A Bengali traveller's Review: 9 day Cambodia Trip From Kolkata India

Initially, I planned entry from Siam reap and exit through pnom Penh(capital). However, flight fare dictated us to start from pnom Penh first and exit from Siam reap.

Cleartrip.com - Hotel booking cancellation confusion
one fine sunday morning,1 month before the trip start date, I received call from cleartrip support stating that my Pnom Penh Hotel booking has been cancelled by the Hotel. In order to avoid these types of issues, I had already contacted the Hotel much before the call to book pickup and use this moment to reconfirm my booking, which both Hotels from Siam Reap and pnom Penh did. Now! this sudden call confused and scared me. I asked the support lady to contact the Hotel and confirm me back as I had already been in contact with them.She called back after sometime stating that yes all my hotel bookings are confirmed.

Airlines(forward journey)-

Kolkata to Singapore on Singapore airlines, followed by 9 hours layover. It was a midnight flight. New experience! Breaking of mental stereotype of considering all Indians are holders of Indian passports too. The flight had more Indians.one of the  child was crying in flight and it was midnight. Another co-passenger sitting beside me was snoring so loudly. I couldn't sleep. My wife fell asleep out of tiredness possibly. The Singapore airline hosts provided us with an elaborate menu card. Menu card on a flight!!!

First timer.... In international flight. To our dismay, we found air hostesses only started off with specific economy class passengers. Once they started serving en mass, we were left with any 1 of the 2 options. Quite disappointed! Why then the menu card? The leg space too was inadequate for a 4.5 hrs flight. Food was hot and tasty. Crockery used was good quality.

Spending 9 hours layover in changi international airport-

On our final landing descent, Singapore appeared before our eyes as islands each with millions of lights illuminating the night sky. The sea and harbour was full of container ships illuminated by their own Garland of lights.

Changi international airport is a big shopping mall cum temporary hotel!! Rows of stores are all open(6am local time) and the terminal is bustling with life. I saw the butterfly garden. However, it would be only during our return layover I would be able to see and view the butterflies and orchids.

It is a colossal airport spread across 4 terminals, each terminal with wings from a-f with 37 gates in each wing.

We also saw the sun flower garden, orchid garden, movie hall, arcade game consoles.Traveled on the sky train between terminals. Its a tram line 2 coach carriage connecting different terminals of changi international airport.

What Indians will find interesting?
1) Wearing a piece of cloth around the neck for wiping sweat or cover head during sunshine just like a "gamcha" used by Indian farmers or other working class people

2) Left wheel driving like in USA

3) Second hand US made high end cars, trucks

4) Bajaj made autorickshaw

5) traffic signal looks old school

6) Different looking scooters, bikes with low height

Lunch in Changi airport- Fish ball noodles (USD 25 approx for 2 people)

Silkair flight to Pnom Penh
1) Didnt create false hope by giving a menu card
2) Food was tasty
3) Sufficient leg space to survive 2.5 hrs of journey from Changi international airport to Pnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia)

Pnom Penh Airport
Pnom Penh Airport is quite "small" and not so "capital" airport like. It had 1-2 baggage belts!!! immigration was easy as we already had e-visas.


Buying Tourist SIM
Outside the airport, there are several telecom service providers' counters. Based on my interraction, it would be good to show your phone and model 2 providers said they dont have SIM which would run on my lenovo phone!!! The options are between data and there was hardly any provision for talk time that means you either need to contact your tour operator via whatsapp or email or through hotel wifi.Anyways! I found SIM of SMART (Telecom service provider) to be more convenient and took a $10 package with $5 talktime topup.

My Pnom penh Hotel - Aquarius Hotel and Urban Resort
We deiced on this hotel as it is in city centre and makes most of Pnom Penh's sightseeing spots within a 6 Km radius. It is in the list of Giant Ibis bus service's free pickup point. It had breakfast included.


Pnom Penh Day 1(after arrival):
A) National Museum-8am - 5pm.just beside Royal palace-Ticket-USD 10/person;
cambodiamuseum.info

B) Royal palace-time 8:30am-10:30pm and 2pm -5:30pm
Distance from hotel-1 Km approx.(5 min by car)
Entrance fee -USD 10
There were atleast 2-3 large signboards claiming and differentiating between proper and improper dress code. Nevertheless, I saw 2 western ladies being turned back for improper clothing.

