Cambodia in 7 days!
Part 1
When my husband and I told people we were going on a week-long trip to Cambodia, most of them asked, “Why Cambodia?” Here’s why.
In Cambodia, we visited Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang for over 7 days. This was the first trip that I had planned and my overthinking brain was freaking out that things are going to fall apart the moment we stepped into Cambodia. But we had the best time! This is my documentation of our trip. You can find the link to Part 2 at the end of this post.
Day 1 - 3: Phnom Penh
We arrived at Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia on Day 1 and checked into the Big Easy Hostel (All hostel check-ins in Cambodia are around 1–2 pm). The Big Easy Hostel is great, it’s clean and well-maintained. There can be some noise at night as the bar is right below the dorms, but if the door’s closed it shuts out most of it.
Once the afternoon heat died down, we went to see Wat Phnom, Central Market and walked along the Mekong Riverside and called it a day.
The next day morning, we went to see the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. Then we went to the Independence Monument, and then to the Russian market. We walked to all these places, it’s around 4–5 km. You can also get a tuk-tuk or an auto, or rent a bicycle or a motorbike if you don’t want to walk. We drank tender coconut water on our way which was much needed in the hot sun. They have this great trick where they keep a few tender coconuts in a portable cooler with ice, and it’s heavenly to drink. Can we have this in India, please?
Around 6:30 pm, we headed to the night market and then back to our favorite place, the Mekong riverside. We had a newly made friend in the hostel from Uzbekistan accompany us and we talked for hours while sitting on the riverside bench. It’s such a beautiful place, the Mekong riverside.
The next day, we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (also called S21 Prison) and the killing fields. Our hostel offered a half-day group tour for $5 per head, although it was just four people in a tuk-tuk. It’s better to have such a tour booked rather than getting rides separately (either through apps or directly) because the Killing Fields is far from the city and you may end up paying a lot for the rides. Just check in the reception of your stay and they would have some sort of an arrangement.
If you plan to visit Phnom Penh, please do not miss the S21 prison and the Killing fields. It’s okay if you don’t visit the other places, but not these two. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum portrays the darkest time in Cambodian history. Millions of people were tortured and killed mindlessly under the Khmer Rouge. This museum, previously a torture prison, and a school before that, has a lot of the items preserved that were used to torture the prisoners, even the wooden solitary cells built inside the classrooms. You cannot help but feel the heavy sadness that still lingers in these walls. We saw blood splatters on the floor in many places and even on the ceiling in one of the rooms. There are pictures of the tortured prisoners that burn into your eyes, there are skeletons and bones found on the school/prison grounds preserved in glass cases.
I highly recommend getting the audio guide along with your ticket. It’s very well done and also has some testimonials from prisoners who were fortunate to be released and some from the family members of the prisoners who weren’t so lucky.
Choeung Ek (Killing fields) in Phnom Penh is the largest of the estimated 300 mass graves in Cambodia. The audio guide is included in the ticket. The prisoners were brought here in the dead of the night, bound and blindfolded, and killed. Hundreds of skulls, bones, and jaws were found here and people still keep finding them every time the rain washes them out. There is a big tree here called the Killing tree, where soldiers would bash the heads of kids and babies and kill them. The Khmer Rouge didn’t use guns to kill people as they were expensive and loud. Instead, they hit the prisoners on their heads with huge hammers, sticks, and various weapons, slit their throats, and shoved them into huge pits, later to be closed. These pits are marked and they are all over the area. There is a 17-story shrine where all the cracked skulls, bones (some still with the iron cuffs), and jaws are preserved. It’s chilling to see all this and to be reminded that this happened in the 1970s, not that long ago.
After a very disturbing half a day, we rested in the hostel for a few hours and went to a high-rise sky bar called Juniper Gin Bar in the evening. There are a lot of sky bars in Phnom Penh, and we chose Juniper because it has vegetarian options and the prices are decent. You get a great view of the city and it’s right on the riverside.
Day 4–5: Siem Reap
We left Phnom Penh in the morning around 8 am and reached Siem Reap at 1:30 pm. We booked the Cambodia VIP Post van from the Bookmebus website. I was a little apprehensive because the reviews are mixed, but thankfully we didn’t have any issues. The van left Phnom Penh at the correct time, it was clean and the travel was peaceful.
We then checked into Onderz hostel. It’s definitely fancier and bigger than Big Easy, but I personally liked The Big Easy better. Onderz Siem Reap dorm wasn’t that clean, the lockers are small, and the curtains cover only half of your bed (why?) so half your body is visible to people when you sleep. We were on the 3rd floor with no elevators and had to drag our luggage all the way. Also climbing three floors after a full day at Angkor Wat was taxing.
After check-in, we visited the Angkor Wat National Museum. It’s a beautiful museum and you get to see a lot of the history of Angkor Wat, the architecture and idols that you might miss when you visit Angkor. If you’re Indian or Hindu and/or have a basic knowledge of Hinduism, then you may not need the audio guide. Try visiting the museum before visiting Angkor Wat.
