It’s hard to believe I have been in India for nearly 8 months already! It dawned on me in late June that I was more than halfway through my assignment and there was still so much I wanted to do. I had a holiday in early July that fell on a Wednesday and so I thought that was the perfect opportunity to take a long weekend and go traveling. I spoke to my friend who is living in Phnom Penh and decided on a trip to Cambodia. Unfortunately due to some different work things I wasn’t able to plan a trip in time/decided it wasn’t the right time to take a week off. But I decided I was going to make sure I got there in the month of July and booked a flight for the end of the month. I had spoken to a number of people who gave me different advice about where to go, what to see and where to stay but all of a sudden it was Monday and I hadn’t booked anything further than my flight for the trip I was leaving for on Wednesday night! So I did a very slight bit of research and booked a hotel in Siem Reap for 2 nights. The rest I’d figure out once I arrived.
I also remembered on Wednesday that I needed a visa for Cambodia. I knew I could get it on arrival but thought I would check about the e-visa…that would take atleast 3 days so it was out of the picture for me. Wednesday was an extremely hectic day for me, I had about 4 hours of meetings during the day, left the office around 430, made it home around 6, quickly packed and had dinner, had more meetings until 830 and then was out the door at 9 for the airport and then I had another meeting at the airport before I boarded the plane…it was safe to say I was in desperate need of some time off at this point. As always I loved the option for the night flight as to not waste a day traveling. I was flying through Bangkok onto Siem Reap and within minutes of boarding the flight to Bangkok I was asleep and slept much of the flight. On the Bangkok leg, there was a guy sitting next to me in the middle seat but the aisle seat was empty, for whatever odd reason he decided to stay in the middle seat rather than move over and give us both more room. A decision I couldn’t understand for the life of me but there was nothing I could do about it so I just let it go. The flight to Siem Reap was nearly completely empty, there couldn’t have been more than 20 people in the entire flight and so we all had plenty of room. Luckily just as I was walking out the door of my apartment I checked about currency in Cambodia and found out USD was used almost everywhere so I grabbed the $40 that I had. That $40 turned out to be a lifesaver because the Cambodian visa was $30 and had to be paid with cash and there were no ATMs around. I got my visa and through customs quickly and my next task was to find an ATM, which I was not able to do. Luckily I still had the $10 so I grabbed a tuk-tuk to my hotel for $5 and decided to figure out the cash situation later. I arrived at my hotel around 9am and they had a room which was available for early check in, score! Made my way to breakfast, relaxed by the pool and then decided to head into town and see about that ATM I was still looking for. It was noon in Cambodia so what better way to get around than to go for a run…right? Or maybe not! I asked at reception which way towards town and just started running but I didn’t really have any idea where I was going. The first turn I got to I tried one direction but that didn’t seem right, so I tried the other direction which also didn’t seem right…after awhile of this I finally asked for directions and was on the right path. I found an ATM on my way and took out $200. The machine spit out 2 $100 bills…this wasn’t going to work for me as I needed small bills (I had found most people couldn’t even break a $10 bill). So I tried again and took out $40 (and had to pay the second ATM fee), but this worked out better and now I had some smaller bills and was feeling more relieved. I ran on for a bit longer just to see what was around and then started back to the hotel. On the way back I decided to try a shortcut because I totally knew where I was going after 4 hours in Siem Reap. Needless to say I got lost again and came across a group of stray dogs who were getting a bit fiesty with me. This is when I decided it was time to go back the original way I came. All in all I ran about 4 miles around town with a real-feel temperature of 100 degrees! But I was feeling accomplished and had a pretty good feel of the city now.
I spent the rest of the afternoon laying by the pool and was going to head to the night market that evening. I started planning the rest of my trip and booked a bungalow on the island of Koh Rong Samloem, a night bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and then onto Sihanoukville and the ferry over to KRS. I was feeling set now that I had cash and a planned trip. I went upstairs and laid down and ended up sleeping for nearly 3 hours, whoops. I eventually dragged myself out of bed and grabbed a tuk-tuk into town. I also managed to arranged a tuk-tuk to take me to see Angkor Wat at sunrise. I walked around the night market and pub street a bit and decided to get some pizza for dinner (not exactly traditional Cambodian cuisine but it’s what I wanted anyway). I called it an early night after dinner as I knew I’d have to be up at 4am to go to Angkor Wat.