C)Wat Langka-Budidhist pagoda with Cambodian architecture
Entrance fee=nil
Look from outside take pictures and move on, the cross where it is situated is where independence monument is erected (similar to netaji statue in shyambazar 5 point crossing)
we didnt enter this location,only saw it from a distance.

D) In the evening booked apsara dance show through tripadvisor.com.organizer - Living arts in National Museum back yard. It was 1 hour show and it was quite nice to see cambodian dance form of depicting "Samudra Manthan" and other local dance practices. The show was at 7pm and we walked the way.

Day 2:
A)Tuoel Sleng Genocide museum
-Address-St.113, Boeung Keng Kang III, Chamkarmorn
open time- 8 am -5 pm
entrance fee including audio guide-$8(entrance ticket-$5+$3 headset for audio guide)/person
tuolsleng.gov.kh

One should go and visit every room of this High school turned into prison by Red Rouge. It saddens and breaks ones heart to see what worse forms of act humans are capable of. One should also take the audio guide. We saw a survivor of this complex with his autobiography but unfortunately we were not into buying.So, we kind of overlooked which also kind of hurt our feelings after seeing what he went through.


B) Choeung Ek Genocidal Center-16 km from hotel
Opens 7:30 am to 5:30 pm
Entry Fee-USD10 which includes audio guide.

This is also a very moving,saddening experience to see infants, children, women and men killed in such fashion. There are 300 such fields all across cambodia. We purposely chose not to visit the killing fields in Siam Reap although it was closer to the hotel than Pnom penh.

Day 3:
Silk island Half day cruise (cambo cruise) booked using tripadvisor.com .
An 80 Kg exotic Arapima fish was an additional attraction .

Day 4:
Giant Ibis bus service for half day travel to Siam Reap. Bus Service quality is nice with free wifi, food and water included in ticket price. In the late afternoon/evening we reached Siam Reap. There were announcements.You can book online from any global location.We were happy with the service.

Siam Reap itinery
Day 4:(after reaching Gian Ibis bus stand)

Hotel - De Sonyn Boutiuqe Hotel had free pickup+breakfast included
Cooking was better in terms of taste compared to Hotel Aquarius Urban Resort(Pnom Penh).They had their own tuk tuk which we extensively used for our tour.

A)Angkor National Museum -we can adjust this on 28 Nov the day we are coming from pnom penh
Distance - 1.5 Km
Suggested time to spend-max 2 hrs
Open hours- 9 am - 6 pm
Entry fee-USD12/person
 
Day 5:
A)Cambodia Landmine museumdistance- 1 way=28km(1.5 hours)

Day 6:
A) War Museum (Different from cambodia landmine museum)8am-5:30pm
5 Km from hotel(50 min 1 way walking time)

Day 7:
Half-Day Kompong Phluk, Tonle Sap Lake from Siem ReapDuration-5 hrs
Trip starts from 1 pm(Hotel pickup)+2 pm(actual trip starts)
Hotel pickup+Drop
Tickets through tripadvisor.in

Day 8:
Kulen Waterfall & 1000 Lingas Join-in Tour
booking through-tripadvisor.in
Duration-10 hrs
Hotel pickup and drop

Review: over all management by the tour organizer was nice.We had fun and involved a lot of walking,climbing. We especially liked the walking through the jungle even for a brief moment.The jungle was pretty dense.

Day 9 and 10:
Ankor wat temple visiting-small circuit and big circuit
Ticket price - USD 62 per person.

Tour Guide - Smart city app is an app in android which has audio guides for different places. We purchased the offline downloadable premium edition of Angkor Wat. It costed us INR 260(approx USD 3.5) on 1 mobile.We played it in loudspeaker at every site we reached. The app conveys your location through GPS and distinguishes between the site you visited and those still pending. Every site had 3-4 hallmark pictures which allows you to understand that you are in the right place. Information provided is more than sufficient for us.


