Hey, everyone! I have spent the last ten days in Cambodia. As the title says, it has been short… but sweet. I visited three main areas – Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Kratie. While I could have broken it up into three posts, I figured I’d give myself a break from writing during that time. It means this blog post will be long, but that’s alright. They all end up being long, whether I’m in a place for three days or ten.

A few housekeeping things:

1) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
2) If wanting to read my first novel, Eclipse Me, you can find the link here.

Sài Gòn to Phnom Penh

I took a bus from Sài Gòn/HCMC to Phnom Penh which ended up being easy enough. Those bus operators really have got it down in terms of helping the visa process go incredibly smoothly. Like in Malaysia -> Singapore, we had to go through two separate buildings – one to exit Vietnam, and the other to enter into Cambodia. Fast and easy.

My first impression of Cambodia was… wow, it’s pretty dusty here haha. But there were tuk tuks again! I haven’t seen tuk tuks as a common mode of transportation since the Philippines. Indonesia and Malaysia were all about that scooter/motorbike life. Singapore was public transportation. Vietnam was motorbikes. Tuk tuks are fun but WHOA are they sensitive – I have nearly hit my head on the roof of them a number of times haha.

My first night in Phnom Penh, I wasn’t getting up to much. I decided to give myself three nights in each place I wanted to visit in Cambodia – three in Phnom Penh, three in Siem Reap, three in Kratie. It’s a bit of a whiplash adventure in Cambodia. I unfortunately am not able to give Cambodia a whole month – I’m basically trying to get to Thailand by early December, which means less time in both Cambodia and Laos.

I didn’t arrive until maybe 7pm, so it was a matter of: check in, get a SIM card, eat dinner, withdraw cash from ATM. It was a rainy evening but during a break post-dinner, I went for a quick stroll through the neighborhood. Nearby were a few busy bar streets. They were filled to the brim with people. Lots of boys, girls, ladyboys(?) just standing around, waiting to jump at a Western customer haha. I forgot to mention but while having a cigarette outside my accommodation in Sài Gòn, a girl actually came up to me and, translating, asked if I wanted to get a hotel room with her LOL. And then in Phnom Penh, I guy tried to link his arm in mine. Everyone be tryna ****!!!!

After walking around, I returned to my accommodation and retired for the evening.

Choeung Ek Genocidal Center

(Trigger Warning: there will be images of human skulls/bones/etc. below. It is disturbing but not gruesome/bloody.)

In the morning, I ended up getting a Grab to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, also known as the Phnom Penh Killing Fields. If you haven’t heard of this, it is a particularly grim piece of Cambodia’s history. I got a complimentary audio guide to listen to as I walked around the area, which taught me a lot of information which I’ll share below.

In short, 3 out of 8 million people were killed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot’s command. The Khmer Rouge (or Red Khmer) were sort of a communist group that rose into power. They tried to replace religion with the belief in communism and in Pol Pot. Actually, Pol Pot never appeared in public.

The Khmer Rouge got rid of schools and condemned teachers to death, abolished the Cambodian currency, converted temples into prisons… They did a lot of really awful shit.

The Killing Fields refer to various fields throughout Cambodia where people were brought to and killed. They were made to work the fields day and night without breaks. And when they were killed, they were tossed into mass graves with the others. These graves often had more than a hundred bodies in them. From 1975 to January 1979, the Choeung Ek killing field saw more killings than any other region in Cambodia. In 1978, as many as 300 people were executed daily. It’s hard to imagine.

Those that were initially targeted were for reasons ranging from fleeing the Vietnam War to… people who wore glasses. So, it was completely random and nonsensical. Pol Pot was insane.

The Khmer officials forced people to sign false confessions that they weren’t working or that they stole rice, etc. Much of the time, it wasn’t even true and it was just intended to break the spirit. There was one story about a kid who just could not think up a random thing to confess to. The guard was going to kill him but one of the older men decided to take the blame instead. That man ended up being killed – and the original kid lived with that guilt for the rest of his life.

