- Important points
- Choosing wings
- Hotel or apartment
- Transport subtleties
- Nightingales are not fed with fables
- Useful details
- Perfect travel to Cambodia
The largest temple complex in the world, lost in the wild jungle; the majestic Mekong River; wild beaches where you can camp in a hut of palm leaves; lost islands with eccentrics who left civilization for the sake of sunsets on the Gulf of Thailand - a trip to Cambodia will be your special adventure and a good memory for years to come. The kingdom in Southeast Asia does not yet possess the laurels of a tourist Mecca, like Thailand, but this is precisely its special charm. It has everything that a big neighbor has, but cleaner, more natural, cheaper and simpler.
Important points
- To travel to the kingdom, a Russian will need a visa, which is easy to get right when crossing the country's border.
- The flight to Bangkok and further travel to Cambodia by land will take longer, but it will be much cheaper than the Moscow - Phnom Penh air route.
Choosing wings
You can get to Siemriap, where the Ankor temple complex is located, or to the beaches of Sihanoukville, both by air and by land. Direct flights to Phnom Penh from Moscow are not yet in the schedules of well-known airlines, but many of them will help to do this with connections:
- A ticket for a connecting flight on the wings of China Eastern Airlines will cost $ 530, and the travel time, taking into account the transfer in Shanghai, will take from 20 hours.
- For $ 620 and 15 hours, Qatar Airways will deliver its passengers from the Russian to the Cambodian capital. Transit connection in this case awaits travelers in Doha.
- You can fly to Cambodia and through Bangkok. In this case, from $ 400 for an economy class ticket, you will have to pay to Etihad Airways, and then make a connection in Adu Dhabi.
- A ticket for a direct Aeroflot flight from Sheremetyevo to Bangkok will cost from $ 830, and tourists will spend 9 hours in the sky.
In the capital of Thailand, passengers will be transferred to a local company. So you can get to Phnom Penh or Siemriap by air. A cheaper option that independent travelers often use is crossing the Thai-Cambodian border by land. Buses leave from Bangkok Station several times a day, starting in the early morning. The visa is placed right at the border. After going through all the formalities, you will have to use the services of an individual or a fixed-route taxi to cover 100 km from the border to Siemriap.
Hotel or apartment
A room in a three-star hotel near the temples of Angkor for $ 20 per night with "excellent" reviews is not uncommon on specialized sites for booking accommodation for tourists. In such a guest house, guests will find a swimming pool, a restaurant with a traditional Asian menu, free Wi-Fi and a private bathroom.
In the list of prices for rooms in 4 *, rooms for $ 35-$ 60 are often found. Such a hotel has at its disposal several restaurants, high-speed Internet, a spa center and a fitness room, and guests are offered a transfer to the station or a meeting at the airport at the expense of the hotel and free breakfasts.
"Five" in Sihanoukville will cost more - from $ 80. If you wish, you can also stake your own island with a luxury villa there. The price of the issue is from $ 1000 per day.
Many inexpensive Cambodian guest houses are owned by Europeans who have settled in warm regions and started their own business there. This guarantees a European level of comfort, generously seasoned with oriental exoticism and a special attitude to each guest.
Cambodians hardly rent apartments yet, and the prices of hotels do not cause the desire to look for something even cheaper.
Transport subtleties
You can get around Cambodia by taxi, local aircraft and buses. There are airports in the main tourist cities and you can get from the capital to the Ankor temples on the wings of the national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air.
Buses run regularly, but very slowly, and the journey from Phnom Penh to the beaches of Sihanoukville can take an entire day.
Taxis in the kingdom are relatively inexpensive and the cars are comfortable and air conditioned. The cost of services is quite affordable and renting a car for a trip from Siemriap to distant temples, for example, will cost $ 100. It will take a whole day to cover a distance of 120 km in each direction and see all the sights.
There is another exotic way to get from Sihanoukville to the capital. Water transport is a cross between a well-worn "Rocket" and a boat, and its route is laid along the Tonle Sap Lake and a tributary of the Mekong. Travel time is about 6 hours.
Nightingales are not fed with fables
In Cambodia, almost everyone eats, and therefore the menu of eateries has a lot of all sorts of exotic things - from bats to swimming beetles. These traditions were inherited by the modern inhabitants of the kingdom from the civil war and took root. If you want to be sure of what you eat, use the services of restaurants in hotels or large cafes on the streets. Roadside family eateries only guarantee the amazing taste of dishes, but no one can tell you about their composition in detail.
A serving of fried rice noodles with seafood, vegetables, or chicken will cost you a maximum of $ 2 at a roadside diner and will be overwhelming. Alcohol in Cambodia is very inexpensive, and you will pay $ 3 -5 $ for a generous serving of whiskey at a beach cafe.
The best way to have a snack during the day on the beach is to buy a portion of king prawns and fruits from visiting vendors. All products are fresh and of high quality, and do not be too lazy to wash and cut the fruit yourself.
Useful details
- For excursions to distant abandoned temples, take advantage of the services of local guides. This is inexpensive and avoids life-threatening situations. There are many unexploded antipersonnel mines left in the Cambodian jungle since the civil war, and it is extremely dangerous to deviate from the route indicated by the guide.
- Don't overuse the addictive pizza on the menu at every diner. The dosage and possible effect on a particular consumer is unpredictable and can even be dangerous.
- Carry a photocopy of your passport in case you have any questions with the police and a hotel name card for non-English speaking taxi drivers.
- Avoid ice in your drinks everywhere except restaurants in hotels with five stars on the front.
Perfect travel to Cambodia
The climate in the kingdom is determined by the monsoons, and their direction sets the tone for the local weather. The average daily temperature in Cambodia, even at the height of winter, approaches + 27 ° С, and in summer it even exceeds + 40 ° С. The precipitation season in the country begins in May and lasts until mid-autumn. The peculiarity of local rains is in their nature. They fall in the form of heavy showers in the afternoon and rarely take a protracted character, but the high humidity at this time of the year literally hangs in the air, which, coupled with exorbitant temperatures, make summer vacations in Cambodia very uncomfortable.
