Diary | Cambodia Country Tour

Anyone who has been to Cambodia will know it isn't your typical 5 star holiday get away. In fact Cambodia is a third world country. However if you know where to look you can still find beauty and wonder in this country. Hopefully I can show you that in this post.

As a disclaimer know that I may miss-spell some of the locations. However Cambodian-English is not official, and therefore it's ambiguous. If you should ever find yourself in Cambodia and wanting to visiting some of these places, don't worry. People will get the gist if you spell "Stung Treng" as "Steng Treng".

We left at the early hours of dawn to begin our tour from Phnom Penh in a coach.

One of our stops to eat.

 Paying a visit to the Bokor Temple for prayers.

 We arrived at Stung Treng and decided to go river dolphin spotting. I didn't get a good view but they seemed very pale from the glimpses. Not what I expected but with google, it appears to be normal.

 The sun was setting as we rode the boat so heat was beating off the water's surface at us. Aside from feeling like we were being steamed cooked, the view was superb.

I woke up early to catch the morning sunrise from Cold River hotel.

 We were travelling with a lot of elders so we stopped at another temple for them to say their prayers. I got a red bracelet to wear for good luck.

Then we checked into our second hotel, Colonial Lake Palace in Banlung.

 We got changed to visit a waterfall.

 Johnny crossing the swing bridge to get a better view of the waterfall.

KaChanh Waterfall.

At yet another prayer station, this time atop a mountain and outdoors.

We started our day by visiting a poor Provence to hand out some rice, salt and other essentials to those most in need. Since we can't exactly give every house something we also bought snacks to hand out to the children. We don't except to solve all their problems but we just thought giving them something to smile about can't be a bad thing.

 Next we stopped at Yeake Loam lake and spent the rest of our day there.

We originally swam without life vests but fresh water is so hard to stay afloat, it didn't take long to tire us out.

 We took a break for lunch and then back into the water we went.

 We changed hotels to Golden Bird Guest House.

 We drove up a mountain called the "Sea of forest", in direct translation. Unfortunately I don't remember the Cambodia name, 

Next we visited Monosom waterfall.

A frecking jackfruit hanging outside our room. If you aren't familar, they're a toned down version of durians. They're not as stinky, but still have a sickeningly sweet smell. They taste like durians but less sweet. The texture is....like a crunchy rubber? I hate durians and everything about them. They stink, they're too sweet and the texture is paste like. The jackfruit is worlds better in my opinion, but I still wouldn't say it's a fruit I love.

 We began the day with a cat eagerly watching my brother eat. 

One thing you should know about Cambodia is that dogs and cats are not highly valued. Most are strays and even if they are domesticated, they aren't treated the way western culture treat their pets. They are usually guard dogs, so cats are almost always strays. Even as pets they aren't treated that great, so strays are treated even worst. You can imagine this results in timid or aggressive animals. Trying to befriend one is like asking to loose a hand or catch rabies. However this cat was clearly a pet much to my surprise. His coat is much too clean and healthy to be a stray, plus the fact that he was trusted to roam around the restaurant without disturbing the costumers. Him and I became friends by the end, where he would respond to my calls and walk over for pats. 

Though I know I shouldn't play with these animals I still believe I'm a secret dog whisper and whenever I see one I would crouch down and make kissy noises. If they're too scared, they run away, if they're aggressive, they growl or rigidly stand still. This way I know to leave them alone but I hope for a third response where they would trot over for some fun-loving pats and "who's a good boy/girl" in a hysterical high pitched voice. I was beginning to think I wouldn't making any doggy friends but don't you fret, you'll see my four legged companions in my next travel diary. Even if the dogs were timid or aggressive, if we ate outdoors I would always throw my chicken bone to them. God knows how skinny some of these dogs are. My brothers more than happily comply. When I'm with my younger first cousins once removed (yeah I know, I had to google this), they would join in too.

I used the biggest paragraph to explain to my readers about dogs and cats in Cambodia. Priorities.

Every time I could, I would order an iced lemon tea. The opportunity presented itself at least three times a day during my tour.

 Since being in Cambodia I can count on one hand the times I had a home cooked meal, and it only takes one finger. The rest were always take outs or restaurants. It may sound great, and it was at first, but it eventually took a toll on me. I would dread yet another fried chicken on rice and longed for a salad. Yeah, what the hell Seryna like when do you ever eat a salad? I had little or no intake of vegetation and weirdly enough my body said no. But I had to hash it out until I got back to New Zealand. I still have yet to eat a salad but I've been snacking on carrots and pineapple. Hey, better than when I was in Cambodia.

We visited a farm called Chormka Caffe Motel. They grow everything.

 Strawberries.

 Bananas.

 Durians (these are tiny tiny babies).

 More bananas.

 More durians, but this time with flowers.

Side story. I didn't know what durians grew on and so I asked my family. They said they grew on trees but that made me even more confused. WHAT IF A RIPENED DURIAN FALLS ON SOMEONE'S HEAD??? But after visiting this farm I understand now. They do grow on trees, but they mostly hang from low branches. That solves one mystery. 

 Yeah they had a lot of bananas but look, a banana flower.

Pineapple.

Passion fruit.The passion fruit drink they serve at the cafe is killer according to my family, but I'm not a fan of the fruit. Instead I went with, yep you guessed it, iced lemon tea.

And most importantly, coffea! Who knew these babies would be sweet before being roasted? I didn't.

After the farm we went to our third waterfall, the Bousra waterfall.

Sorry for the square crops. I didn't want strangers in the background.

 On the way home we drove past some farm land to look at the sun set.

I wish you could have seen this piglet in person. They were doing doughnuts in the dirt and it was the cutest thing in the world. Sometimes they would fall over from going in the circles too fast and it only made it more precious.

On day six the main focus was getting back to Phnom Penh. However we managed to squeeze in a visit to a beautiful restaurant with a botanical garden. We ate there the previous night but wanted to see the place during daylight.

 They had a gift shop with us as the willing costumers but I guess we were too early or they were on their day off because no one was watching the store. (I really wanted the purple quartz Buddha)

While in Cambodia, it's hard to turn a blind eye on those suffering but know that by just being a tourist, you're bringing in money and creating business. My family found ourselves buying fruits and smalls treats even when we didn't want them just to help street sellers in the country side. I thought citizens here would be immuned to seeing beggars around them but my gran still hand out small change while we travelled around the country. NOTE: NEVER GIVE MONEY TO CHILDREN BEGGARS. This actually keeps them on the street instead of in school because it's highly likely they're being forced to beg or sell small souvenirs/food by their parents. I know it sucks because you see them try their little hearts out to sell what little they have, and it feels you can't help them either way. But if this is something you're very passionate about I'm sure there are many organisations you can donate to in Cambodia and neighbouring south-east Asian countries, to help keep these children in school instead of the streets.

I think that pretty much sums up my tour.