I learned, when listening to the audio guide, that guards used to use the stem of a sugar palm plant to slit peoples’ throats – in addition to various other farming tools.

And another, very brutal and sad fact… at the Choeung Ek killing field, there is what’s known as “the Killing Tree,” which was a tree that the guards used to smash children/babies heads against before throwing them into the pit.

Pol Pot certainly had no mercy. “Better to kill an innocent by mistake than to spare an enemy by mistake,” was one of his sayings. Yikes.

While many of the bodies have since been dug up from the killing fields, not all of them have. During the rainy season, bone fragments and even clothing will rise to the surface. It was eerie to see, while walking around, pieces of clothing sprouting among the grass. There was even one piece of, what I am 95% certain, was a human bone that was wedged in the earth.

It’s hard to imagine the tragedy that occurred there, even listening to the audio guide. There were translated audio recordings of survivors’ stories, various facts about the killing fields, Khmer Rouge, etc. (as I’ve shared above), and more. But still, it just is difficult to even imagine it.

However, one thing I noticed was that there was a lot of little wildlife fluttering about. I would see squirrels walking inside one of the mounds, or a bird perched at a shrine offering. Lots of signs of life, and it almost seemed like the animals were maybe the spirits of the dead.

As I walked towards the Memorial Stupa, I started to feel pretty heavy (especially having just come from the Killing Tree). With just a few steps until I arrived, I looked over and was surprised to see a golden tree snake (aka paradise tree snake) on a tree. Yes, lots of spirit animals indeed.

I snapped a photo of the snake, went to take a video and then the little guy jumped off the tree! I couldn’t believe it. But golden tree snakes are known as “flying snakes.” It then disappeared into a nook of the tree and I never saw it again. (As an aside: it tickled me that it was a golden tree snake that I saw, because I had been noticing that Cambodia seemed to be very… GOLD. Very fitting that I would see a GOLDen tree snake.)

The Memorial Stupa is situated at the center of the grounds. It is decorated in typical Khmer style (Khmer is a Cambodian ethnic group by the way, so Khmer and Khmer Rouge are not the same thing. Khmer Rouge was the communist group.) But what is particularly moving about the Stupa is that it is filled from bottom to top with skulls of the deceased.

They have been categorized by age, gender, cause of death, etc., and grouped into different sections. It is morbid and confrontational but… these were the people who died. That is true. Again, I am sorry to share the images here as I know they are disturbing.

After visiting the Stupa, I took a tuk tuk back to the city. It was a heavy morning!

Exploring Around Phnom Penh

I had lunch and then went to explore the neighborhood. I wanted to check out some nearby temples. And there were a lot of them! Pretty much all of them have gold incorporated somehow. Lots of cool stupas as well.

I saw two kittens play-fighting which was cute. Also, check out the crazy power lines in the image below.

The Royal Palace was potentially on my list of things to see but the price of admission was kind of high and I was enamored with so much of the architecture/temples that I was seeing freely. I decided to skip it, but I did take photos of the gate and some structures around it. Really stunning. I love the use of gold pretty much everywhere in Cambodia. But especially the gold with the teal. It’s such a good combination.

Before sunset, I decided to go to Wat Phnom, the temple that Phnom Penh got its name from. It is an old temple built in the 1300s and it sits on a hill in the middle of town.

Inside, there were tons of buddha statues and interesting murals painted on the walls. The murals are more of a recent thing. From what I understand, Wat Phnom (and many temples/old structures in Cambodia) has undergone a lot of reconstruction and upkeep over the years.

The next morning was Independence Day in Cambodia, which I learned just a little too late. Had I known earlier, I would have thought to go to the Independence Monument, where the King of Cambodia lights the “victory flame.” I tried to see when the ceremony took place but I wasn’t getting any definitive answers. Maybe it hadn’t happened yet? So I went to the area to see. Nope, he lit it already. And was gone. Damn! It would’ve been cool to see a real life king haha.

