An apology is in order as its been too long since I last wrote. I do however have a valid reason. I was busy planning our wedding in India and it was a lot more work than anticipated. More on that later. In my last blog post I shared our trip to Malaysia. There’s a lot of travelling that’s taken place since then. After Malaysia we flew to Cambodia and then India, Mauritius and I’m typing this as I wait to board our flight to Sri Lanka.

I am going to let David cover Cambodia in detail as he does this so well. What I shall offer, is more of a concise summary of how I experienced Cambodia along with some photos of the country.

We arrived in the capital city of Phnom Penh (PP) just in time for rush hour traffic. This was our first introduction to the pollution and traffic the city is plagued with. Our tuk tuk driver escorted us to our hotel all in one piece but oh my was it a ride. Imagine a 120cc scooter, attached to a half open cage like contraption with two wheels in the back to balance the weight. God forbid the driver would break hard, david and I would go flying out the tuk tuk. Our only safety was our backpacks that we were clinging onto with our dear lives. We were also told to hold on to our belongings as men on scooters sometimes speed past and steal them right out of tourist’s hands. I hardly doubted that I would experience this, given my suitcase was well over 20kgs but I held on with my dear life anyway.

Phnom Penh was my least favourite city in Cambodia. Besides the pollution and dirt, the city just gave me the creeps. The streets didn’t feel safe and the people seemed wary of tourists and sought every occasion to scam them. It’s also the city with a tourist attraction called ‘Killing Fields’ – A horrific memory of what the Cambodian people experienced during the Khmer Rouge era. A lot of people died terrible deaths in this city and although David and I were totally depressed after visiting the museum and the fields, we would highly recommend tourists to check it out. Why? Because it helps to understand what the Cambodian people have gone through and therefore better understand them.

The lakeside was filthy and didn’t smell particularly good and the locals didnt appear to have any pride in keeping their city clean as evidenced by their shameless polluting tactics. We spent about two nights in PP before bussing our way down to Sihanoukville. We didn’t really explore this city as we mainly used it as a port to get ourselves to the Cambodian islands. I will not be sharing the names of these islands as they are sufficient tourists ruining those gorgeous beaches as we speak, but a quick google search will surely help you out if you REALLY wanted to know. 😉 The island we visited was simply gorgeous. There was very little development as a means to keep the island as bare as possible and this was our favorite part about the island. Doesn’t our photo say it all?

After the islands we made our way to Kampot and Kep. These were my two favorite cities in Cambodia. They are little gems as they are not yet overly crowded with tourists and provide a good balance of local and tourist activities. We celebrated David’s birthday in Kampot. I hope he remembers it for a few years to come.

 

 Kep is also known as crab city. Cheap and delicious 😋 we made sure to indulge in as much 🦀 as we could. Our last stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap.Here we spent 3 nights, two of which were spent exploring the magnificient Angkor Wat. Siem Reap like PP has its share of scam artists given the annual draw of tourists coming here but there is ample beauty to be seen if one can get past this.

 

 

Unlike some of the other places I’ve visited, I don’t have a desire to go back to Cambodia. I am glad I visited as I learnt about atrocities such as the Khmer Rouge regime and the effect it has had on the Cambodian people. I learnt about the influence of Hinduism and the strong presence of Islam in the country. All of which I was completely ignorant of. The lesson I learnt after travelling to Cambodia is I might not like a country due to a variety of reasons but when I sit and reflect upon these trips, I think about what caused my discomfort in disliking a country/city. What buttons did it push?  What vulnerabilities did it expose?  Whose reality is it challenging?  And sometimes, it’s just a shitty place! I love travelling and through this process, I continue to learn and grow as a human being..