a couple of tv shows to stave off boredom. Giant Ibis don't go all the way to Kep, but there are companies that do. We had a very positive experience with this bus company. Please be aware that we met other travelers who unfortunately had electronics stolen from their stored luggage with another bus company. It is not unheard of for children to be sent into the storage area to go through the bags.

Unfortunately we didn't get to experience the best Phnom Penh due to my long standing relationship with food poisoning. We stayed at a nice hotel a $3 tuktuk ride from the centre called The Little Garden. Our room was really lovely, big, clean, well decorated and had a beautiful balcony. Don't eat dinner at the hotel though. The two main sites are the killing fields and the genocide museum which can easily be seen in a day. The Royal Palace was just ok, but I would recommend going for opening so as to avoid the crowds if you chose to. If you can I would visit the Daughters of Cambodia as they are a great organisation offering anyone who wishes to leave the sex industry a chance to learn a skill and build a new life for themselves. They have lots of lovely textile products and also have cafe and hotel. 

From Phnom Penh we head to Kep. The whole point of spending a few days in Kep for us was to be by the ocean and to relax a little. We've always avoided relaxation, but have now come to appreciate it. We stayed at Spring Valley Resort and it really is excellent. The staff are very well trained, the grounds are well kept and the food is fabulous, even for vegetarians. You could take a walk or tuktuk to the Crab Market for dinner where many restaurants have the seafood passed from the boat to the kitchen or go to Led Zep cafe in the National Park if the weather is cool enough for hiking. The beach in Kep is not particularly clean so you can pay a small amount to hop (no pun intended, well maybe a little pun) to Rabbit Island. As much as we were there to relax we decided to do the couple of hour hike around the island in the hope of beautiful photos and were sadly disappointed. There are beach massages and plenty of places to buy food and drink during the day. Be aware that you will need to pay for the sun beds and bizarrely enough single beds with adjustable backs are $1 or you could pay $10 for a double that is non adjustable.

There is a lot to explore in Cambodia. You can have a cultural holiday or a relaxing sit on the beach or by the pool. This is by no means a conclusive list of what you should do as we haven't seen everything, yet.

School or Selling Postcards.

Growing up in the UK education is an expectation and there is a legal requirement to attend a certain amount of school. There are parameters set for teachers as to what students should be taught and national benchmarks that you are expected to reach. I recognise that education is still a privelege for many across the globe and this was really highlighted to me by a teen I met last a couple of weeks ago.

Recently we were traveling in Cambodia and as I teach in an international school I seem to look out for other such establishments. I was very surpirsed by the number of internationl schools that I saw in Cambodia and some what I considered to be very odd locations. Having some awareness of the social structure and salary expectations in Cambodia I was unsure as to who would be attending these schools. I also noticed as we traveled around students early in the morning clearing leaves on local school grounds and other such chores which reminded me of the Japanese system where students and teachers clean their own environment.

In Siem Reap we spent a couple of days tourning the various temples with a driver and a guide. We don't normally like guides, but we met so many people who told us that you could not appreciate much of what you were seeing without and so we caved and got a guide. On the second day the man who ran the company apologised and told us he didn't have a guide, but would like to send us with his younger brother who wanted to go to tourism school to become a guide. Obviously the guide fee was waived and as we don't particularly like guides we weren't too bothered. As we started driving our "guide" for the day pointed out his school. We laughed and said that we felt very guilty about him skipping school to look after us for the day. This led to a conversation about education in Cambodia and we certainly learnt a few things:

• School is not compulsory
• The school day is 4 hours long
• Teachers often don't show up or refuse to teach as they don't believe they are paid enough
• To get the best from the teachers you need to pay $7 a month and go to the evening classes where they actually teach
• Many teachers save their teaching for the evening classes and don't really teach during the day
• Cambodia wants to collaborative with other asian countries and be recognised as an equal, yet they know that their education is preventing them 

Our "guide" for the day also told us that when he was younger he didn't go to school often as his family had not been so well off. Instead of attending school he would be at the temples selling postcards to tourists. There are many children doing this and with school finishing at 11:00 - 12:00 on a daily basis many still attemd school and then go after. These children have fantastic sales patter in English, "If you buy a postcard I can go to school". It's hard for any foreigner to say no to that line. Amazingly though I heard some children use fantastic sales patter in Chinese too. They may not be attending school but they can speak Khmer and sell postcards in English and Chinese. The children of Cambodia may not all be getting the same education as children elsewhere but they are resourceful and show an aptitude for languages.

Photograph by Mr. Orangedog Photography - all rights reserved.