There were guards stationed around the flame, though – that was neat. Apparently, the victory flame is only lit for two or three days and then extinguished. I felt glad I was able to be in town for it! I also found out that there would be fireworks that evening.

I had a somewhat relaxing afternoon and then, prior to checking out the fireworks, I went BACK to Phnom Wat. I don’t know how I missed this the afternoon before but apparently there is a flying fox bat sanctuary there. I hadn’t seen it! I looked again and sure enough, there were a ton of bats hanging out in the trees. I arrived at dusk and was able to see them flying out, one after the other. They’re so incredible! It reminded me of my time in Melbourne, when I saw them for the first time. Such big bats, just swooping through the area.

Following the bat frenzy, I passed tons of food vendors – the night market was truly in full swing. Meats, sweets, drinks, you name it! The night market seemed never-ending. Just one thing after the next.

Arriving to the square, I saw one of my favorite buildings from the prior day totally lit up with lights. SO BEAUTIFUL! I was enamored with it. The photo doesn’t even do it justice – it looked so cool in person.

Near the Royal Palace, I heard the first firework ring out over the river. I turned around and hustled to get to a better vantage point. For 20min, they blasted one firework after the next. It’s always fun to celebrate fireworks, although Gizmo and Bambi (dogs in the Wind family) would disagree.

It was the perfect way to end my time in Phnom Penh. From the brutality of the killing fields, the beautiful temples around town, and the fireworks, I felt I’d gotten a pretty solid glimpse into the city.

Siem Reap

In the morning, I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. I was scheduled to stay in my first hostel in over two months. Private rooms in Vietnam were so affordable that I couldn’t bear to deal with the chaos that is sleeping in hostels. And I’m glad! Fuck sharing a room with other people lol. I almost did the same in Siem Reap, but a fellow traveler had said it was a really nice accommodation and urged me to check it out. I don’t remember who suggested it. It WAS nice, aesthetics-wise… but I wish I’d just gotten a private room haha.

I didn’t arrive until maybe 5 or 6pm so didn’t do much that first night. I dropped off my clothes to get laundry done, but otherwise my only point of interest was going to check out a nearby temple that is supposedly even older then Angkor Wat. I walked along the Siem Reap river for about half an hour before arriving at the temple. Kids were getting out of school and their parents were picking them up. Some of them would wave “hello” to me. I always love when kids get excited to see me – a foreigner.

Next to the school was the temple. It was very small and major pieces of it were missing/destroyed but… still, cool to see! I am not always the best with this super-old stuff. This would have been well over 1,000 years old and yet for me, I somehow can’t fathom it. I think, being from Chicago, where nothing is really THAT old, anything older than maybe the 1800s just feels fake to me. Like, oh, that looks cool, but no way is that real… right? Oh, it IS real? That’s FOR REAL real?! Nah.

(Above: cool temple and world’s tiniest bb lizard.)

I walked back to my hostel, grabbed dinner, had a brief walkabout through town, and then chilled out for the rest of the evening. I intended to have a wonderful sleep-in… and boy, did that not happen at all. Of course, even in a 4-bed dorm (not 8, not 12, not 20), I had to be stuck with one of the worst snorers in history. It was so bad. The guy in the bunk below me ended up switching rooms. I should have done the same, honestly. This snorer was going at it all night long. I didn’t manage to fully sleep but I think I was somewhere in-between the whole night.

Angkor Wat

Around 5am, the other person in the room woke up and started getting ready for his day. I’m not sure if he was checking out or what. Anyway, he left the room to use the shared bathroom and his alarm started going off. I thought it was snorer dude. Aggravating me further. Eventually, snorer dude got up and turned off the alarm. When alarm guy came back in, snorer dude said, “your alarm was going off,” in sort of an annoyed tone. “Oh, sorry,” alarm guy said in response. It had me cackling mentally, because IF ONLY SNORER KNEW that he had kept us up all night. Fucker. He had no right to get annoyed about an alarm!

