Hopefully you’ve read my other post on our volunteering in Battambang. This post I’m going to chat about the time we spent in Cambodia when we weren’t volunteering. We did have a couple of days off in Battambang to see the sights of the area, and we are now just wrapping up a week of being tourists in Siem Reap. So much to talk about.

Cambodia has been such an interesting place to visit, we have all learned so much. The country has had such a tumultuous history but its people are so resilient. Prior to this trip, I had heard bits and pieces about the genocide here by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s, but I’d failed to understand its impact. 25% of the population died under the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979 – so anyone you meet here older than Steve and I (both born in 1975) has been through this trauma. People are fairly quick to tell you their stories, or the stories of their parents, I think because they want to ensure people don’t forget what happened. It’s an optimistic country however now living in a peaceful time, and I was glad we chose to travel and spend our tourist dollars here. I definitely recommend it as a place to visit!

One caution would be perhaps to not visit here in April / May timeframe…. so hot!! Climate Change shouts out loud and clear here, with people reporting that average temperatures have never been so high as they’ve experienced recently. Rainy season arrived a full month late this year, causing havoc for the food supply as the whole countryside was scorched. Luckily the rain arrived a few days after we arrived and by the end of our stay, the fields were green. Early May however most days were humid and hovering around 42-43C, and there is little air conditioning. We paid extra for AC in our room at the guest house in Battambang, but the school had none. Now at the end of our three weeks here, the daily rain has helped lower the temp a little, phew! Experiencing the epic rain storms was a treat but they were hard to catch on video…. here’s one try:

Around Battambang

We felt like locals in Battambang while we were volunteering, but did enjoy the couple of days off to explore the sites as tourists. We took a ride on the bamboo train – an improvised, locally-built vehicle made to leverage the long-abandoned rail tracks which run from village to village. The train car gets taken apart and moved off the track when a train comes the other direction. So practical.

We visited Phnom Sampow, a temple on top of one of the only mountains in the area, which is also the site of the “Killing Caves”, an infamous execution location of the Khmer Rouge regime. Quite a shocking place to visit with the temple and the caves in such a contrast and with the tourists (both Cambodian and foreign) flowing from one site to the other. There’s no hiding from their history. On the other side of the mountain there’s another cave that houses over a million bats. Right at sunset the bats all come streaming out of the cave together, it’s quite a unique site. We visited on Sunday, which is the day locals come out to see the bats too, so it was like a street party while waiting for the bats with food stalls, drinks and chairs set up.

Battambang is home to the Phare Arts School, a non-profit arts and circus school focused on providing arts opportunities for at-risk youth. Most artists in Cambodia were targeted during the Khmer Rouge regime so the development of arts skills in Cambodian children is a challenge. Students from this incredible organization put on musical acrobatic shows to raise money to support both the school and themselves. We saw one of their shows titled “Rouge”. It was a very moving performance and so amazing see see such talented kids working so hard.

Siem Reap temple adventures

We arrived in Siem Reap exhausted from our two weeks of volunteering, but it was hard to stay still for long with so much to do and see here (although if you asked the kids, they may have voted for a day in bed with video games, which we did not grant). We were lucky to stay in a quiet hotel, Le Chantou Boutique, with beautiful spacious rooms and our own pool. A welcome change from bunking all together.

The focus of our week was to visit Angkor Park with its dozens of breathtaking temples. We didn’t want to have a revolt from the kids for taking them to too many temples in the excessive heat, so we spread out temple visits over three short-ish days. We hired a guide with an air-conditioned vehicle so we could have breaks in the cool with water on ice in between temple visits – it was one of our best decisions! The temples were absolutely stunning and although Angkor Wat was a highlight, there are so many other incredible temples in the area from the same period (800 – 1400 AD). It was really interesting to see such a range from Angkor Wat which had been maintained over the centuries, to ones that have undergone a massive restoration efforts, and to ones that are being left to reflect how they were found in the jungle last century. We took hundreds of photos, but here are a few of our favourites (click images for bigger versions).

Land Mine education

“Cambodia remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world as a result of decades of conflict, including a civil war, the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and genocide, American bombings, and Vietnamese occupation. Dozens of civilians are still injured or killed every year by landmines and other unexploded ordnance that have been left over from all the fighting. Landmines and UXOs are found in backyards, in the rice fields where people work, and on the roads where children walk to school.” quote from cambodialandminemuseum.org/

We learned a ton about the continuing impact of landmines in Cambodia from two organizations with museums in the area. The Cambodia Landmine Museum (funded by a Canadian charity) is doing great work both educating locals to identify land mines in their villages and also de-mining rural areas to make land safer. The founder was a child solider – truly an amazing story. The Apopo Visitor Center demonstrates the work being done by Apopo.org which trains rats to detect landmines. Because of their small weight, strong sense of smell, and easy ability to be trained, rats are excellent at finding landmines without setting them off, and help de-mine land 10-15x times faster than a person alone would.

Siem Reap adventuring

Goodbye Cambodia

Today is our last day in Cambodia and we’re a bit sad to be leaving. It’s been such a wonderful place to visit and it’s been so nice to get to know the country a little more than we would have just through the tourist sites. I haven’t talked about food on this post, which is rare for me, but I’ll just quickly say that the food has been amazing and it’s really inexpensive too, so we’ve been filling ourselves up. We did try eating ants, stir-fried with beef, which I will admit I don’t think we’ll want to eat again, but we did all try it and we finished the dish (thank you Steve!).

Tourism in Cambodia is down to about 25% of pre-covid levels, so it’s been tough for so many here who rely on tourists for their well being. The lack of crowds made it nice of us of course, but we’d rather see the community here thriving, so we recommend a visit! I can give you lots more recommendations 🙂 .

Next up is Nepal for some trekking and we are flying to Kathmandu tomorrow … wish us luck!