We read that it would cost us USD10/day for human guide excluding tip for 2 days with USD7+ in tip.

Day 11:
Flight back home-All through out Silkair.

Total Hotel stay cost under INR 30K.
Total Food Cost under INR20K.
Air fare was the most expensive item.
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My Views on Cambodian interpretation of Hinduism in terms of Angkor Wat Temple, explanations in Angkor National Museum, Pnom Penh National Museum:

1. In Cambodia there is a confusion between Budhdism, Hinduism and Animism and I saw tour guides presenting “non-Hindu” tourists with this cocktail of bullshit
2. Tourist guides as well as Museums (Angkor National Museum) have come up with another epic fallacy called Brahminism=Hindusim. This indirectly feeds the confirmation in the mind of non-hindus about a castist society in India which is wrong and a very wrong idea about Hinduism in general
3. There is 1% or less of Indian tourist population, at least at the time I went.So, there is no one to correct or oppose these ideas. There is no feedback mechanism from actual practitioners.
4. There are different calibre of artillery and rifles, wind vane indicating knowledge and use of climateology in National Museum in Pnom Penh which is absent in Angkor National Museum.
5. There is nothing called “Brahminism”.
6. A king can not be a Brahmin because an administrator is a kshatriya. Brahmin or Brahman comes from the 2 sanskrit words -Brah=expanding and Man=mind.So, a brahmin/brahman is a person with an expanding horizon of knowledge and is one of the castes of the Hindu Varna system.So, you can not have 1 caste and forget about the rest and that too also without any explanation.
7. Buddhism says there are pains in this world and move towards detachment or Nirvana. In Hinduism there are 3 “ashram” or phases - 1) 1st 25 years is student life which you will spend in gurukul, 2) 2nd 25 years is family life, 3) last phase is the life of a renunciate, you give up everything for the study and enlightenment of your soul and achieve moksha (ultimate knowledge to break free from the cycle of rebirth)
8. Animism or paganism is the religion of the tribals and is a forest based ideology. Christian missionaries who come to India for conversion purposes often equate Hinduism with paganism. However, they miss the fact that we Hindus have “gram devta”(“god” of the village=civilization) and “van/ban/bone=forest devta/devi for example “bone/van/ban bibi” of sunderbans is a local female forest deity).Apart from that, Indus valley civilization and the dykes, dams, irrigation canals, engineering of Angkor wat temple complexes indicates that Hinduism is a civilized city based religion. There are huge projectors with stories and explanation but not these foundational explanations bringing clarity about Hindusim and its diference from Budhdism and Animism
9. Angkor wat temple complex is a heap of ruins and local government had not much money to spend on their upkeep and restoration. So, collaboration with India, China, etc are done and there are signboards showing Archeological survey of India contributing in restoration work now.
10. Angkor wat temple complex is owned by private company and part of the proceeds goes to the government.
11. There are sufficient toilets and these toilets are free and of “International standard”
12. Angkor wat temple complex, the main one is most crowded others not so much
13. In architectural point of view, it is not so much into delicate intricate designs as seen in India.
14. The temples are magnificent, huge and every Indian must visit this country and this temple complex at least once in their lifetime.
15. Cambodian language has same alphabets as we Indians have -Ka, Kha ga, gha… ta ,tha, da, dha, cha,..ja, jha,etc. The script closely resembles south indian language.
16. Before turning to Budhdhism, they were worshipers of shiva. Shiva as we know is destroyer of the creation and detaches himself from civilization/society. Kailash mountains is considered to be his abode. Budhdhism too detaches from society to attain Nirvana.So, the transition from Hinduism(Shaivite) to Budhdhism was easy.
17. It is the only Hindu temple facing the west (towards the Himalayas). Otherwise all Hindu temples are east facing. Himalayas has Kailash mountain range which is considered to be the abode of Shiva.
18. Only Hindu Temple possibly with Budhdhist wall carvings, Budhdha Statues side by side of Shiva linga, laxmi,Brahma sculptures,etc.
19. The temple staircases are in many cases at 60 -70 degree angles with huge gap between 2 stairs, so not ideal for "Indian" >60 years people.