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Cambodia scams: Poipet border scams (and how to avoid them)

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Lina Goldberg

The Thailand-Cambodia border is known for scams, and the border crossing between Bangkok and Siem Reap (at Aranyaprathet on the Thai side and Poipet on the Cambodia side) is especially bad! If you know what to expect before you go, it’s entirely possible to avoid the scams and have a painless border crossing. Here are the most common Cambodia border scams:

The Poipet border is known for scams, but they are easy to avoid!

Visa assistance scam

Before you arrive at the border, your bus company may stop in Aranyaprathet and suggest that you allow them to handle your visa application for an added fee of between $5 and $20. They may make it seem like you must hand over your passport and let them process it for you. This is not true. They will also tell you that it will save time. This is also not true. They will usually tell you the charge in Thai baht, or half in baht, half in US dollars, to make the charges more confusing. Continue reading →

Cambodia’s National Library in Phnom Penh

Posted on November 23, 2018 by Pete Ford

The National Library in Phnom Penh, which stands next to the iconic Raffles Hotel and opposite the Lycée Descartes, is another wonderful example of the French-colonial architecture that once dominated the area near Wat Phnom and the railway station.

Cambodia’s National Library.

The single-story library, with its columned portico and Greek-inspired statuary, is surrounded by what was once a lovely garden. Even though the grounds are now a carpark and Amazon coffee franchise, nevertheless the library has an air of calm that’s rare amid the hustle and permanent construction that dominates much of the city.

Inside, the library’s central room contains the reference section, stacks of newspapers and magazines, rows of reading desks, and the dusty remnants of the old filing system. One side room, with a rather elaborate spiral staircase, houses the Patrimonial Section, where Cambodians can trace their family history. Continue reading →

Cambodia’s Water Festival (Bon Om Touk)

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Cassie Wilkins

Cambodia’s famous Water Festival is one of the highlights of the calendar year, bringing together people from across the country for three unforgettable days of boat racing, fireworks and festivities. In 2018, it’s being held on November 21, 22, and 23rd. Heralding the end of the rainy season and the coming of the Harvest moon, the Water & Moon Festival, or Bon Om Touk, has been celebrated along the banks of Phnom Penh’s famed Sisowath Quay for hundreds of years.

Enjoying the celebrations on the Phnom Penh riverside.

This year, the Water Festival falls on November 2nd to 4th to coincide with the full moon of the Buddhist calendar month of Kadeuk. Also known as the Harvest Moon, the moon has long been seen as a good omen promising a bountiful rice crop. This auspicious day is celebrated in villages all across Cambodia, but none more jubilantly than in the capital, where the carnival-like atmosphere of the Water Festival is illuminated by the light of the full moon.

Continue reading →

Review: Red House, Koh Dach

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Julia

One of the paradoxes of travel is that we often express a desire to experience how life in our destination is truly lived, but we would probably hate it if we did. In Cambodia, although there are transcendent moments to be had exploring the countryside and chatting with villagers amid rice paddies and sugar palms, the fact is that living in a rural village basically sucks. You’re usually sleeping on cheap, hot polyester bedding, sweating your eyes out, and peeing all over your feet because you’re too clumsy to properly use a squat toilet. In the rainy season, everything is covered in dirt, water, and every imaginable combination thereof, and it can be tricky to determine which of the brown streaks covering your shoes are mud and which are cow excrement.

A taste of rural Cambodian life.

As journalists, after a long day of conducting interviews that usually converge around the theme of how terrible people’s lives are in the Cambodian countryside, we’re always pretty grateful to escape back to our inexpensive, air-conditioned room in a provincial town and take a hot shower. But we’re sympathetic to the (usually genuine and well-meaning) desire to get to know the “real Cambodia.”

Enter Koh Dach, or Silk Island, a surprisingly rural-feeling island just off the coast of Phnom Penh. It’s easy to get here by motorbike or tuk tuk up National Road 6a and onto a ferry, which costs 500 riel per person and delivers you across the Mekong River as safely and efficiently as is possible in Cambodia.

And enter the Red House, a cleverly-conceived homestay-cum-AirBnB that provides a very good sense of the pleasures and pitfalls of rural living in Cambodia, for a very reasonable price ($20/night). Continue reading →

The best Phnom Penh movie theaters and cinemas

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Lina Goldberg

Phnom Penh’s changing faster than I can keep up, so I’ve given this post a well-deserved update. Remembering a time when Phnom Penh didn’t have a “proper” movie theater makes me sound like an old-fogey, reminiscing about the days gone by when locals would watch movies in small shops with a dozen chairs and usually two or three screens loudly blaring different films at the same time. These days, there are a half-dozen places in town to see English-language movies in Phnom Penh, from giant theaters showing Hollywood blockbusters to smaller theaters that screen documentaries, independent and foreign films.

