Which Cambodian island paradise is right for you?

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Cassie Wilkins

With azure seas lapping at white sandy beaches, palm trees, and a horizon dotted with tropical islands, southern Cambodia is reminiscent of Thailand of days gone by. Thoughts of Cambodia normally conjure up images of temples, yellow-robed monks, and children riding buffalo through rice paddies, but the country also offers island paradises with days spent lazing on lush tropical beaches and nights partying away at an all-night jungle rave. With so many options to choose from you may wonder how to choose, but this handy summary will help you find your perfect Cambodia island destination.

Where the Cambodian coast meets the Gulf of Thailand, the ocean is dotted with hundreds of islands, with over 25 off the coast of Sihanoukville and Ream National Park alone. Although some are uninhabited and others are privately owned, there is definitely a sandy island paradise somewhere that’s just waiting to tick all your boxes!

Koh Rong Koh Toch

Koh Rong is known for cheap accommodation and more fun than you can handle.

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Understanding Phnom Penh property types

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Lina Goldberg

Cambodia’s capital city has more and more housing built every day, but most Phnom Penh real estate fall into one of six categories: Traditional Khmer houses, Khmer-style shophouses, renovated shophouses, Western apartments, full-service apartments, and freestanding villas.

Cambodian wooden house

Expats romanticize Cambodian wooden houses, but they aren’t easy to find!

Traditional Khmer houses

As Phnom Penh grows, traditional wooden Khmer houses are harder and harder to find in the city. Cambodian wooden houses are made of wood and on stilts (this isn’t the first year Phnom Penh has flooded, after all); traditionally the breezy area under the house was used for hanging hammocks, lounging, and keeping livestock safe. Today, almost all available wooden houses in Phnom Penh have been renovated, and the downstairs will have been turned into a ground floor made from concrete, and many have been turned into restaurants. While the idea of a wooden house is charming, they can be hot and prone to mosquitoes — many expats find themselves spending most of their time in the concrete part of the house because it’s easier to keep cool with air-conditioning. Continue reading →

Review: Sky Angkor Airlines, Siem Reap to Sihanoukville

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Lina Goldberg

Until recently, there was only one flight from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville, and it wasn’t cheap. Last year a new airline has started offering flights between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap several times a week. It’s an all-around winner: Sky Angkor Air’s planes are new, the prices are incredibly low, and I didn’t crash on my recent flight.

Sky Angkor Airlines Cambodia

Sky Angkor Airlines flights Siem Reap to Sihanoukville for cheap.

Sky Angkor Airlines, formerly SkyWings Asia Airlines, is a joint Korean and Cambodian venture and is flying the first international flights in and out of Sihanoukville Airport, to Korea, Japan, and China. Their fleet consists of three full-size Airbus A320-200s, which is reassuring to the passenger who might be skittish about flying domestic flights in Cambodia on smaller propeller planes.

The Siem Reap to Sihanoukville flight is part of a triangle route to allow Korean passengers to hit the temples of Angkor and the beach. As such, it hasn’t been advertised at all, and on both of my flights last week fewer than 20 of the 200 seats had passengers. That might be why the tickets are between $112 and $160 for a round-trip flight, which is incredibly low compared to the dominant player on the route, Cambodia Angkor Air, who charges between $230 and $300 for a return flight.

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Is Sihanoukville gay friendly?

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Greg Kamphuis

If you count the number of gay bars and gay hotels in Sihanoukville it would be easy to come to the conclusion that this is not a gay-friendly town.

Located in a vibrant and beautiful seaside town with a population of nearly 200,000 people, Sihanoukville’s only gay bar seems a bit lonely when compared to similar-sized cities in Thailand. However, with the help of a gay friend who lives in and loves Sihanoukville, I decided to dig a little deeper than just a simple bar count.

The first step of my investigation was a series of conversations which confirmed that what is true for gay culture in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is also true in Sihanoukville: the ultra-accepting and friendly Khmer culture extends equally to homosexuals and heterosexuals.

After plenty of insightful conversations with both straight and gay Cambodians and expats, I was convinced that Cambodia is like any other progressive country. They still have some traditional families and rural communities where it is difficult to be LGBT, but for the most part sexual orientation does not play a role in how you will be judged.

Gay Sihanoukville

OGA Bar, the heart of Sihanoukville’s gay community.

The second step of my mission to find out if Sihanoukville is gay friendly took me to OGA Bar, the lone gay bar in town and the heart of the gay community, and I emphasize heart! Continue reading →

Surviving dengue fever in Cambodia

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Lina Goldberg

A few weeks ago I suffered through dengue fever…again. This is either the second or third time I’ve had the virus in Cambodia, and I’m sharing my experiences here both to garner sympathy and as a cautionary tale.

dengue fever Cambodia

Getting dengue fever in Cambodia — not a good buzz.

Every time I have had dengue, despite showing similar symptoms, it has hit me differently. Last month I was feeling fine when all of a sudden I got a terrible lower backache that I attributed to sitting in front of a computer for too long. But a few hours later I started vomiting, and shortly after that was running a fever, getting the chills, and feeling like electric shocks were running up and down my body. I went from feeling dandy to being in the the grips of a serious bout of dengue in just a few hours. For two days I thought I was going to die, but it disappeared just as quickly as it came on — my fever subsided on the third night and I went back to feeling normal, although very tired and run down. Continue reading →

Review: Suns of Beaches hostel, Koh Rong

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Lina Goldberg

The amusingly named Suns of Beaches is a brand-new Koh Rong hostel on a beautiful private beach. It’s so new, in fact, that they have just started accepting their first guests. We took a tour of the place and saw what was on offer and are confident that Suns of Beaches is going to be popular.

