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A morning with Siem Reap Food Tours

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Scott Sharick

Whether you travel by moto, car, or tuk tuk, you can’t miss the delectable cooking aromas that greet you in every corner of Cambodia. But Cambodian food is not well known elsewhere in the world, and neither is Khmer, the local language. So both novice tourists and experienced travelers, seeing the daunting array of street food stalls and restaurants of all kinds and sizes, may wonder how to best sample the Kingdom of Wonder’s wonderful cuisine. Enter Siem Reap Food Tours.

Checking out the monks making their morning rounds with Siem Reap Food Tours.

If you are looking for help navigating the wealth of eating options Siem Reap, Siem Reap Food Tours offers vast knowledge of the town and the surrounding countryside, lots of tasty options, and a little bit of hand-holding as well if it’s needed. Continue reading →

A day with Cambodia’s liberated wildlife at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Pete Ford

Looking for a fun activity for kids and adults that involves nature, animals and the happy knowledge that your money is helping to protect both? Then consider a visit to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center. Just an hour south of Phnom Penh, Phnom Tamao is a government-run wildlife center supported by Wildlife Alliance that could use your support.

Lucky the elephant crossing the street at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Center

Lucky the elephant greeting the tour at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center.

You don’t need me to tell you about the impact Covid-19 has had on tourism, and the communities and organizations that rely on those sweet sweet tourist dollars. Siem Reap is a ghost of its former self, while Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center has seen a dramatic drop in the visitors that provided much needed funding to rescue, house, and hopefully re-release some of the 100 or so species of trafficked, injured and rescued wild animals. Continue reading →

Running in Phnom Penh

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Susan Haythorpe

Anyone who’s into running will agree this is the best time of year to get out there and pound the capital’s streets. The cooler mornings mean you don’t have to be out before dawn to avoid the heat. With the news that the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon, ~~postponed at short notice in December, has been rescheduled for January 24th~~ is happening, as a virtual run, there’s even more reason to get (back) in training. Here are some tips to help those new to running, or new to Phnom Penh, get into their stride.

Enjoying a run around the statue of King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

The riverfront is a great location for any kind of exercise. From the night market to the end of the boardwalk on Koh Pich is a scenic 5k run, much of it on the very serviceable new walkway. The wide streets and low traffic on Koh Pich itself make the area a good choice for longer distance road running. A circuit of the island is about 4km depending on route. Another quieter option is the Chroy Changvar peninsula; take the shuttle ferry between the port on Sisowath Quay, near Nagaworld, and the Sokha Hotel if you want to avoid a run across the busy Japanese Bridge. Continue reading →

Koh Trong: A Mekong island showcasing rural Cambodia at its most lovely

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Pete Ford

Koh Trong. It really is bloody lovely, go and visit. The article really could end here, if you, dear reader, would just trust me. But if convincing is what you need, then picture an island in the middle of the Mekong, opposite the sleepy eponymous capital of Kratie province. The island is just 8 kilometers from top to toe, with bountiful pomelo trees filling neatly-tended front gardens, the uninhabited center a checkerboard of rice fields, and trees and bamboo in every other spot, the island is gloriously green. Welcome to Koh Trong.

Koh Trong: A different Cambodian island.

Koh Trong is about 5 hours north east of Phnom Penh. A five-minute, 1,000 riel ferry ride from Kratie’s crumbling riverside promenade, and one is transported to a bucolic Cambodia long gone from Phnom Penh; transport is only by bicycle, motorbike, or ox-drawn cart, traditional wooden houses line the 2-meter wide concrete road that rings the island, the Wat is still the tallest building around (no glass-fronted concrete towers yet), there are no chain coffee shops, and bedtime is promptly before 9 p.m., celebratory karaoke notwithstanding. Continue reading →

2020 Christmas dinners in Phnom Penh

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Susan Haythorpe

Christmas 2020, like the rest of the year, is set to be a strange one. Fortunately, despite the situation elsewhere in the world, Phnom Penh’s bars and restaurants are open for business, so there’s ample opportunity to celebrate the season. Here’s the Move to Cambodia round-up of the best 2020 Christmas dinners in Phnom Penh, from extravagant to budget. If you know of others, please leave details in the comment section.

What’s not to love about a Phnom Penh Christmas?

Rosewood Hotel

Let’s start with some high-end indulgence — because this is definitely a year we deserve to treat ourselves! In Phnom Penh, things don’t get much more elevated in either quality or sheer distance from the ground, than the Rosewood Hotel’s elegant Brasserie Louis. The four-course Christmas Eve menu ($89 per head; $120 with free-flow wine, and $150 to include champagne in the free-flow) offers delicacies like chestnut soup, paupiette of sole, and roast beef; while the five-course Christmas Day feast ($98, $130, $160 for the same options as Christmas Day) boasts a choice of pistachio-crusted lamb rack or walnut-stuffed butterball turkey, plus starters like lobster brandade and duck consommé. The current tourist shortage means you can even bag a seat with a view for an aperitif at the hotel’s swish Sora sky bar. Continue reading →

Phnom Penh architecture tour spotlights the masters of modernism

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Susan Haythorpe

Looking out your window it’s easy to overlook the fact that a trove of heritage buildings lurk beneath the mushrooming high rises. Phnom Penh’s streetscapes can be a voyage of architectural discovery, and Khmer Architecture Tours, a local non-profit organization, offers the chance to know more about Phnom Penh and its history is by exploring its distinctive and diverse architecture.

Phnom Penh’s Independence Monument, designed by Cambodia’s most revered architect, Vann Molyvann.

The city’s surviving colonial villas are a notable part of its urban landscape, but equally if not more deserving of attention are the modernist buildings in the style known as New Khmer Architecture. It’s this home-grown school of architecture that Khmer Architecture Tours is particularly keen to spotlight. Continue reading →

Updated December, 2020 Cambodia visa and quarantine rules

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Lina Goldberg

I just wanted to put a quick post on the blog to let readers know that the Cambodia visa page has been updated with late-breaking changes to the visa and quarantine procedures.

Here’s a summary of the changes:

All passengers entering Cambodia must quarantine at a government-designated hotel for 14 days. Passengers are no longer able to choose or pre-book specific hotels; now it’s just luck of the draw.

Ding, dong VAPG is dead

The VAPG/VAPGI sponsored individual program has been temporarily suspended due to the recent outbreak of coronavirus in Cambodia. People who would have previously qualified for this program will still need to pay a deposit and quarantine for 14-days on arrival. Continue reading →

Doing nothing in Banlung, Cambodia’s most remote capital

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Pete Ford

Banlung, the post-1970’s capital of Ratanakiri province (after its predecessor Lamphut was flattened by US air forces under cover of its war next door), is the northeastern gateway to Virachey National Park, Cambodia’s last vast forest, and Vietnam beyond. In between are waterfalls, hikes, and hill tribe villages, all of which normally attract the intrepid and the adventurous.

No matter where you go in Banlung, the capital of Ratanakiri, you’re never far from green.

In 1978 it took the Vietnamese army five days to cross east to west from the border to Kratie town, battling not just Khmer Rouge soldiers but also thick forest and a lack of infrastructure. These days, it’s about 5 hours on smooth roads from Kratie up into the hills near the Vietnamese border. The roads have improved, the soldiers gone; and so have the trees, with mile after mile now growing monoculture rubber and cashew.
Continue reading →

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