Our Cambodia adventure took us from Bangkok to Siem Reap, where we spent two days exploring the massive Angkor Wat temple complex by tuk-tuk. We then traveled to Phnom Penh for the sobering, essential visits to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields and S-21 Prison. Don’t worry, 50-cent beers were involved too!
If you recall, we had to book an onward ticket out of Thailand when we were at the airport in Mauritius. So we took a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The company handled the Thailand–Cambodia border crossing as a group. We’d already done our eVisa, but quite a few people on our bus paid the company to process theirs at the border. Some passengers were just hopping over to reset their Thai stay. After stamps and shuffles, we got back on the same bus for Siem Reap. Door to door, it was about seven hours.
Angkor Wat 101
The thing to see in Siem Reap is Angkor Wat. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and draws millions of visitors every year. Tickets aren’t cheap: roughly $31 USD for one day or $62 USD for three days (Cambodia mostly uses US dollars). The pass covers the main temple and the surrounding temple complex—Angkor = “city,” Wat = “temple.” Originally built as a Hindu temple to Vishnu by King Suryavarman II, it later became a Buddhist temple near the end of the 12th century. It’s the largest religious monument in the world at about 163 hectares (402 acres), and it eventually became Suryavarman’s mausoleum, with work completed under Jayavarman VII.
How we did Angkor
We hired a tuk tuk for two days. Day 1 was the “short route”: the main Angkor Wat temple plus four or five nearby sites, including the so-called Tomb Raider temple from the movie. Despite the name, the “short” circuit still fills the day; total distance was about 19 km. Our driver waited at each stop while we explored—$15 USD for the day.
Day 2 we did the “grand circuit,” going farther afield to another handful of temples. The tuk tuk was $18 USD for the day. We finished early and stopped at one of Siem Reap’s killing fields on the way back. A local guide gave us a short tour (we tipped $5 USD), and we met a man who had been imprisoned there—he’d written a book, which we bought for $10 USD.
Siem Reap costs & vibes
Siem Reap was refreshingly affordable. We splurged on a 4-star stay—Diamond D’Angkor—for about $40 CAD per night, including a great breakfast. I grabbed a massage across the street for ~$8 USD (basic setting, but it did the trick). Happy hour beers were 50 cents. Meals away from the most touristy streets ran $2–$3 USD; on Pub Street we paid about $15 CAD for both of us with a couple of beers. We wandered a night market where Nic bought a t-shirt for $2 USD… and then we saw the same one for $1. She can be so frivolous sometimes 😉
Phnom Penh in a flash
From Siem Reap we bussed six hours to Phnom Penh. Our hostel had a nice pool and bar area (less nice if you hate cigarette smoke). Happy hour beers were $1 USD. Food at the hostel was decent and reasonably priced. Massages were about $10 USD, and yes, I had to fend off the “happy ending” offers.
The Killing Fields & S-21
We hired a tuk tuk to visit the Choeung Ek killing fields and S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison. In hindsight, it might make more sense to do S-21 first, then the fields. S-21 was a high school converted into a prison and torture center under the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot’s regime aimed to create a fully agrarian communist society; educated people—teachers, doctors, lawyers—were branded enemies and “CIA spies,” tortured until they confessed to invented crimes, then transported to the killing fields. Ammunition was considered too expensive; executions were mostly carried out with blades or blunt tools. Many women and children were killed as well. Choeung Ek is now a memorial and genocide center, and S-21 is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum—both are sobering, necessary visits.
A very compressed history
The Khmer Rouge (Communist Party of Kampuchea) rose after a coup by Marshal Lon Nol displaced Prince Sihanouk. Backed in the jungles by North Vietnamese forces, the Khmer Rouge eventually took Phnom Penh in 1975. The world had limited visibility into what followed. Vietnam invaded in 1978 and toppled the regime, but the Khmer Rouge continued to be recognized internationally for years. Pol Pot was arrested in 1997; some senior leaders weren’t arrested until 2007.
It was a short stay in Phnom Penh. From here we were off to Ho Chi Minh City and nearly three weeks in Vietnam.
Reflection
Angkor is everything the pictures promise, but what stayed with me was the contrast—golden sunrise over temple towers one day, mass graves and classroom cells the next. Cambodia forces you to hold beauty and brutality at the same time. Tuk tuks, 50-cent beers, and $2 meals make travel easy; meeting a survivor selling his book makes it heavy. I’m grateful we did both: we came for temples, but we left with a deeper sense of the people who live in their shadow—and the resilience it takes to rebuild a country and keep smiling at strangers like us.
