Destination Daydreams: Cambodia

Cambodia... land of temples? At least, that was initially the only thing I knew about the country save the 1970s genocide. Angkor Wat - a huge complex of temples that's UNESCO World Heritage listed.

Cambodia's on the list for the Grand Tour because I've wanted to see Angkor Wat for years. And at a push, I'd visit Cambodia just to see those temples. But what else is there to do? It's not a huge country - a similar size to the UK - but I'm sure it has other things to offer.

The first new thing I found was that there are rare Irrawaddy dolphins in Cambodia. A chance to see rare dolphins? Not going to pass that up. Apparently Kratie on the Mekong river is one of the best places to see them so that's definitely going into the plan. Somehow. Just got to work out how to get there. Must be a bus service I can use - buses seem to be the main transport option for Cambodia.

Which brings me to my next point - I'll probably end up flying into the capital, Phnom Penh because it's a bit cheaper than flying to Siem Reap near Angkor. This means I'd get the chance to explore Phnom Penh too, which apparently has some lovely places to see. I could, I suppose, also take a trip down to the coast and explore an island or two. That sounds like fun.

Again, it looks like buses are the way to go when getting between places. The Phnom Penh to Siem Reap route seems to be well-travelled and there's plenty of bus providers servicing it. However, I also found a site a couple of months back that suggested taking a boat up the river between the two cities. Now that sounds interesting.

The site in question, Move to Cambodia, actually had a whole page of useful sounding info about getting between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, which you can find here: Move to Cambodia: Travel Between Phnom Penh & Siem Reap

The bit I'm interested in (besides all the useful stuff about bus companies) is the tiny section at the bottom about taking a boat up the river. Sounds like it's not the safest way of doing it, only runs outside the dry season and is a bit more expensive than the bus. It's the experience though - imagine how lovely that could be just plodding up the river watching the world go by. And when I say it's more expensive than the bus, the buses go up to about US$15 and the boat is about US$35. Not exactly expensive for a trip that can take up to 10 hours.

Yeah, that sounds like fun.

Random aside aside, what else is there to see in Cambodia? Well, outside Angkor Wat, there are beautiful old temples scattered all across the country that could be worth a visit. I'm not a religious person, but temples are cool - they just feel interesting.

Oh, and if all that's not enough and the Irrawaddy dolphins don't slake my thirst for wildlife spotting, I'm told there's a place you can walk with elephants in the east of the country. Totally going to check that out.

Might just have to learn some Khmer phrases to add to my language skills. Because obviously Spanish won't work in Cambodia.

Have I missed anything out? Any secret hidden gems I should know about?