Korean Job Discussion Forums

[I-am-me]

Has anybody been to Cambodia? Was is easy or difficult to get around. What were the most interesting sites? Thanks

[smurfetta]

I've been to Cambodia. It is fairly easy to get around. You can buy bus tickets to your next destination at your guest house. I really enjoyed visiting Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh, and Battambang. Buy yourself a Cambodian guidebook to give yourself an idea about places you want to travel to and the route you want to take.

One option of getting to Cambodia is to fly into Bangkok and take the train to the Aranyapathet-Poipet border. Once on the Cambodian side (Poipet), hire a taxi or take a bus to Siam Reap (Angkor Wat).

[jlb]

Transport is super-easy and decently cheap, at least on the tourist trail where I was.

Angkor Wat is the only must see, in my opinion. I actually liked Laos A LOT better than Cambodia!

[smurfetta]

I agree. Laos is wonderful and so is Angkor Wat. I'd check out Luang Prabang if you have time. It is possible to get a cheap flight to Siam Reap and other destinations throughout Southeast Asia using airlines such as airasia.com.

[Gnawbert]

Laos and Cambodia are both amazing. Personally, I liked Cambodia, well, the north, Angkor and beyond, a bit better, but that was just because I got taken under the wing of an amazing Cambodian family my second time there.

You can easily see the majority of Angkor in 2 days on moped if you move quick. I'd even venture to say you could see the major parts in one day, but with little room to stop and walk and enjoy them. Laos, it's a bit more complicated. I love Phnom Penh, but between that (Killing Fields, etc) and Angkor, I'd chose Angkor hands down.

Transport is VERY easy and cheap in Cambodia and you can find generally very nice moto-bike drivers who'll be happy to drive you around all day for whatever price you feel comfortable paying them. I've never had a bad experience with drivers there, where as in Viet Nam I always felt like I came out ahead if I got to my destination without getting ripped off first.

Otherwise, a guesthouse can make virtually every arrangement you need on an hours notice. I'm going to take my girlfriend to see Angkor for the first time in May or June, and we're flying from Incheon to Bangkok, Bangkok to Siem Reap for about 5 days round trip, with a possible quick detour to Phnom Penh if we have time.

[espo]

why do people fly to Bangkok first? Can you not fly into Cambodia? Just asking bc I'm going Vietnam, Camb, Laos, Thailand and I just figured i would fly to Vietnam, then take transport to Cambodia

[Gnawbert]

[smurfetta]

Bangkok is the travel hub of Southeast Asia. It is easy to arrange flights, trains and buses from Bangkok to other neighbouring countries. You don't have to worry about getting a visa a head of time to visit Thailand. So once you are in Bangkok, you can arrange for visas to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam easily.

[crazylemongirl]

[chris_J2]

http://www.trekearth.com/members/ChrisJ/photos/Asia/Cambodia/

http://www.trekearth.com/members/ChrisJ/photos/Asia/Cambodia/page2.htm

http://www.treklens.com/members/chrisJ/photos/Asia/Cambodia/

Definitely get the 3 day pass for Angkor Wat. So many temples to see.

These websites are useful:

www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-overland.htm

www.talesofasia.com/cambodia.htm

[articulate_ink]

I spent 9 days in Cambodia last year and liked it very much. However, the mistake I made was spending so much time in only two places, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

It's probably cheaper to fly to a major airline hub like Bangkok or Hong Kong first. Although you can fly to both cities nonstop from Seoul on the Korean carriers, that may involve the risk of spending several hours in a confined space with Korean tour groups. You'll see more than enough ajummas at the temples. Seriously. I flew Bangkok Airways from BKK to Phnom Penh and its subsidiary Siem Reap Airways to Siem Reap. Very nice. Recommended.

Phnom Penh is an interesting city, kind of underrated, and not as dangerous as its reputation would suggest. The national museum and the royal palace complex are both wonderful. There are some terrific restaurants along the waterfront (the Foreign Correspondents Club is worth checking out). However, some of its tourist spots aren't exactly cheerful. If you go to the Killing Fields (for example) understanding you are there to bear witness, not to have fun, you'll be in better shape afterward. It's subtle, by the way. The real horror of the Killing Fields creeps up on you after you've been there a while. It doesn't hit you in the face.

Apart from the Angkor temples, there's not much to do in Siem Reap. It's tiny. I agree, get the 3-day temple pass (you'll overload yourself with the 5-day version), and give yourself another day or so to wander around the town. And make the trek out to Bantey Srey (sp?) and Pre Rup. They're not the closest temples but they're both worth seeing.

It's pretty easy to get around. You can do a lot better in Cambodia without speaking Khmer than you can in Korea without speaking Korean. Just hire a moto or tuk-tuk driver and tell him where you want to go.

[I-am-me]

Thanks for the posts. Looks like it might be a worthwhile trip. TIme to research it more.