Suns of Beaches Koh Rong

The private beach in front of Suns of Beaches on Koh Rong.

Right now there’s an eight-bed mixed dorm bungalow, with more on the way. One night in the dorm costs just $3.50, which is a steal. This is a soft opening price and will almost certainly go up in the future. There are also camping options, in the form of tents on the beach, each with a double futon mattress and pillows. Continue reading →

The best gyms in Siem Reap

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Steven Halcrow

Siem Reap isn’t known for its fitness scene, but more and more gyms are popping up all of the time, and there’s a range of options to appeal to just about anyone. In this post we’ll cover the best gyms in Siem Reap, including Western-style, local gyms, a fight club, and lots of classes.

Sokha gym Siem Reap

One of the most popular gyms in town with expats, Sokha isn’t perfect but it is air-conditioned.

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Review: Giant Ibis bus, Phnom Penh to HCMC

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Steven Halcrow

Let’s face it, long bus journeys in Southeast Asia are unlikely to be the most fun part of traveling in the region. When a land border crossing is added into the mix, it becomes even more unpleasant, but is something of a right of passage. Luckily, Giant Ibis takes the pain out of crossing the Cambodia-Vietnam border, with a six hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to HCMC.

Looking for more options? Read our detailed review of the many ways to get from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City including plane, bus, mini-bus, taxi and even boat.

giant ibis hcmc

The Giant Ibis bus from PhnomPenh to HCMC (Saigon).

Several bus companies cover the popular Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) route. Of all the Cambodia bus companies, Giant Ibis is the best, unless of course you are looking for the kind of experience that includes blaring Khmer karaoke, lack of air-con and cramped seating. Giant Ibis buses all come with powerpoints, free WiFi and fairly spacious seating even for a larger person. They also offer a snack when you board the bus and the capable staff make you feel as though if something were to go wrong, they might be able to do something about it.

If you are headed from Phnom Penh to Vietnam, remember that you need to get your visa before getting on the bus. The exceptions is that citizens of Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK may enter visa-free for 15 days. Several other Asian countries are also eligible for the visa exemption. If you’re not on the list, here’s how to get a Vietnam visa in Phnom Penh. On the other hand, if you are headed from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh, you can get a visa at the border.

Giant Ibis HCMC PP

This is about as luxurious as it gets on this route!

From Phnom Penh it’s 170 km to the border and takes about four hours. It is important to be aware that when you board the bus in Phnom Penh the Giant Ibis rep will take your passport to check whether or not you have the correct visa, and ask you to fill out your Cambodia exit card. The rep will keep the passport and get everyone stamped out of Cambodia at the same time.

There’s a brief stop between the borders at a strange restaurant and giant duty-free complex (with ridiculously cheap booze) where you can have lunch and browse the shops while they process the visas. While you are shopping, the Giant Ibis rep will be busy getting everyone’s visas stamped. You can change money but the rate is extortionate, so get Vietnamese Dong in Phnom Penh before you leave.

Then it’s back on the bus to the Vietnamese border. Once at the border you will get your passport back and cruise through immigration (because you’ve already been stamped in). Then you’ll get your luggage x-rayed and back onto the bus. It’s important to note that they are currently in the process of building new (huge) border crossing offices, so this process may change somewhat in the future.

Giant Ibis PhnomPenh HCMC

Giant Ibis seats have powerpoints to keep your phones charged.

Once you are through here, the Giant Ibis bus will be waiting for you. Once everyone is back on, it’s another two and a half hours to Ho Chi Minh City. When you arrive in Ho Chi Minh City the bus drops you one street over from Pham Ngu Lao, which is the main drag for backpacker restaurants and bars. The traffic is notoriously faster and even more chaotic in Ho Chi Minh than Phnom Penh so be careful crossing the road, and the office can be hard to spot.

On the return journey, you can get a Cambodia visa at the border as long as you’re from one of the approved countries. Tourist visas cost $30. Overall, it’s a surprisingly easy bus journey and border crossing without any of the scams that are usually seen at overland borders. The Giant Ibis staff will give you the option of paying $5 for them to process your visa, or you can do it yourself. Many tourists choose to let the staff do the work for them so as to not have to deal with immigration officials. It’s not a scam, it’s just a way to speed the process along and it is optional.

Tickets cost $18 and for an added fee of less than $1, you can book online and reserve a seat in advance.

Giant Ibis schedule:
Phnom Penh – Ho Chi Minh City: 8:00 a.m.
Ho Chi Minh City – Phnom Penh: 8:30 a.m.

Giant Ibis

3Eo Street 106, next to the night market, Phnom Penh
T: 023 987 808
37, Street 7 Makara, Behind Sokimex Gas Station, Kampot
T: 023 999 333
giantibis.com

Want to check out another company? Find buses headed from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City or in the other direction, from HCMC to Phnom Penh and make a reservation online.

Bus tickets purchased through links in this post generate affiliate sales for us. This does not affect our reviews for specific bus companies or routes! For more about how we deal with advertising, affiliate sales, and stuff like that, you can read more here.