Cambodia - twice as nice the second time around

After a month in Laos the next stop was Cambodia, and as Don Det was only 30km or so from the border it was a fairly straightforward trip to get there (although it did take way longer than you would expect - about an hour). Once at the border it was a simple matter of getting stamped out of Laos and having to pay the US$2 bribe each. We asked for a receipt to see if that would get us out of it, but he just refused to stamp our passports. So unfortunately there's no way around it. 

Goodbye Laos

Then we had to walk about 100m to the Cambodian border which was a complete joke. There is a massive building, quite new looking too, which is obviously meant to be the immigration checkpoint. But why use that when you can just put up a dodgy wooden shack on the side of the road instead? They clearly don't give a flying fuck about the image they present to tourists upon entering, and this is further reinforced when you buy your tourist visa at the border. All the most up-to-date information we'd read online said that a visa cost US$20-$25 each, but when we walked into the dodgy shack they said it was US$35 per person. Well, the visa was actually $30 and they charge a $5 'stamp fee'. Such utter bullshit, but we had no choice. Luckily we had exactly enough money to get us in, otherwise we would've been ripped off even more by having to use other currencies. This particular border crossing is the worst we've ever been across, and it really highlights how corrupt the country is. In fact, Cambodia is the most corrupt country in all of Southeast Asia. That was pretty fucking obvious at this point.

Once we were officially in Cambodia we had to wait an hour or so until our transport to Siem Reap left. I'd read a bunch of information and reviews online about getting to Siem Reap the quickest way possible as there's a new road, and I'd found a company that did this route. I contacted them directly and reserved seats for us which turned out to be a very good idea, as two Irish girls who'd booked tickets from Laos were told they had to pay an extra US$10 each to go on the new road that day. It was obviously another scam/rip-off, but again, they had no choice. Not a great welcome to the country though, especially after already being ripped off for visas. After a detour through the shithole town that is Stung Treng, we were on this brand spanking new road to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is actually a pretty blinged out city, with some very expensive hotels, spas and restaurants. Thankfully it still has cheap and cheerful accommodation and food joints for us budget backpackers too. We decided to splash out though and spend US$10 per night for a room with all the bells and whistles - air-con, hot water (yes, that is quite rare in SE Asia), cable TV, good wifi, cleaned daily and free use of bicycles. Talk about living the high life. When we were last in Cambodia we only spent one day at Angkor Wat, and we were both ridiculously hungover (well, mainly me). So this time we wisely decided not to drink, and to get the three day pass so we could explore a lot more.

Our favourite food places - local markets

Delicious glutinous case filled with fresh greens

Angkor Wat is a sprawling Buddhist (it was initially Hindu though) temple complex built in the 12th century. At the time it was the largest city in the world with a population of over one million, and today it's still believed to be the largest religious monument in the world, covering an area of about 500 acres. Now here's a fact we only just discovered which is pretty shocking - a private company, owned by a Cambodian-Vietnamese businessman, has rented Angkor Wat from Cambodia since 1990 and manages tourism there. For profit of course. Disgustingly, only 28% of ticket sales goes back into the temples - most comes from foreign aid. Anyway, because of the simple fact that the complex is so massively large, the majority of visitors hire a tuk tuk for the day to take them around a select few temples. But as we like to do things our way we said fuck that, we'll ride bicycles instead. Luckily they were free from our guesthouse because we rode them a fair few miles over the three days.

It was about a 6km ride from Siem Reap out to the entrance of Angkor Wat, but thankfully it was a very pleasant ride - a totally flat, well-paved and shaded road. On the first day we arrived at about 10am and spent 6 hours riding around a bunch of different temples, including the centrepiece of any visit to the complex - Angkor Wat temple itself. Completely surrounded by a moat and an exterior wall, this temple is pretty impressive. But that also means there are a million tourists there at any given time of the day. Many of the other temples are a lot less crowded, and at some there were only a few other people wandering around which was much more enjoyable. Of course we had to go back to Ta Prohm, the jungle temple made famous in the movie Tomb Raider. Unlike other temples, this one has been left in pretty much the same condition in which it was found, meaning it has a more wild and natural feeling than others that have been restored. 

A lot of temples have several parts to them, and you can climb up the steep steps to the top for a great view, and walk around and inside the ruins as well. We're not religious in any way, shape or form and I don't understand the need for quite so many temples, but it is pretty bloody awesome to see. Some have faces carved on all four sides at the top of every building which gives quite an eerie feeling of constantly being watched, but each one has something slightly different. Obviously it's easy to get templed out here too, so on the second day we were up at 4:30am to ride out and watch sunrise over Angkor Wat temple (disappointingly hazy), and we were done and back in town before lunchtime. Then on the final day we rode out just for sunset. All in all it was much better this time, being able to take our time and visit whatever temples we wanted to and spend as little or as much time we liked at each. It really is an impressive place.

