Cambodia.

[vlad]

Has any of our members visited Cambodia ? and if so where did you visit and your thoughts.

[KaptainRob]

Phnom Penh's Sisowath Quay and immediate riverside is also the main tourist area, it's quite nice, otherwise I didn't find much in the city of interest.  Worth a quick stay if taking overland route to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is great.  If you can fly direct it's worth it as most people visit Cambodia for Angkor Wat.  There's fabulous resorts and quality restaurants catering to all tastes.  A bit touristy but not seedy.  SR town is small and pretty place, easy to get around with a great marketplace and friendly locals who speak good English.

Allow a minimum of 3 days to enjoy SR and Angkor ... it's huge!

If I were designing a travel itinerary for friends, I'd fly Bangkok to Siem Reap (4 nights min), then out to say Hanoi and other Vietnam destinations.

[vlad]

I stayed in PP and found it dirty with rubbish Stacked  4-5 feet high and smelly. A must be a visit to Toul Sleng a Torture and Genocide Museum. This from the rd looks like a Normal School in the Center of Phnom Phen, but it quickly brings home what Poll Pot was up to with thousands of photos of the people they took from there to the killing fields a few miles outside it is the most heartbreaking place to witness, that must be witnessed for yourself 

[KaptainRob]

Having visited Nazi concentration camps I had no interest in viewing any more though it is a worthwhile museum to remind people of the atrocities which man is capable of.

[BlueSphinx]

Hi, I didn't visit Pnom Penh nor the Toul Sleng museum (ex torture prison).  And frankly I don't think I would be emotionally capable of visiting it.  On their website I saw some of the facial pictures that were taken of 'new arrivals', ranging from young teenagers to old folks.  And the sheer panic in the eyes of those unfortunates was absolutely devastating and made me physically unwell.

On the positive side, I am somewhat of an ancient temple freak, and visited the Sukothai and Ayuthaya temple-complexes as well as the Chiang Mai and Bangkok temples (and as good as every worthwhile older temple-site in Thailand).  Fantastic!  But nothing compares with the splendour of the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap - the largest religious site in the world.  I visited it already 3 times (each time for 5 days) and still haven't seen everything, and found out that the lesser known temples (with the advantage of little or no visitors) are often as magnificent as the better known ones.

On top of that, like KaptainRob already mentioned, SiemReap is also a very nice town and its 'downtown' has plenty of restaurants, bars and shopping opportunities catering for every type of visitor.  If you live in Thailand and have never visited SiemReap, you should put it on the top of your bucket-list.

[vlad]

whats worse is they committed Genocide on there own people.

[TobyAndrews]

Well it certainly is cheap. I have just had a haircut costing one US dollar, and last night we were drinking lager at 25 cents US, a glass, but I did notice some of the glasses were not filled to the brim. And on the next table the Cambodians had their glasses filled right up!  lol

That is one of the differences between Thailand and Cambodia. Foreigners drink in the same bars as the Cambodians.

Phnom Penh can be quite noisy and I do not recommend booking a hotel online. There could be major building work in the Hotel, or 10 yards away they could be building a hotel.

One thing that is similar here with Thailand, is the oriental delight in using an angle driver at 7:30 in the morning. Or if they do not own a angle driver, they will find a hammer to bang something with, and then at 10 a.m. all noise stops. Why I do not know. It could be that they want their neighbours to know how hard working they are.

I think the Cambodians are better people than the Thais, however I should remember that they slaughtered a million of their own people, and let Pol Pot die at home of old age.

[KaptainRob]

You mean 'angle grinder'? 

Cambodia beer is cheap and good, way it should be, hic ... 

[leng4ever]

Been in both Phnom Pen and Siem Riep. Dont know why, but i like visiting Cambodia. Food isnt that good, but great people! I will for sure go back again, specially Siem Riep. Must be over 10 years since i was there last time, took bus from BKK to Siem Riep. Highly recommended trip, get to se alot along the way. Was in Phnom Pen Desember 2018....

[gummy]

  On 7/9/2021 at 10:57 AM, TobyAndrews said:

Well it certainly is cheap. I have just had a haircut costing one US dollar, and last night we were drinking lager at 25 cents US, a glass, but I did notice some of the glasses were not filled to the brim. And on the next table the Cambodians had their glasses filled right up!  lol

That is one of the differences between Thailand and Cambodia. Foreigners drink in the same bars as the Cambodians.

Phnom Penh can be quite noisy and I do not recommend booking a hotel online. There could be major building work in the Hotel, or 10 yards away they could be building a hotel.

One thing that is similar here with Thailand, is the oriental delight in using an angle driver at 7:30 in the morning. Or if they do not own a angle driver, they will find a hammer to bang something with, and then at 10 a.m. all noise stops. Why I do not know. It could be that they want their neighbours to know how hard working they are.