I had been toying with the idea of going to see the Angkor Wat sunrise… but I wasn’t sold. Maybe I would go my last day? But then, since I was already awake, I got dressed and got a tuk tuk to the temple. USD$62 for a 3 day pass to the Angkor temple complexes. STEEP. I only had 2 days but they didn’t have a 2 day option (of course). I thought it would be like $10 a day. Nope. My brother informed me that this is a major cash cow for Cambodia, though, and really helps with their economy. In that sense, I’m happy to oblige. Or at least I can accept it lol.

By 5.45am, I was walking towards Angkor Wat, one of the most important religious complexes in the world, and on some lists, one of the seven wonders. It was built in the 12th century and has a mix of both Buddhism and Hinduism. And… the grounds are pretty massive.

I walked across the bridge, entered the outer temple complex, and shortly thereafter was met with the massive hordes of people lined up to take the famous sunrise shot. Daylight was just starting to creep up from the horizon. Everyone was ready to get “that shot” with the Angkor Wat reflection in the surrounding pond. It was pretty much impossible to get a good vantage point, considering how many people were lined up. I snapped a quick photo and then decided to enter the temple itself.

Angkor Wat has a lot of interesting features – carvings, statues in varying states of structural integrity, Buddhas, etc. I think what I found most attractive were the towering spires, though.

As the temple opened to the public, I walked throughout. I was able to get a number of photos without people in the shot which was nice – most were still outside taking reflection shots. Around 7am, I was able to go to the top level of the temple, a section of the temple that I learned is closed on holy days. Glad I got in!

There was one vantage point that looked at the outer section of the temple, and the long road that leads from the outer gate up towards the main temple. Very cool.

In the tallest/main spire of Angkor Wat, there is a Buddha at each section – one facing east, north, west, and south.

After exiting the main temple, I decided to go to the opposite side of Angkor Wat, where the sun was hitting it. That ended up being my favorite spot and I can’t believe that so many people lined up for the sunrise when the sun was hitting the temple perfectly at this angle. The colors of the temple really are showcased in a lovely way – unlike the dark shadows of the temple reflected in the pond at sunrise.

I walked around for maybe another half an hour, took one reflection shot since everyone had left, and then continued on with my temple day.

The eastern gate of Angkor Wat had the coolest framing of the temple. Shown below:

Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom, another famous temple complex, was near enough. In retrospect, I should have just hired a tuk tuk for the day at USD$20 – but it seemed walkable to me. So I walked and walked and walked, and finally arrived at the gate to Angkor Thom.

The gate had a Buddha faces on it, looking down at the visitors. The bridge leading to the gate was lined with Buddhas and other deities. Very cool.

Before too long, I arrived at Bayon Temple, the most famous structure in Angkor Thom. It, like the gate, was decorated with smiling Buddha faces all over it. The temple was going through renovation so there was a lot of scaffolding, but it was still cool to see.

One thing that’s nice about these temples, and something my brother pointed out, is that they’re all… very explorable. You’re allowed to kind of walk all around the temple grounds for the most part. You can walk on the stairs, on the grass, down the hallways, into different nooks and crannies. Not much is off limits.

It was late morning by this point. After Bayon Temple, I spotted a granny selling various baked goods. I got a couple of snacks to refuel, and then continued on with my last part of the days’ adventure. I was fading – from lack of sleep, lots of walking, and the heat.

The last thing I wanted to see was the Terrace of the Elephants – THAT sounded cool, right? But I was having trouble finding it. I ended up seeing a couple of other nearby temples first.

There was one temple where I observed locals kneel before a shrine of Buddha. And, of course, many, many monks around. And they were having their monk friends take their photos! I found that very funny. I don’t typically think of monks having cell phones or other “earthly delights.” But I guess we are living in a technological age.

