The Travelling Nomad: CAMBODIA: Travel Recommendations

Don't worry about buying lonely planet travel guides for Cambodia or Laos before you arrive. The kids sell ripped off copies of them to you on the streets all over Cambodia so instead of paying $40 US for them, you can buy almost any country you want for about $5 US. If the kids don't have the country you want then find a bookstore and surely they will!

Spend at least 3 days in SIEM REAP. the temples of ANGKOR WAT are the main reason people visit Cambodia and there are millions of land mines all over Cambodia and Vietnam from the war there by America dropping them but just stay on the paths and you'll be fine! Angkor Wat is a temple that was lost for about 800 years and is one of the few absolute wonders of the world. By far the most amazing temples i visited in 5 months of travelling around SE Asia!! To visit it you must find transportation to the area from Siem reap. You pay to get into the park either $20US per day or $60 US for a 3 day pass. There are tons of temples to see and lose yourself in so 2 days is what i would suggest or 3 if you are not templed out after 2 days!. you can hire a bicycle which many people do but when we went it was +35C and humid as hell so we hired a tuk tuk to take us around the park for about $12US for the whole day and they know the best temples to see! At night there are great street vendors to eat at and if you fancy a drink or two, head to the Angkor Bar. If your not sure of where it is just ask the locals and they will point you in the right direction. At this bar the walls are covered with travellers quotes and stories so take some time to read through some of them over a few beers or glasses of wine.

After soaking up all there is to see in Siem Reap, I highly recommend going to PHENOM PENN. This city is rich in history and if you can pick up a book about the KHMER ROUGE and have an idea of everything that went on there, then it will just make your experience that much better. You can arrange a bus from Siem Reap to Phenom Penn and I believe its about a 5-6 hour journey but definitely worth your while. I'd suggest to spend 2-3 days there walking around the city, shopping in the Russian markets, finding the elephant that creates a huge traffic jam on one of the main road walking down every day around 5pm by the river!! Visiting the KILLING FIELDS and the S21 TORTURE MUSEUM is an absolute must if you go there! Did I mention Cambodia is extremely rich in history. The Khmer rouge was an extreme government that killed 1/4 of the entire Cambodian population. ( Unlike the Nazi's they killed their own people!!) I you also can buy a book about the killing fields or S21!! i did and it enlightened my times there by a lot and felt i understood the country that much more!! The more time you can give yourself in Cambodia, the better. These are just 2 of the many amazing places you can go to in Cambodia.