We had to get RTPCR done as we would be transiting through Bangkok when we would be back to India, so we decided to walk to the Youth Sports center, as the hostel staff told us that RTPCR is done there. So we walked there after completing the museum tour. Now, the weird thing about Siem Reap that we would have missed if we hadn’t done this is, it’s a beautiful city with a lot of bridges and cute lights all over, but as soon as you get off the main roads into the residential areas, the concrete roads stop existing. It’s just small dirt roads with no streetlights. It’s like a day and night difference between the main roads and inside. We wanted to get to the main roads and streetlights before it got dark and we did it just in time. But then a nice policeman informed us that the Youth Sports center no longer provided the RTPCR, we would have to go to the Siem Reap Health center and this whole adventure was a complete waste.
After our circus to find the hospital failed, we headed to the Phare circus. It is an organization/school that provides free education to kids who are from difficult backgrounds in theatre, music, performing arts, and more. The profits from the performances and donations are put back into the school. The circus performance itself was wonderful, and some short movies played before the show on how Phare students train and how it has enabled them to help their struggling families were heartwarming.
The next day was the Angkor Wat tour. I had bought online tickets through the official website, so we didn’t have to go to the ticket center that’s for some reason 6.5 km from Angkor Wat. I had also booked a tuk-tuk for the whole day. The driver’s name is Barang, I found him via Reddit. He is an excellent driver and a great person overall. Contact him via WhatsApp if you’re on the lookout for a tuk-tuk in Siem Reap: +85512923386.
Angkor is huge and it’s impossible to get around by walking. It’s best to book a tuk-tuk for a day, or you can rent bicycles but you won’t be able to see a lot. There are many bicycle tours arranged here as well if you’re interested.
We reached Angkor Wat around 5:30 am and walked to the sunrise area in pitch blackness. We had 1-day passes, so we decided to do the sunrise to sunset tour. Sunrise was a little underwhelming, but Angkor looked majestic as the sun slowly rose. If you’re planning to watch the sunrise, go to the right side of the viewpoint as the left side has a mesh barricade that may partially obstruct your view.
Angkor is an archeological park, it has hundreds of temples within. The main temple (and the largest) is the Angkor Wat temple and oh my God is it huge. We entered through the west gate and exited through the east gate. The inner sanctums (where the god idols are) are at the top inside the towers and you have to climb a set of steep stairs to reach there. There are 5 inner sanctums in total, one for each tower. It feels like a maze, really. A marvelous maze. Although Angkor Wat is a Vishnu temple, almost all of the Hindu idols are replaced by Buddhas.
Things not to miss at the Angkor Wat temple:
The only Vishnu idol at Angkor Wat temple is situated at the west entrance of the temple. We missed it when we went to see the sunrise, but we had time before going to the last temple for sunset, so we went for a second Angkor Wat visit and saw the idol. Ask any of the security guards, your tuk-tuk driver, or the guides there, they will point the way.
The inner sanctums at Angkor Wat temple: As the climb is steep, many people were not going there. Don’t miss it!
The huge Samudra Manthana carving at the east entrance: If you’re with a guide, they will surely show it to you, but if you’re on your own, it’s easy to miss things in this massive structure. We found it by accident as we randomly decided to take a right at some place and were really happy to see it.
Next, we went to these temples in this order: Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang Reservoir, Ta Phrom, Pre Rup, Ta Som, Neak Poan, Preah Khan, Victory gate, Bayon, Baphuon, Terrace of elephants and the Leper king, South gate, and Phnom Bakheng (sunset).
My favorite temple at Angkor is Ta Phrom (of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider fame). It’s a living example that whatever we humans achieve, we can’t beat nature. We’re just puny beings compared to it. The trees at Ta Phrom have torn the strong sandstone structure apart and grown to the size of small houses. It’s incredible to see. I kept remembering this meme of houseplants dying at the smallest inconvenience meanwhile there are plants growing by tearing concrete apart.
As Angkor Wat was originally a Hindu temple and was later converted into a Buddhist temple, most of the Shivalingas are converted into pedestals by taking the linga part away and placing a Buddha statue on the base of the linga. It’s a sad sight. We found only a handful of Shivalingas that were intact. The irony is that most Buddhas placed on top of the lingas are beheaded.
The Bayon temple is majestic from the outside, but there is nothing in the inner sanctum except for a strong smell of bats and loads of bat droppings on the floor. The Bayon idol has 4 heads and we thought it symbolized Brahma, but the locals disagree. They say that it represents a smiling face that is blessing you.
A lot of the temples at Angkor are in partial ruins, some more than others. You can see mounds and mounds of blocks placed around the temple premises and the restoration work is going on. In a few years, Angkor will probably be much more beautiful than it is now.
My husband and I kept going back to this one thing; if all these temples are so beautiful even in ruins, how grand was it to witness when they were freshly built and had religious ceremonies going on?
After witnessing a gorgeous sunset, we headed back to our hostel and explored the pub street at night. If you are a beer lover, this is your heaven. You can get beer starting from $0.50! This place is bustling at night with music blasting from every bar and restaurant and the people working there try to get you into them. You can also walk freely as no vehicles are allowed in. It’s fun!
Read part 2 here for our Battambang trip, some tips and our itinerary in short: Cambodia in 7 days! Part 2
