We had a tremendously interesting and enjoyab...

Cambodia | Nov 29 - Dec 12, 2023

Absolute gem of a hotel. Our favourite of the trip. Excellent adaptive reuse of a former cinema building and superbly restored, then beautifully decorated. Aesthetically pleasing details in every corner. Even the breakfast was a visual (and tasteful) delight. Lovely little restaurant/bar. Tiny pool inside but open to the sky. Our superior room with king bed had a small balcony facing the indoor garden, very quiet.

Pretty, greenery-filled hotel in great neighbourhood, near the palace. Lovely, small, rooftop pool with city views. Good breakfast spread with enough Western & local options eg eggs cooked to order, noodle soup, and plenty of assorted fruit. Deluxe room tastefully done with effective aircon & little balcony; unfortunately faint odour of drains in bathroom.

Beautifully appointed 12-room hotel. Small pool but great for cooling off in. Very good breakfast choices, cooked to order. Always smiling, helpful staff who greet you with cold towels & tea every time you return, book remorks, recommend restaurants (albeit in the same Chanrey Tree Group), break up US$100 bills, tell you about Sin Sisamouth. Deluxe room not big, no sofa or chair, but has balcony. Very comfortable firm bed. Powerful aircon and shower pressure.

Hotel is on a gorgeous beach - turquoise sea & powdery white sand shaded by palms - but there weren't enough sunbeds for guests (and you're warned not to lie on a towel on the sand due to sandflies). Decent beach-facing restaurant/bar serving fun cocktails and okay food. Resort could use a refresh, eg worn cushions, broken sunbeds, misaligned doors. Room just adequate but well-cooled. Occasional very brief power cuts, not really bothersome. Complimentary use of kayaks & SUPs, snorkel mask & fins, small gym.

Very nice, new, modern hotel, on the edge of a national park and not near Kep town, so better to have your own transport. Our spacious deluxe room (finally with a sofa!) plus large balcony looked down on the huge swimming pool and towards the forested hills of the national park. We saw no other guests (only 7 of the 70 rooms were occupied the night we stayed) so it was extremely quiet. Breakfast, served by the pool, was fine, with 11 set menus to choose from!

Palace: Besides gawking at the ornate architecture, it was interesting to watch the monks & local devotees. Museum: beautiful French-designed, Khmer-style building around a lovely courtyard, worth visiting even if not too interested in the exhibits, which are mostly pre-Angkorian and Angkorian sculpture and carvings - annotated, including those returned to Cambodia by US, UK etc.

Novel way to tour historical sites with narration & old photos/maps on a tablet - brilliant idea, particularly when guide's English is hard to follow. We got off the tuk-tuk to take photos at some stops and also entered a couple of the 22 sites.

Very interesting and fun stops on the long drive to Siem Reap. Husband ate a fried tarantula for bragging rights. I tried a fried grasshopper - crunchy. Learned a lot about silkworms at Santuk silk farm, first time we saw up close silk threads produced from the cocoon; bought some silk scarves. Enjoyed the boat ride on Tonle Sap to Kompong Khleang and learning about life on the lake, seeing the kids playing in the water (though surprised there's no treatment of sewage at all before it goes into the lake!)

Exhilarating to finally be in Angkor park and then within the Bayon, discerning the differences in enigmatic facial expressions on the towers; having details in the bas reliefs explained by our guide; seeing the actual length of the Terrace of Elephants. The vast size of the park and how green it is dawns on you as you putter around it by remork.

Tasty set lunch at tourist restaurant.

We visited Angkor Wat at midday when it was 33C and remember it through a heat haze. There's no shade on the causeway, no breeze around the wat. Ms Dy valiantly kept us going with rest breaks and fanning as we struggled to pay attention to her detailed commentary. We had no energy to clamber to the top level. That said, the site is breathtaking & baffling (how did Khmers build this in the 12th century?!) and the long bas-relief galleries stunning, especially the Churning of the Sea of Milk which I'd long wanted to see. We did not stay for sunset as my husband was exhausted from the heat and wanted to return to the hotel.

High-energy dancing, acrobatics, juggling, mime, live music on Khmer instruments and drums - with a creative Cambodian angle ... great fun for a good cause.

Relaxing cruise upriver, passing fishing boats heading the other way out to sea. Typical SE Asian rural scenes of mangroves, coconut groves, fish traps, riverside tourist chalets. Very pleasant as the sun sank behind Bokor mtn.

Fascinating tour of a sustainably-run pepper plantation overlooking a lake, enjoyed the pepper tasting in a beautiful old Khmer house. Learned a lot about pepper cultivation and processing, eg that black, white, green, red peppercorns come from the same stem. Bought all our gifts for home at the shop.

Very fun and tasty grazing on bbq squid and deep-fried mini-crabs as Mr Sothea guided us through this seafood market by the beach. Tubs of fresh blue crabs, octopus, squid, shrimp, big pots steaming over wood fires, assorted fresh fish grilled over charcoal - worth coming to Kep for this market, as well as the sun setting behind the surreal giant crab sculpture and seeing local families enjoying themselves on the beach.

We visited 3 more sites in Angkor Archaeological Park this morning. Each had its own character and distinctiveness. Especially enjoyed Preah Khan and the WMF interpretation gallery there. The rectangular symmetrical layout, surprising 2-storey columned sanctum, massive garudas, graceful apsaras, made it special. Also loved smaller-scale Ta Som, its well-preserved four-faced towers and unusual devatas. East Mebon was interesting as a brick-built temple to honour an earlier king’s parents and its stone elephants an irresistible photo op. After clambering around its big laterite steps under a blazing sun we were happy to call it a day.

Very interesting tour on foot and by car of the French colonial-era shophouses and riverside cinema-turned-Starbucks, Cham Muslim village & mosque, Chinese temple & school, Buddhist monastery, gilded wat & funerary stupas. Many photogenic scenes of monks soliciting alms, entire families on motorbikes, massive durian roundabout, dating couples on the riverside promenade ...

Central Market was worth visiting even though we're not avid shoppers. The building is humongous and houses scores of stalls selling everything, from gems to galangal, plus cubicles where you can get a massage, hair wash, nail varnish. The food stalls section was fun; we snacked on grilled squid there, would've tried other stuff that looked interesting if we knew what it was (our guide didn't come in with us). Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and killing fields were even grimmer than anticipated, but well organised with a set route (no guide necessary) and descriptive boards in English. Glad we dressed appropriately.

At our request to avoid heat exhaustion, Steve and Dy rejigged the schedule: we visited Apopo and Ta Phrom in the morning, returned to hotel 12-2pm, went out again at 2pm for late lunch and visit to Banteay Srei, skipping Banteay Samre. This was perfect and we were able to enjoy the temple visits much more. Apopo HeroRats: must-do, fluently narrated by guides who know their stuff. The landmine-detecting demo was fascinating and HeroRats so cute; we "adopted" one for a year for US$100 - an eminently worthy cause. Ta Phrom: very atmospheric to wander around, even with people lining up to take the iconic photo of tree roots gripping the ruins. Ms Dy skillfully manoeuvred us into strategic spots and snapped some great pictures. Interesting to learn about the hollow spong trees. Noodle village: deliciously different nam ben chok rice noodles, eaten with 2 sauces & fresh veggies. Also tried stuffed frog at a roadside stall in Pradak village and almost tried whole roast pig-on-a-spit but it was still roasting. Banteay Srei: must-see, exquisite carvings in dusky pink sandstone, well preserved. A bridal couple in traditional costume were taking photos there, which added to the ambience. The drive there through villages & countryside was interesting too, stopped to buy palm sugar.