After several days in modern Siem Reap we got a night bus all the way down to Sihanoukville, on the southwest coast of the country.  We didn't visit this part of Cambodia last time, so we were looking forward to seeing how it stacked up compared to other coastlines and to getting back in the ocean. But first we had to take care of some business - getting our visas for Vietnam. We chose to spend one night in the Victory Beach area of Sihanoukville as it meant we could walk from the bus station, find somewhere to stay, drop our bags off then walk straight to the Vietnam Consulate down the road. We'd read it was much easier and quicker to get them done in Sihanoukville than in Phnom Penh, and this proved to be true. After filling out a simple form and paying the painful fee of US$60 each for a 30 day visa (the most expensive visa so far), we were told to return at 4pm that afternoon to collect them. Why can't they all be like that? At least we were getting some efficiency for our large sum of money. So, with our final visas of the trip secure in our passports, we were free to set off for the island of Koh Rong.

Koh Rong is the second largest island of Cambodia, about 25km off the coast of Sihanoukville. This distance is now covered in about 45mins thanks to a new speed boat that started operating last year. We kept hearing how great this island was, and that although it's got the usual backpacker party scene, it's still a million times less developed than other islands in Southeast Asia, like Koh Tao or Koh Samui in Thailand. Because we were there in low season it wasn't overly busy, but I can imagine that in the peak of high season it's absolutely rammed. This is because 98% of the accommodation and bars are concentrated in the main 'village' area where the boats arrive, and it's not a very large area. We managed to find a simple but large room with bed and mosquito net for only $5. So much cheaper than we expected to have to pay on an island. The main beach is quite beautiful, but the strange thing is, most people choose to all cram onto the one small section in front of all the bars and bungalows rather than walk to another beach. The island does have 43km of beaches after all. The longest beach that everyone says you have to go to is on the other side of the island, and is only accessible by boat or walking over the hill. We chose the latter. It took about 45mins, the first part of which is uphill, the second part a steep and rocky downhill. Some kind soul has even put in a rope which makes it easier to descend by basically abseiling. When we eventually emerged onto the appropriately named Long Beach, we understood what all the fuss was about. The squeaky soft white sand stretched out for miles in a gently curving bay of brilliantly clear turquoise water. And the best part? There were only five other people on the entire beach. Once again they were all clustered together, so we walked on a few hundred metres to get our own private stretch of beach. It was such a stunning place, but we soon discovered the down-side - millions of tiny sandflies that absolutely devoured us. We thought the best escape would be to spend as much time in the water as possible, but fuck me if we didn't get bitten in there too. Bloody sea lice would you believe. This stunningly picturesque, almost deserted beach is close to being ruined by these bloody biting creatures, both in and out of the water. But we braved it for the whole day in order to watch a perfect sunset, then got the boat back rather than risk our necks climbing up the rocks in the dark. 

On the hike over the hill to Long Beach.

It was worth it.

There is actually the 'perfect' beach on Koh Rong that again, most people don't make the effort to walk to. Which is actually a good thing. At 4km long it's another gorgeous stretch of white sand and clear blue water, an easy 30min walk from the main beach. We went two days in a row, and on the busiest day there were probably 10 people in total. There's actually a set of bungalows you can stay in around there, but despite this it's still peaceful and private. If you're ever on Koh Rong you should definitely spend most of your time on this beach - before it too gets over-developed. We spent 4 days on Koh Rong doing nothing but lying on the beach, reading and swimming. We did also have a few of one of the many local Cambodian brews, awesomely and simply named, Klang. It's not a bad beer, and at 6% and only $1 per can, it does the job nicely.

Getting back to Sihanoukville, we decided to avoid the main tourist beach called Serendipity and head a few kilometres further south to Otres beach. I'd read great reviews about this stretch of coast, with everyone saying it was really chilled, clean and quiet. Just what the doctor ordered. You can never have too much beach time. After the usual walking around we chose a place called Chez Paou, which had simple but clean bungalows by the beach for $10 a night. There was an open restaurant/bar and plenty of sunbeds and umbrellas out the front, so it was the most resort type place we've stayed at on our entire trip. For an entire week we did a whole lot more of sweet fuck all. It did rain a bit, but in between showers we'd laze on the loungers and read, swim, catch up on internet and eat some surprisingly good food for a decent price. 

Otres beach has now been added to our list of places we could actually live. I have no idea why we didn't come to this part of Cambodia last time, but it has totally changed our impression of this country (for the better) and definitely made us want to come back again. But for now, that's all we have time for Cambodia - Vietnam is calling us.