One of the temples I stumbled upon ended up being one of my favorite spots of the day. It was small and inaccessible in terms of walking up it, but I thought it looked really beautiful. The green, green grass, the stones scattered in front of it. I thought it had a cool ambience to it.

And then I found the elephant terrace! Six elephants in a row, with some carvings between them. Yay!

As it was 11am and I’d been going since 5am, I grabbed a tuk tuk back to my accommodation. Thankfully, no one was there and I was able to catch up on sleep until about 3pm. I picked up my laundry, rested for a bit more, and then got ready for dinner & a show!

Apsara

My brother had recommended I see an Apsara show while in Cambodia. To be honest, I hadn’t done too much research on Cambodia so I had no idea what it was. When he suggested it, I looked it up and thought it would be somewhat similar to the Kecak dances in Bali. In a way, it was, but also very different.

There are a number of dining venues around Siem Reap that have a free show along with a dining experience, so I made reservations to go check one out. For $18, I had a delicious Khmer-style four-course meal. And on top of it, five dance performances!

The whole affair took about two hours.

There were outfit changes. There was live music. There were extravagant headpieces, masks, and outfits.

It was a great time!

At the end of each performance, the crowd was always invited up on stage for photos. I cringed at that but by the end of the last performance, no one else was volunteering so I decided to just get it done.

The five performances each had various meanings. The first performance was a blessing for everyone in the room. One of them was sort of a story about a fishing village. The final one was the “apsara” dance, which is the most important one and I guess a “spiritual exercise and meditation” according to the Internet. The dances really did feel that way, too. I felt I was under a trance at times, or in a meditative state. Very calming and enjoyable to watch.

I almost left before the last dance but as I was talking to a staff member, they invited me to stay for the last show. I didn’t want to take up the seat for too long in case other diners wanted to come in but I think they only really invite a certain amount of people into the restaurant each night and all of them are pretty much expected to stay for the duration of the performances.

Very cool. I’m super glad I went to experience it!

Ta Prohm & Surrounding Temples

The next day, I had a very chill morning. Snorer Dude was gone and so I took advantage of sleeping in and having the room to myself. After a local lunch, I hired a tuk tuk driver for the day at $20. He ended up taking me to a number of spots around the Angkor complex.

We first hiked up to a temple on a hill. It was undergoing construction but we were able to walk to the top of the temple and see a good view of the surrounding area. The main draw was that Angkor Wat itself was visible – pretty cool to see it from the higher vantage point. Massive temple tucked into the jungle. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and my phone made it look like a pixelated mess, so… nothing to share in terms of Angkor Wat from above.

My guide took me from one temple to the next in such quick succession. He gave me ample time to walk around and explore at my leisure while he waited in the tuk tuk. This is 1,000% the way to do it – hire a tuk tuk if you’re going to temples in Siem Reap. The temples are very spaced out. Had I walked like the day prior, I would have missed out on a lot of exploration.

Temples, temples, temples. So many cool temples!

I am particularly keen on the ones with spires – I just really like that look aesthetically.

And more temples…

One of the last stops of the day was the main attraction for me – visiting Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is colloquially known as the “Tomb Raider Temple” because it was a filming location in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. And man, is it a COOL TEMPLE.

Because many sections of the temple are still in the process of being renovated, there are tons of huge stones scattered around the temple. Some are blocking entranceways, some are just strewn along the grounds. Much of the architecture is covered in moss, something I hadn’t yet seen in any of the other temples. But perhaps the biggest draw of all is that there are a dozen or more trees whose roots are growing all along the ruins. Incredible!

Ta Prohm is a photographic area, to be sure. Everywhere I looked, I wanted to snap a photo. And on top of it, parakeets were singing/flying about in the treetops above!

What a special area.