The Major Cineplex at Aeon Mall is a serious, big budget movie theater showing films in 4-D. Yes, 4-D.

There are two major cinema chains in Phnom Penh, as well as a few smaller movie houses (more on them after the jump). Before you go, know that Cambodian movie-goers are keen on 3-D and 4-D movies, so if you’re looking to watch a “regular” film at one of the larger cinemas, check before you get a ticket or you may end up wearing 3-D glasses and having cold air blown on you to simulate winter while your seat is violently shaking. Movies often sell out at the large theaters, so reserve a ticket in advance.

Looking for movies about Cambodia? The 10 best movies set in Cambodia Continue reading →

Sleepy Kampot picks up the pace

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Iain Donnelly

Kampot, known as a sleepy provincial town for so long, is rapidly shedding that image. Once known as the town with “nothing to do,” Kampot is now a vibrant destination with a whole range of food and entertainment options.

Sleepy Kampot isn’t so sleepy anymore!

It’s always been a favorite escape for many Cambodia-based expats, thanks in no small part to the relatively quick journey from Phnom Penh using either National Highway 2 or 3, as well as the fairly regular, if slow, train service. And with the unfolding developmental disaster in Sihanoukville, there has been a steady influx of Western refugees looking for a (somewhat) quieter life. Continue reading →

Review: The Balé luxury hotel, Phnom Penh

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Julia

Phnom Penh’s most beautiful and striking feature is its long, lush riverside, but in the city center it’s mostly clogged up with wild traffic, “happy pizza” restaurants, and tuk-tuk drivers peddling vices. The Balé, a new 18-room luxury hotel located around 15 kilometers outside the city center, is the first property we’ve seen to take full advantage of the city’s riparian beauty, which explains why expats and wealthy Cambodians have been flocking here for “staycations” ever since it opened in early 2018.

Banyon tree in the courtyard of The Balé (pronounced “Bah-LAY”) in Phnom Penh.

The hotel is located on the Chroy Changvar peninsula, part of a miles-long tangle of islands and sandbars that clog the Mekong and its sister river, the Tonle Sap, as they roll down to Phnom Penh. The peninsula has escaped the frenzied pace of development in Phnom Penh proper, because it has for years been connected to the mainland only by a single bridge donated by the Japanese government. This is changing, though, with the construction of new bridges (one is smack next to the Japanese bridge but paid for by China, which is now competing madly with Japan to purchase influence in Southeast Asia through gifts of infrastructure).

Well-connected local businesspeople have been jockeying to buy up swaths of Chroy Changvar for massive “satellite cities,” the price of land is skyrocketing, and all sorts of amenities are springing up that would have been unthinkable five years ago, from sushi bars to luxury condominiums. Still, until now most of the accommodation on the peninsula has been mid-range or budget hotels, aimed squarely at the local market. The Balé is a symptom of the new wave of development here, even as it takes full advantage of its early-adopter status by positioning itself as an oasis of calm amid the frenzy. Continue reading →

Review: Cambodia’s Bassaka Air (updated)

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Lina Goldberg

2018 update! It appears that Bassaka Air has stopped running flights with less than 24 hours notice. And unfortunately, it is the same manager that I had to argue with for weeks over a refund (read on below for more details) that appears to be in charge of this customer service debacle. If you have been affected, I would suggest requesting a chargeback with your credit card company as soon as possible rather than hoping that Bassaka eventually delivers, because if you wait too long it might be too late.

And in the meantime, check out our post on how to get from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (and vice-versa) and find an alternative. A taxi may be the safer choice!

2016 update: There’s been an influx of new domestic airlines in Cambodia in the last year. Usually domestic airlines don’t seem to last more than a few months in Cambodia, so we haven’t bothered reviewing them. In the last year I’ve flown Bassaka Air’s Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route several times — here’s everything you need to know.

Bassaka Air currently flies from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. They also have a Phnom Penh to Macau route — the airline is meant to ferry Chinese gamblers to the Kingdom of Wonder — with flights going to Macau a couple times a week. Tickets are ridiculously cheap compared to the previous route monopoly-holder Cambodia Angkor Air, with flights on Bassaka starting at just $19 each way and averaging less than $50.