Our feelings about Cambodia - magnificent shrines & people

We spent 10 days in total in Cambodia and during that time we met several interesting people and visited many beautiful places. Even though we did not spend long time there, we would like to share with you our feelings about Cambodia.

Infrastructure and transportation

• Cambodia was different compared with Vietnam at first sight. Some roads continuously ended and started again. Everywhere was really dusty.
• Drivers seemed to drive more responsibly but they did not follow the road signs.
• Cambodia is considered to be the one of the poorest countries in the world so we were really surprised how many Lexus cars we saw there every day. Yes those extremely expensive luxury cars not many people can even purchase in Europe. 😉
• They have super cheat sim cards with data packages and also packages for calling and messaging. LTE is running in all tourist areas.

Safety

• Cambodia is in our opinion very safe country.
• As everywhere else it is necessary to watch your belongings and not to point out on yourself with expensive things hanging from you.
• It is advisable to withdraw money directly from ATM, eventually bring them with you.

People

• Cambodians are amazing. They are riant, communicative and always helpful.
• What we appreciated the most was their common sense for business. Even if we did not purchase anything they always smiled on us and wished us a nice day. This did not happen anywhere else.
• People in Cambodia speak very good English and if not they do their best to comprehend.

Food and drinks

• Food in Cambodia was a bit weaker. If not speaking about delicious grilled meat they did not offer everywhere or more precisely not for good prices, we did not enjoy food that much. We only liged vege bagets and friend noodles with fresh vegetables and egg. When we tried something with meat a few times it was more about bones than the meat.
• But of course you can from time to time find something really delicious, for example freshly made spring rolls. You can buy them most likely at the spots where they make rice paper for these rolls.
• As for drinks we really enjoyed anything fruity sold in the bags, it was cheap, delicious and refreshing.
• You can also buy very cheap rice burnt wine. In local breweries, where any tuk tuk driver may take you, it is possible to buy 1 l bottle for only 0,75 USD. Who would not like to get a booze. 😀

Prices

• Honestly we expected prices to be a bit lower but still it was cheap except for attractions in Cambodia.
• They use 2 currencies in Cambodia. One is American dollar and the other is Cambodian riel.

1 USD = 4 000 riels. So everything usually costs at least 1 dollar but we were lucky several times to pay even less.

Environment

• Cambodia is simply typical country in Southeast Asia. Relatively cheap but they do not care that much about the environment. Everywhere is a lot of dust, sometimes so much that it is necessary to cover. There is trash on the streets but there is always someone who collects it but that person cannot do it all day.
• In some restaurants and food stalls they tend to throw scraps underneath them, like in Vietnam. We were used to it but if someone arrives from Europe it can make you feel a bit sick. It belongs to their culture and service always sweeps it and collects to the garbage. 🙂

Phnom Penh city, The Royal Palace and Genocide Museum Battambang, Bamboo train and temples Angkor Wat temple complex

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Tento příspěvek je také k dispozici v jazyce: Czech