Cambodia for the first time: what actually surprises people

Here is what our travellers tell us surprised them, gathered over a lot of debriefs, and what we would change on a first trip.

One: the heat runs the day, not the itinerary

This is the big one. Cambodia is flat, tropical and largely unshaded where you will be standing. From March to May the middle of the day is not usable for temples, and even in December a four-hour block of sandstone at noon is a mistake.

The structure that works is the same all year: out at opening, back by eleven, a long midday gap, out again at four until the light goes. First-time visitors resist this because it feels like wasting half a holiday. It is the opposite. Two sharp sessions beat one long grind, and every traveller who has tried both agrees afterwards. Our month by month article sets out how hard each month pushes on this.

Two: Angkor is a park, not a temple

Angkor covers about 150 square miles (400 sq km) and contains several hundred structures. Perhaps a dozen are worth your time and four are genuinely extraordinary. First-timers frequently plan around the ticket rather than around their attention span, and the seven-day pass exists, so seven days sounds sensible.

It is not. Two days is enough for most people, three is generous and is what we usually recommend, and five is too many for almost everyone. We set out the reasoning temple by temple in Angkor in two days, three days, or five.

Three: sunrise at Angkor Wat is a crowd, and nobody tells you

The famous reflected photograph is taken from the northern pool, and at sunrise several thousand people are standing at that one pool. You queue in the dark, you stand shoulder to shoulder, and if there is cloud you have done it for nothing.

We are not against it. We are against pretending it is a serene experience. If you want it we will get you there very early and tell you exactly what it will be like. If you would rather not, the Bayon at opening has perhaps thirty people in it, Srah Srang gives you sunrise over water with almost nobody there, and the western face of Angkor Wat is better lit in the last hour of the afternoon anyway.

Four: the country is small, and the roads are slow

Cambodia is roughly 500 miles (800 km) across at its widest, which sounds like nothing. Then Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, about 200 miles (320 km), takes five to six hours. Outside the new expressway to the coast, plan on 30 to 35 miles an hour as a working average.

The practical consequence is that the number to watch is not days, it is hotel changes. Above one move every two and a half days, a Cambodia trip stops being a holiday and becomes a series of drives. On a nine-day trip we usually fly one long leg and drive the other, so you see the countryside once without giving two days to a car.

Five: two currencies, at the same time

Cambodia runs on US dollars and Cambodian riel together. Prices are quoted in dollars, machines dispense dollars, and change under a dollar comes back in riel at roughly 4,000 to the dollar. Nobody explains this at the airport and it confuses everyone for the first day.

Two practical points. Bring clean, unmarked notes, because torn or heavily worn dollars are frequently refused. And bring small denominations, which are far more useful than large ones. Cards work in city hotels and better restaurants and nowhere else you will want to spend money.

Six: the food is not Thai food, and it is very good

Khmer cooking is quieter than Thai and less herb-forward than Vietnamese: sour, mild, built on fermented fish paste, palm sugar and freshwater fish. People arrive expecting chilli and find restraint instead, and it takes a couple of meals to recalibrate.

Order fish amok, lok lak with a Kampot pepper and lime dipping sauce, and one breakfast of num banh chok from a basket seller. We go through the whole list in Khmer food, what to order. It is also cheap: an excellent local meal is a few dollars and a serious modern Khmer dinner is $30 to $60.

Seven: the recent history is not background

Roughly a quarter of the population died between 1975 and 1979. Almost everyone you meet over fifty is connected to it directly, and so is almost everyone under thirty through a parent or grandparent. Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek in Phnom Penh are unflinching and they are the most important two hours in the country.

First-time visitors routinely schedule them badly, on a departure morning or the day before a beach flight. We place them in the morning with a deliberately light afternoon afterwards, never before a flight and never immediately before an island transfer. This matters more than any other sequencing decision in a Cambodia itinerary.

Eight: Sihanoukville is not the beach town in the guidebook

If your reading is more than a few years old, the coast chapter is out of date. Sihanoukville was transformed by a casino and construction boom and much of the beachfront changed beyond recognition. Parts continue to be rebuilt, and it is not the relaxed beach town of a decade ago.

We mostly send people to Kampot and Kep, which are a river town under a plateau and a small crab-market town with a quiet swimming beach, or across to Koh Rong Sanloem, which has proper white sand and low-rise accommodation. Boats to some islands still leave from the Sihanoukville port, so you may pass through it.

Nine: guides change more here than almost anywhere

Angkor without a guide is a lot of beautiful stone with no narrative. Angkor with a good one is a 400-year political and religious argument you can read off the walls, and the same is true of the National Museum in Phnom Penh, which is where the sculpture that gives Angkor its context lives.

The reverse is also true. Kampot, Kep and the islands are better without a guide. We build guiding onto the days that need it and leave the rest alone, which is cheaper and more pleasant than the alternative.

Ten: small practical things nobody mentions

• Dress code is enforced at Angkor Wat and several other temples. Shoulders and knees covered, for everyone, and it is checked.
• Bring more water than you think. Twice what feels reasonable.
• The riel notes are large numbers. 4,000 riel is a dollar. Check the zeroes.
• Unexploded ordnance remains a genuine issue in a few rural border areas. Stay on marked paths in the north, which any decent guide will insist on anyway.
• We do not book elephant riding, anywhere, in any form. The sanctuary near Sen Monorom where animals are observed rather than ridden is the version we use.
• Tuk-tuks are metered by negotiation, or by app in the cities, and both are cheap.
• Visa rules move. Most nationalities get an e-visa online or a visa on arrival, and we confirm the current requirement for your specific passport before quoting.

What we would do differently on a first visit

Three days at Angkor, not five. Two nights in Phnom Penh rather than one, so the hard morning has an afternoon after it. Battambang instead of a second temple day, if the drive suits your route. The coast at Kampot and Kep rather than a resort strip. And a genuinely empty afternoon somewhere in the middle of the trip, which is the thing every returning traveller says they wish they had built in.

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Keep reading

• Cambodia, the complete guide to planning your trip
• Angkor in two days, three days, or five
• What does a trip to Cambodia cost?
• Khmer food, what to order
• Classic Cambodia in 9 days
• Food and culture in Cambodia, 11 days

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