I think the Cambodians are better people than the Thais, however I should remember that they slaughtered a million of their own people, and let Pol Pot die at home of old age.

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And never forget Thailand sheltered this criminal for a good while

[Bluesofa]

  On 7/26/2021 at 9:58 AM, gummy said:

And never forget Thailand sheltered this criminal for a good while

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Very true.

IIRC wasn't there some claim Pol Pot was living on Thai soil when he died in 1998?

Although according to Wiki he died at Anlong Veng, about 5km from the Thai border.
"In 1998 the Khmer Rouge commander Ta Mok placed Pol Pot under house arrest, shortly after which he died."
source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot     

[TobyAndrews]

  On 7/26/2021 at 9:58 AM, gummy said:

And never forget Thailand sheltered this criminal for a good while

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Did they? I would not be surprised. He should have been dragged out and slaughtered.

I was here when the Kymer Rough were still in the jungles. They had resorted to being bandits. They kidnapped a few backpackers when I was here a long time ago when the borders were closed.

I wore a Krama, head cloth travelling around. Awhile later I discovered this Krama was a Vietnamese head cloth. The Kymer Rough hated the Vietnamese. I was lucky not to seized because they thought I was Vietnamese, and when they saw who I was, they would have been very happy to hold me for ransom.

And then they would have been very unhappy when my family had told them. "Keep him we have been trying to be rid of him for years."

Now the Cambodians are always good to me, but I do know what they are capable of.

Sometimes they seem very dim, but I read that Pol Pot and his gang killed all those that had any signs of intelligence. There are many differences with Thailand. They like cycling. Young lads wait in bars. And here is a strange thing, men walk around the streets carrying their babies. 

Leo, Chang, and Singha are no match for the beers they have in Phnom Penh, such as Anchor, Angkor and Cambodian. Food is better in Thailand. Fruit is better in Cambodia. The Thais are more religious. Cambodians are more honest

The Cambodian are poorer than the Thais but I expect the Thais to become just as poor as the Cambodians in the next two years.

Edited July 26, 2021 by TobyAndrews
extra

[gummy]

  On 7/26/2021 at 10:39 AM, TobyAndrews said:

Did they? I would not be surprised. He should have been dragged out and slaughtered.

The Cambodians are always good to me, but I do know what they are capable of.

Sometimes they seem very dim, but I read that Pol Pot and his gang killed all those that had any signs of intelligence. There are many differences with Thailand. They like cycling. Young lads wait in bars. And here is a strange thing, men walk around the streets carrying their babies. 

Leo, Chang, and Singha are no match for the beers they have in Phnom Penh, such as Anchor, Angkor and Cambodian. Food is better in Thailand. Fruit is better in Cambodia. The Thais are more religious.

The Cambodian are poorer than the Thais but I expect the Thais to become just as poor as the Cambodians in the next two years.

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I think you may be right although whilst  the Vietnamese economy is once again on the up I don't think with Hun Sen in charge things will change much for Cambodia

[Bluesofa]

  On 7/26/2021 at 10:39 AM, TobyAndrews said:

Leo, Chang, and Singha are no match for the beers they have in Phnom Penh, such as Anchor, Angkor and Cambodian. Food is better in Thailand. Fruit is better in Cambodia.

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I remember the Angkor beer, it was pretty decent. As you say no match for the Thai beer. There are no small breweries in Thailand.

In order to get a licence to brew beer in Thailand you have a minimum amount you have to produce annually. It's hundreds of thousands of litres IIRC (although I'm open to correction).
Specifically designed to prevent any independent brewery start-ups. The two big breweries in collusion with the government at the time did it to scupper any competition at all.

[TobyAndrews]

  On 7/26/2021 at 10:52 AM, Bluesofa said:

I remember the Angkor beer, it was pretty decent. As you say no match for the Thai beer. There are no small breweries in Thailand.

In order to get a licence to brew beer in Thailand you have a minimum amount you have to produce annually. It's hundreds of thousands of litres IIRC (although I'm open to correction).
Specifically designed to prevent any independent brewery start-ups. The two big breweries in collusion with the government at the time did it to scupper any competition at all.

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There they go again. The richest want to create monopoly but quality suffers and prices increase.

[Karolyn]

I don't like Cambodia as much as Thailand, I've seen no water taxis, as there are in Bangkok, no buses except intercitt, and few trains. Fewer convenience stores. Nothing to do that you can't do in Thailand, which is a lot more boring than it used to be.

On the plus side are the everyday remorques, which feel luxurious when you put your feet up, and the cycle rickshaws of Phnom Penh, which carry the occupant reclined, and is therefore good for the human back.

The remorques often have canvas fairings when in the rain, it's like sitting in a tent in the rain, but it's moving when you sit with your feet up, on a comfy seat. They're also better for when you carry luggage, better than a taxi cab, even. These are something Thailand should imitate, other countries as well.