4am rolled around very early and I was up and moving. I had a few work emails I had to attend to and then made it downstairs and picked up some breakfast to eat in the tuk-tuk and was on my way. It was a short ride to the ticket office where I smartly remembered to use my $100 bill so I could get some change. From the ticket office it was just a few minutes to the temple area. I arrived at Angkor Wat just as the sun was rising and what an amazing sight it was! There were hundreds of people lined up along the river taking pictures and soaking in the beauty. I spent about an hour wandering around Angkor Wat and then another 4 hours exploring 6 or so more temples in the same area. I was blown away by the magnificence of these temples that were built about 1000 years ago. I am very glad I started off at sunrise because by 8am it was hot! I made it until a bit before noon when I needed to call it a day and head back to the hotel. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping, lounging by the pool and wandering into town for lunch. Friday night I went back into town to grab a drink or 2 and maybe a bite to eat. I did a bit of research on bars to check out and read about this place called the laundry bar. It was awesome! They have over 25,000 records in their collection and they play an awesome mix of music…it would go from Sinatra to Biggie to Creedence Clearwater but it would all blend together really well. I then made my way to Angkor What? on pub street and had a beer. I looked up and noticed they had White Russians so I obviously had to go for one of those. I made friends with a couple sitting next to me and we chatted and continued to drink for a bit. They decided that it made more sense for them to buy a bottle of Jack D rather than continue to buy individual drinks. They offered me to drink on the bottle for the whole night but I had one more drink and decided it was time to go home.
Saturday was relaxing as well. I woke up late, checked out of the hotel and then went to get a massage. Since living in Asia I get a massage on nearly a weekly basis and it’s been fantastic. I went for the 90min massage in Siem Reap and it cost me something like $28…I could really get used to that. I got lunch and went back to the hotel to spend the remainder of my time at the pool. I needed to change so I decided to just bring all my bags out to the pool with me. Well about an hour later a crazy downpour started and while the smart thing would’ve been to just run my bags inside, I instead tried to keep them dry by hiding them under the umbrella. I’m sure it was quite a sight to watch and needless to say it was not very successful. I was taking the night bus around 11pm so decided to spend my last few hours grabbing dinner and then enjoying a final drink at the laundry bar (if I lived in Siem Reap that would definitely be my spot). I played a game of pool and chatted with a group of expats who were living in Siem Reap. On my way out, I used the restroom and it turns out there was a dartboard in the back! Wish I had realised that earlier as I would’ve loved to play. I made my way over to the bus stop, which turned out to be right near to pub street (luckily my tuk-tuk driver told me that because I thought it was somewhere entirely different). I was taking the night bus to Phnom Penh and then picking up a bus in the morning to Sihanoukvile. It was going to be a long 13+ hours of traveling. I was pleasantly surprised by the night bus, it was clean and the beds were comfortable. The trip to Phnom Penh was to be between 6.5-7 hours which was good with me because that meant I got to sleep that long. While I did sleep for almost the entire trip, we made it in about 6 hours…I was kinda hoping we would drive around for longer so I could get more sleep…no such luck. I had about 2.5 hours to kill until the next bus and sitting around a bus stop at 5am is not exactly the most fun. But we had a crew of us and eventually I found a restaurant that was open for breakfast. The morning actually moved along pretty quickly. We boarded the bus to Sihanoukville shortly before 8…I somehow managed to book a seat that didn’t exist on the bus but luckily there was another empty seat I was able to take (no idea how I managed that one). The trip was supposed to be about 4.5 hours with a quick stop. About 2 hours into the drive we passed this horrific accident in which an older man and a young child and had been in a motorbike accident. They were laying in puddles of their own blood, obviously lifeless while most of the town appeared to just be standing around watching. It was a sight I will not soon forget. We stopped at this really cool little rest stop along the road and I got some iced coffee and was glad to get out and stretch my legs. When I got back on the bus I made friends with the girl Megan I as sitting next to. She’s from South Africa but is living in South Korea teaching. We spent the remainder of the ride exchanging stories of our travels. We finally arrived in Sihanoukville around 1:30. My new friend Megan was meeting a few of her friends from South Africa for lunch and she invited me along to join. I had a burger and a beer, score! And hung