Cambodia (March 2020)

Arrival and first day

The start of our trip was accompanied by the impact of the current situation regarding the coronavirus. Just as we were on the plane by Singapore Airlines, an announcement was made that Germany had imposed a travel ban in Singapore. However, this did not affect us at first. Since this travel ban only applies to people who have been in Germany in the past 14 days, we thought we would stay in Cambodia for 15 days and then we can probably re-enter in Singapore. So far so good.

After a relaxing flight (the plane was not even half full), we received the next bad news in Singapore. Our return flight was canceled without replacement. So we had to take care of our own alternative return trip. At that moment, it was important for us to be able to enter Cambodia first. After the next flight, we were able to enter relatively easily. It seemed that they were not quite sure whether we still had to undergo a health check or not. Immigration first sent us to a health center. But they didn't want us there, so we were able to enter normally.

Arriving in the heat of Phnom Penh, we took a Grab Taxi directly to the accommodation to catch up on a few hours of sleep.

After a few hours of rest, we decided to visit Wat Phnom. It is a small hill in the middle of the city with a temple on top. Then we strolled around the Central Market and of course equipped ourselves with brand watches😉. Unfortunately, the advertised good quality was not really good, as Kathrin's watch had already discolored after a short time and the clasp of my watch did not close properly. Well, we could have expected that.

At the end of the day, we strolled around the night market and enjoyed fried noodles and grilled skewers in the midst of all the food stalls.

History of Cambodia

The second day in Phnom Penh was dedicated to the admittedly sad history of Cambodia. From 1975 to 1979, the country was under the totalitarian rule of the Khmer Rouge led by their leader Pol Pot. He wanted to turn Cambodia into an agrarian state and brought all the city residents to the countryside to work under inhumane conditions. All educated people (even wearing glasses or having soft hands) were arrested, tortured, and killed. 3 million people lost their lives during this time.

The first relic from this time that we visited were the Killing Fields. Here, people from the prisons were transported in masses and executed. The people were beaten to death and then buried in large pits. I will spare further details at this point. It was truly terrible to learn what happened there, but it is important to understand the history of Cambodia.

Then we went to the S-21 torture prison. There, people were tortured in unimaginable ways and forced to lie in order to be executed for treason. Here, too, we learned many incredibly sad stories.

Both facilities offer a German-language audio guide, which is very helpful in understanding all the details of these cruel acts.

As the end of the day, we took a small sunset cruise and watched the sunset over Phnom Penh from the ship. It was a cool way to end the day.

Wildlife Sanctuary

On the third day, our highlight was the visit to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center. There, animals are freed from captivity, nursed back to health, and if possible, released back into the wild on a huge site. The release rate is about 80%, which is truly amazing. We got to know some animals and their stories there, including the elephant Lucky, tigers, otters, binturongs, a leopard, and gibbons. At the end of the tour, we visited the baby station where baby monkeys and tiny chicks had just arrived and were being raised. But the best was yet to come. We were allowed to enter the cage of the little macaques and feed them. It was a lot of fun and an absolute highlight, especially for Kathrin😉.

In the evening, we were really tired and only had a small meal in our accommodation before falling exhausted into bed.

Hospital and journey to Kep

The next day started off really bad. We both had upset stomachs and decided to go to the hospital to get medication. However, it turned out to be a longer visit than expected. We were already a bit uncomfortable as Germans to go to the hospital in the current situation. We really didn't feel well there. In addition, the visit turned out to be much longer than expected, as we had to undergo a completely exaggerated examination, including an hour-long infusion for my dry lips. Each treatment step was also billed separately, so we ended up with a bill of about 500 USD. Quite expensive for a few stomach problems and corresponding medication. Since we spent about 4 hours there in the end, we unfortunately couldn't visit the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, which was the original plan for the morning.

So we went directly to the bus station, where we had a 4-hour journey to Kep ahead of us.

Kep

In Kep, we booked a super cool accommodation. It was a bungalow complex run by an American on the edge of the jungle. The bungalows were partly open on the sides, so you could hear all the animal sounds from outside. It was really cool. Due to the open sides, we naturally had some animal visitors, including a Tokay gecko under the roof and a small snake in the bathroom. The accommodation also had a really good restaurant where we indulged in local and western dishes over the next few days😉.