At this point, I’d been temple-exploring most of the afternoon. It was… time to call it quits. After a couple more quick temple stops, my driver took me back to my accommodation. Luckily, it didn’t end up raining. Earlier in the day when I was having lunch, there was a brief downpour and even when we first arrived at the Angkor complex, booming thunder was heard periodically. Other than a few light raindrops, nothing at all. Definitely lucked out!

In the evening, I had dinner and walked around the night market for a while. I stumbled upon a vendor near the Siem Reap river who sold fried critters… Snakes, scorpions, grubs, tarantulas. My brother had asked me a number of times if I would be trying anything. I told him I wasn’t sure I had the courage to do it solo. Well, here was the vendor. I guess I might as well try something! I couldn’t bear to eat a snake. Somehow(?), tarantula seemed like the safest bet. I ended up filming the experience which actually gave me the courage to go through with it because prior to that I was definitely sweatin’ about it. CHOMP.

And… well, not too bad. I was expecting much worse.

I washed it down with a bubble tea and called it a night. After much temple exploration, the cultural Apsara dance/dinner, and the tarantula, my time in Siem Reap was finished.

Kratie

Yet another long bus ride and I had arrived in Kratie, a small town next to the Mekong River. I had one mission and one mission only in Kratie: to see the Irrawaddy dolphins.

Irrawaddy dolphins are very cute and unusual-looking dolphins. They don’t have the typical dolphin beak that so many other dolphins have. Instead, they look more like beluga whales, with a rounded face and a mouth that appears to smile at you. Apparently there are only something like 300 left in the wild (throughout various countries), with around 100 of them in the Mekong. I am not 100% on these statistics, but that’s what a Google gave me.

I checked in to my accommodation and, while I initially planned to just relax… but my room kind of sucked. No air conditioning, basically not even a fan, a toilet without a lid on the tank, and sort of an iffy vibe. I immediately checked for bed bugs and didn’t spot any thankfully. That said, it didn’t seem like a place I wanted to spend much time in. Instead, I decided to go on a dolphin tour that afternoon. May as well get it out of the way – if I saw them, I could just leave the next morning. After all, I was only paying USD$4.75 for my room each night. Very cheap.

I asked the host of my homestay and he said $25 would cover transport to and from Kampi as well as the ticket. Not too bad! I didn’t realize that HE was going to take me haha. We loaded into his tuk tuk and drove the half hour to get to the spot. They had a sculpture of the Irrawaddy dolphins made of plastic/fish netting. (Side note: Kampi is the area where the dolphins usually reside – it’s about 30min north of Kratie but there aren’t any homestays there which is why I had to stay in Kratie.)

I waited for maybe 15min and then hopped into a small, wooden boat. To my surprise and delight, I was able to have the boat to myself. The way it goes is this: using a small engine, we ride out to a spot maybe 10min away, where the dolphins tend to congregate. Once in the area or once a dolphin is spotted, the guide cuts the engine and uses a paddle to slowly circle around the area. The idea is they don’t want to disturb the dolphins. They also limit the amount of boats that can go out at once. It’s nice that even in a remote town in Cambodia, they care about this prized wildlife. The tour is just about an hour.

I had no idea if I would be seeing any dolphins or not. Wildlife, amirite? But I’m glad I went that first afternoon, because then I could go on more tours if need be. As luck would have it, we saw plenty of dolphins that first day.

Irrawaddy dolphins are much shier than bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins, or pretty much any dolphin you might typically think of. They don’t want to show off or even really be near the boats. On occasion, they would briefly surface near one of our boats but then they’d be like “oh, shit. SEE YA!”. In fact, the Irrawaddy dolphin behavior reminded me more of whale watching than your typical dolphin sightings. For the most part, we were only seeing their backside and dorsal fin. Hardly any of their face at all, and MAN I wanted to see those cute faces!

Because it was late afternoon at this point and the sun was setting, the glare of the sun was present in the water. It made photographing very difficult, and OF COURSE the dolphins wanted to surface right near the glare haha. Bastards!