around chatting with my new friends for about an hour. I then had to board a ferry to head to Koh Rong Samloem. The ferry ride was about 1 hour and I foolishly sat near the engine so I had gas blowing in my face the whole ride. Regardless, it felt so good to be back out on the water. I think one of the hardest parts about living in Bangalore is how landlocked it is. I’ve spent my whole life living near water (even in Ithaca we had Cayuga Lake) so being so far away from water has been tough for me. I arrived on the island around 430 and was so glad to finally be done traveling (at least for some time). The island is still very well preserved, there are small bungalows/shacks on the beach and a few small restaurants but that is about it. Most of the places only keep the electricity running for a few hours a day and there is only one or two places that have wifi. I’ve read the population is something like 300 people on the island and I gather there may be another 200 or so that come over everyday for a short stay, but it’s definitely very peaceful and quiet. To give a bit of background, when I booked the place I was staying they reached out to inform me to bring enough cash for the room and anything else I might need because there is nowhere to get money once you arrive and nowhere takes credit cards. I rented a small bungalow at a place called Sweet Dreams about 50 feet from the water and it was perfect. I went for a quick run to explore the beach and book my ferry back to Sihanoukville because I’d only be on the island about 36 hours. Then I took a dip in the water and just lounged around until sunset. I made friends with Steffi who was also traveling alone and staying at Sweet Dreams. We hung out a good bit over the next day, sharing stories about travel, life and adventure. One of the really cool parts about traveling alone is it forces you to branch out and make friends and I find you meet some really cool people. We had dinner together Sunday night and then I called it an early night. I set my alarm for Sunrise but woke up and decided I was way too lazy to get out of bed so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Monday was the only full day I had on the island and I was very lazy. I went for a walk around 12 (and didn’t put sunscreen on, which was very dumb) but other than that I pretty much just hung out in the water/laid around. I had dinner with Steffi again and then called it a night, I was sad to be leaving the island and wish I would’ve had another day or 2.
Tuesday morning I was to head back to Sihanoukville and then onto Phnom Penh. I had breakfast and the boarded the dingy to go back and grab the ferry. There seemed to be some issue with the speed ferry and so they sent a slow one. It was about 30 minutes late (which was ok with me because it meant more time on the beach) and then took about 1.5 hours to reach the mainland. Luckily I had lots of time before my bus so I just put on some music and enjoyed being out on the boat. I made it back around 12:30 and grabbed some lok lak (a traditional Cambodian beef dish) before boarding the bus to Phnom Penh. The bus ride was uneventful this time and we arrived in Phnom Penh around 6. I was glad to get back before dark and it was nice to see all the people out after work being active all over the city. I grabbed a tuk-tuk near the bus station and was heading to my friend Shammi’s place. I used to work with Shammi in my first role at AIG but we hadn’t seen each other in nearly 2 years. He lived just a short ride from the bus station but we got lost and ended up going round and round in the same 10 block area for nearly a half hour. I had looked up his place on the map and knew I was close, I probably should’ve just hopped out of the tuk-tuk and found my way on foot. But once it got dark I decided I was better off staying in the tuk-tuk and eventually we found our way. We spent some time hanging out at Shammi’s catching up before heading out to dinner. We went out to a traditional Khmer restaurant and met Stephy there. Dinner was delicious! We had a whole fish with a number of traditional side dishes. We ran into some of their friends on the way to dinner and they were going out to a bar where one of them was djing, so we went there after dinner for a bit. I had less than 24 hours in Phnom Penh and realized I wasn’t going to see much of the city, so Stephy took me on a tour on her motorbike which was definitely a fun way to see the city. The rest of the night was laid back and we just hung out at Shammi’s place. Wednesday Shammi and Stephy had work so I spent the morning relaxing and met them for brunch. Seeing as it was my last meal of vacation, I went for 2 breakfasts…stuffed French toast and bacon, egg and cheese panini! I said goodbye after brunch and got ready to head to the airport. It was so nice to catch up with them and spend sometime together on the other side of the world.
It was a great trip to Cambodia and a very nice break from reality. While it ended up being a lot of traveling around, I am glad with the way I booked the trip. It was nice to get a good mix of everything…and now I am off to Thailand for 9 days on Friday.
brittany d takes on india 