[joeteacher]

I just dug this thread up (which has been very helpful, thanks). I'm going to Cambodia for 5 days and had a few questions:

Average price: For a hotel? For a meal? To hire someone to drive you? I will be in Angkor...should I spend the whole time there or plan on going to another city?

Thanks for any additional information and all this free advice

[sojourner1]

I went to Cambodia 2 months ago (alone) via Aran/Poipet border and it was a real adventure. You won't find taxi cars waiting for you on the other side when you finish registering in the police box, but a yellow official shirt guy is stringing you along on foot and offers a motor bike ride to a taxi who is the only person you can possible speak with or see. He will give you a ride around Poipet's dirty mud streets and tell you it is not safe for you in Cambodia as no cars or taxis are waiting in the circle like they should be. You will see groups of men standing in the streets obviously talking deals and will be brought to them with your yellow shirt man asking around for you a Toyota Camry car to Siem Reap. There are corrupt mafia groups out there, but it's just about making money more than robbing people. Even Thailand has mafia groups everywhere that control public transportation, but none tried to hurt or rob me though they often seem shady.

I got in one car after agreeing at $30 per person with 2 other and they just drove around Poipet for a half hour and told us we have to prepay as they didn't have any gas money after we had negotiated paying upon arrival. I told them no and got out of that car and the yellow shirt man on a motor bike took me furthur to visit 6 more groups of men standing in the shanty town mud streets. Finally, after 2 frustrating hours of visiting Poipet, I ended up within sight of the border, police box, and circle drive at a shack and a large obese American man in a business suit walks out. I thought, he must be a ring leader of something yada yada and I was ready to fight and thought I was going to get robbed and mugged.

He turned out to be a nice guy who works in Bangkok and looking to expand his internet services market into Cambodia and we had a nice ride togethor. He said it makes it easier to travel if wearing a suit as they respect you more. I laughed when I saw him in tuk tuk riding to Angkor Wat the next morning, in what? You guessed it, his grey business suit! I had to agree upon $60 to make the car go since these guys are being hard asses and you don't want to pizz them off. He paid $60 too!

Flying is the most practical way to get to Siem Reap and once you arrive, it's easy to hire a tuk tuk for $10 a day plus water and lunch to take you to the sites and shopping as well as an evening classical stage show with buffet. After 4 days of exploring Ankor Wat, I flew to Pnom Penn for 2 days before flying to Puket, Thailand. I hired the same tuk tuk for 3 days and then used an electric moped the 4th which was junk as it ran out of power and the stations didn't have extra batteries as they were supposed to. No motor bikes are available to foreigners in Siem Reap. Originally I had plan to go to Sinhanaukville on land and back to Thailand via land, but I got fed up with all the corruptions and associated risks of land travel in Cambodia. Even at Ankor, some vendors outside temples hire the police to force you to buy souvenirs and police will try to force you to buy their badge within a temple; that's how corrupt this country is! Banteay Sri temple is the most corrupt with grey uniformed guys with guns living in the jungle taking what they can without scaring tourism away. They control this temple and you don't get one second without their women and children forcing shit in your face and demanding you buy it the whole time. If you don't buy, then grey uniformed guys walk in the jungle, watch, and yell at you to go back home or Angkok Thom as you walk the long path out.

I found a nice new marble floored guest house near the old market area for only $5 a night in Siem Reap! Pnom Penn proved to be more expensive at $35 for an average room on the river front, but sorta boring except there are great French bistro style restaurants, coconut palms along the river front, and an elephant who visits you for dinner for a free banana. The souveneer shop at the genocide museum with a pagoda full of skulls is incredible and sells the oddest items.

If people bother you (and they will); just ignore them or they will bother the bajibbas out of you with wanting you to buy all this stuff, including art, weapons, and illegal drugs. They offer lots of interesting original 3rd world country arts and crafts. I bet Ripley had the time of his life back in the day when it was all like that through out the world before the jet age. I know I found it fascinating to what the past was like, but a past struggling to catch up with the modern developed world. They would sell their souls if they could, for a US dollar.

This is one country that will bring tears to your eyes due to poverty, corruptions, working children begging for school money, skinny starving babies cradled in the arms of a homeless mother begging for milk, and the list goes on and on. This country is an eye full. Going to Cambodia is a great adventure with many good things such as the temples, the land mine victims music, and seeing what it really is like over there. Cambodia is a place where the mentality is, "take all if you can." It's a country where the leaders take all from the people just as is happening in America. Perhaps they are trying to model themselves after American capitalism and the end result is a few get super rich and the rest are poor. Guess it's always been that way in the world. Don't expect to feel safe, but do expect this to be a challenging adventure only for those in good health, not a relaxing vacation or a walk in the park.

If you want to go the easy route, you can fly into Siem Reap and stay in an expensive hotel that caters primarily to Koreans on the airport road and the hotel will set you up on tours in a silver Mercedes shuttle bus where no one can bother you, but that would take away from the real adventure and cost many dollars.

[joeteacher]

wow sojourner1, thanks for that post! I knew I was gonna have to watch my back there. Glad to get as much input as I can.