But the first day didn't start off well either. Due to the developments in the coronavirus crisis, all Germans were urged to return home as soon as possible, also due to the worsening flight options. After having breakfast with a group of other Germans and everyone arranging their return flights as quickly as possible, we also decided to cut short our trip, which in hindsight was probably the right decision, as we probably wouldn't have been able to come back. It was really annoying, but once we booked the return flight, it became more relaxed again and we still had three days ahead of us.

For the rest of the day, we spent time at the beach, to at least have a real holiday feeling once.

Bokor National Park and Kampot

On the next day, we rented scooters to drive to the Bokor National Park, about 60 km away. On top of a mountain, there are some abandoned buildings from the early 20th century, such as a church or an old casino, and also various temples. However, as we discovered, within the last two years, the old abandoned casino has turned into a 5-star hotel, but apparently it lacks guests. It looked as if there was no one there. The old buildings were really interesting to see. Unfortunately, most of the national park is now made up of many huge construction sites, mainly large residential areas. However, it is questionable who will occupy them, as they are far away from everything and it is certainly not affordable for Cambodians to buy an apartment there. Nevertheless, it was a nice trip. As our host had already told us, the journey itself is more interesting than the park. And that was indeed the case.

After being on the road almost the whole day, we made a stop in Kampot in the afternoon. In a cool bar right by the river, although with some special guests, we treated ourselves to a nice burger, before making our way back afterwards.

Kep National Park

On our last day in Kep, we went for a short hike in the morning. From our accommodation, we reached the Kep National Park within 10 minutes. In this park, there is a circular trail of about 6 km that goes around the mountain in the middle of the national park. There are also some small and narrow paths that lead up the mountain through the park. We were already in the middle of a large group of monkeys as soon as we were on the circular trail. There were also some lizards on the way. Higher up in the park, you can occasionally see snakes and some other animals. Unfortunately, we didn't see any more animals when we climbed one of the narrow paths up the mountain. However, it was a nice hike. After about 4 hours in the strong heat, it was enough. Afterward, we initially wanted to visit the famous crab market in Kep, but apparently we were too late, as almost all the stalls were already closed. As our tuk-tuk driver told us, the coronavirus crisis has also affected tourism in Cambodia. Many restaurants were already closed because of it and tuk-tuk drivers had hardly any customers anymore.

After a quick refreshment at our accommodation, we spent the rest of the day at the beach again.

Phnom Penh and departure

Unfortunately, our last day in Cambodia had arrived. We had to get up early in the morning to catch the bus to Phnom Penh at 7:30 am, from where our flight home would depart in the evening. The goal of the day was actually to visit the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, which we couldn't do a few days earlier due to our hospital visit. Unfortunately, the effects of the coronavirus crisis had also reached Cambodia, so all the tourist attractions were closed. However, we still had to spend the whole afternoon in Phnom Penh. Fortunately, a tuk-tuk driver approached us, who was doing everything he could to get any customers due to the current situation, and offered us a tour. Since we had to pass the time, we accepted the offer. First, he took us to a silk farm, where the production of silk scarves was explained to us. We had already seen this in Vietnam, but it was still nice to see this small family business. It was also a good opportunity to shop for some souvenirs😉. The second stop was the Golden Temple, a completely gold-plated temple where the walls inside showed drawings of Buddha's life from his birth to his death.

After spending the afternoon quite well, the driver took us to a restaurant with a rooftop bar. From there, we enjoyed some delicious food and had a nice view of the Mekong River.

Then it was time to return. In the evening at 11 o'clock, we took the flight from Phnom Penh with a short stopover in Bangkok to Dubai. And from there, after an 8-hour layover, back to Düsseldorf.

It was really disappointing that we had to cut our trip short before even half of the time, but when we saw the further developments, it was probably the right decision. For us, it is now certain that we will definitely fly to Cambodia again to make up for everything we haven't seen yet, especially Angkor Wat and the island of Koh Rong Sanloem.