At one point, there was a whole group of dolphins swimming together, maybe four or five. So cute.

After the tour had finished, I felt glad that I went. There was also a determination to go on yet another tour – hopefully to see their faces a little better. The only thing was that $25 every day adds up! And that is sort of the tuk tuk mafia in Kratie – they will NOT go lower than $25. $15 for transportation, $10 for a ticket. I know that this is cheap in theory, but consider that I try to stick to a $50 daily budget. That’s half my budget for the day. So I originally was thinking maybe I would just go one more time.

Kampi

I got back to my accommodation just after sunset. And a beautiful sunset it was! I grabbed dinner, dessert, and then returned to my hot room for the evening. I proceeded to have such a terrible overnight experience, I considered leaving the next morning. At 3am, I was woken by a rooster crowing right outside my room. I’m on the second floor but it seemed like it was right outside my window.. It kept going on and on. And it was fucking hot. The overhead fan was on the highest setting and it wasn’t doing a damn thing. Sweating, miserable, and woken up at such an early hour, I was not in a good mood. I ended up turning on my laptop and playing thunderstorm sounds to help drown out the noise. Little did I know, the accommodation is right next to a school. So, 7am and kids were screaming and singing. Fuck. My. Life.

Somehow, I managed to fall in and out of sleep. Come 11am, I was alive and ready to figure out what to do with my day. The only problem was… there wasn’t that much to do in Kratie. It was a very small town and the main draw is the dolphins. Do I go again? But no… I’m trying to save some money. Wasn’t there any other way to get there?

After lunch, I went back to my accommodation to hire a bicycle for the day. A ride to Kampi would maybe take an hour one way, but $5 was better than $15 for transport! Plus, I could take my time and enjoy the scenery. But… the only bicycle had a flat tire. My host gave me the name of another homestay that had bikes. I walked there – talked to the guy. Ope, they only hire them out to guests. He suggested another place. After walking around for probably 30min, I finally found a spot that hired bicycles. They really saved the day! Before long, I was on the road heading back to Kampi.

The journey to Kampi is an easy one. Pretty much all the homes are stilt-houses. I guess that’s in preparation for if/when the Mekong levels rise. I passed plenty of cows, dogs, and waving children. Definitely countryside vibes. The occasional temple would be sprinkled along the area. One of them was painted completely gold and was BEAUTIFUL.

Cambodians really love their gold. Many homes (maybe all of them?) also had shrines outside – typically also gold.

Fifty minutes later, I arrived at the ticket counter. I wasn’t sure if I would have to pay to park my bike, if I’d still get a ticket for $10, or what the situation would be. Well, I didn’t, I did, and before long I was on a boat again! This experience was slightly tamer. I think there were maybe only three dolphins in the area – and they were far less active than the afternoon before. I did get a couple of better shots of the dolphins and their eyes, but none of their full face yet.

Believe it or not, I decided to return to Kampi ONCE again on my last day in town. Why not? $14 for a bicycle and an entrance ticket was far better than $25 (and then adding tips for the driver, tip for the boat guide on top of that). Plus, there wasn’t much else to do in Kratie. (I also had a much better sleeping experience. I got an extra fan brought to my room, played thunderstorm sounds all night, no kids in the morning, and the rooster was somewhere else.)

The area past the ticket counter was decorated for Freshwater Dolphin Day – how funny to be here for that event! Tons of people (and monks, oddly?) were hanging out for a presentation.

This day ended up being my absolute favorite. The first half hour, we hadn’t seen a single dolphin. Shit. Had I gotten really lucky the past two days? The last twenty minutes, we moved to a different area and then suddenly it was mayhem. Multiple small groups of dolphins, all playing. I didn’t know which group to try and keep an eye out for. They were way more active than both times I’d seen them before. Some of them were slapping their fins and their tails around.

They were even lunging their heads much further out of the water than I’d seen yet. That’s not saying much – they are very reserved about revealing their faces haha. Don’t let the Google Images fool you, they are not constantly leaping out of the water.

At the height of their performance, the guide warned me that time was almost up. He said for another $10, we could stay for one more hour. I had already considered doing that when I was biking over. Since it was my last day and final visit with the dolphins, I figured I might as well splurge.

We stayed another hour and got some really good sightings. The dolphins occasionally surfaced right near the boat. It always makes me gasp when they do that. Honestly, so much like humpback whales in that regard!

By the time the second hour was up, I felt I had really gotten my dolphin fill. I waved goodbye to the Irrawaddy dolphins and felt glad I was able to spend so much time with them. Sweet success! When reviewing my photos later, I could not believe one of the photos I was able to get. YAY! I got the shot I was hoping for!

I GOT THE SHOT! An important caveat – I have to manually focus my camera, which is hard enough as is at times even under perfect conditions… but then to try and predict where a wild animal is going to surface after spending a minute underwater…? Damn near impossible. And when they do come to the surface, they’re up for all of one second, if that. Capturing this image was definitely a miracle for me haha.

That was a couple hours ago. I’m now typing up this blog in Kratie still. In the morning, I take a bus from Kratie to Don Det, Laos. I will be in Laos for… 25 days or so? I don’t have everything planned out just yet.

Between Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Kratie, I feel I got some wonderful highlights of Cambodia. It’s a shame I don’t have more time to spend here but I’m also glad to have visited, albeit briefly.

Rose, Thorn, Bouquet

Rose
I think favorite moment has to be seeing the Irrawaddy dolphins. Y’all know I love my wildlife, and these guys definitely kept me entertained!

Thorn
The thorn is 100% the Kratie hotel, followed by Snoring Dude in Siem Reap. UGH!!! I just want restful accommodation experiences with air conditioniong always haha.

Bouquet
I definitely was not expecting to see so many beautiful structures in Cambodia. The Khmer architecture, the gold temples, the CRAZY structures in the Angkor complexes… there are a lot of really gorgeous places in Cambodia. It has been a delight.

Honorary mention would be the Apsara show/dinner experience in Siem Reap – what a fun treat!

Miscellaneous

Cambodia has a dual-currency system going on. Both USD and also Cambodian Riel. I didn’t like that because sometimes I would pay in USD, then get a mix of both USD and Riel back. It takes me a while to get familiar with new currency and trying to convert it in real time when receiving change just felt like such a hassle.

Speaking of getting familiar with things… it always seems to take a moment for me to get used to a new country. It’s like… hey… who are you? What is this about? What’s the vibe here? I always feel a little bit unsettled before I can latch on to something to help me identify the place. In Cambodia, that first identification came when I realized that there is a lot of GOLD stuff around haha.

Cambodia, landscape-wise, is VERY flat, at least from what I’ve seen. I guess Southern Vietnam is sort of the same. I know that in the south, Cambodia has the Cardamom Mountains – so there’s got to be some variety in Cambodia but everything I saw was pretty much flat. Makes for good bike-riding, though.

There were bugs ALL over Kratie at nighttime. They’re not moths or mosquitoes, they’re… I don’t know what the hell they are. But they get EVERYWHERE. Walking into 7/11 was chaos – they were just all over the ground. Swarming the lights. As my mom said, “Yuck.”

Reflections

Well, 10 days later and I’m already leaving Cambodia tomorrow morning. Short, but sweet. I feel a little guilty that I’m not able to do the country justice by visiting for longer, but in a sense, this year traveling around Asia is mostly just sampling places anyway. Maybe I’ll return to some of them in the future, etc.

I allotted a lot more time in Laos compared to Cambodia because it will take longer for me to get from the southern area up to the north before crossing into Thailand. I’m not quite sure how it all will go. I have some places mapped out but there isn’t anything in particular I’m very eager to see. This leaves room for spontaneity, though! We’ll see how it all pans out.

Until next time, sending you all my love. x