What we would skip in Cambodia, and what we book instead

Three categories below. Things we will not book at any price, where we do not change our mind. Things that are simply not worth your days, where reasonable people disagree and we will build them if you insist. And a short list of things visitors expect us to dismiss that we would actually defend.

Things we refuse to book

Elephant riding, in any form, anywhere

No riding, on any seat, including the bareback neck-riding some venues present as the ethical version. No shows, no painting, no photographs with chained animals. The word sanctuary is not regulated in Cambodia any more than it is elsewhere in the region.

What we book instead: the project near Sen Monorom in Mondulkiri where retired animals are observed and walked with through forest, the mahouts are Bunong and employed properly, and numbers are capped. It is a genuinely good half day. It is also a seven-hour drive from Phnom Penh, so it belongs in a twelve-day trip.

Orphanage visits and short-term volunteering

This is the one we feel most strongly about. Cambodia has been the centre of a well-documented orphanage tourism problem for two decades. A large proportion of children in residential institutions here have at least one living parent, and the flow of visitor money has been shown to create demand for the institutions rather than to relieve it. Children are not an attraction, and a stranger passing through for an afternoon is not a benefit to them.

We do not arrange orphanage visits, school visits with photographs, or volunteering placements of any kind, and we will explain why at length if you ask.

What we book instead: if you want your money to do something, we will point you at the Battambang arts school whose graduates run the circus, at community tourism in the Cardamoms, or at a Bunong-run walking day in Mondulkiri, all of which are organisations with published accounts and a business model that does not involve children performing for guests.

Firing ranges

Ranges outside Phnom Penh sell the chance to shoot military weapons, and at various times have offered worse than that. We do not book them, and we would ask you not to.

Self-drive motorbike trips

We will not organise one, in Cambodia or in Vietnam. Foreign licences are frequently not valid, the accident rate is high, and rural medical provision is thin. We will put you on the back of a bike with an experienced local rider, or in a car with a driver. We would rather say so than take the booking.

Anything sold as a slum tour or a rubbish dump visit

They still appear in inboxes. No.

Things that are not worth your days

The fourth and fifth day at Angkor

Two days is enough for most people, three is generous and is what we usually recommend, and five is too many for almost everyone. The seven-day pass exists, which is the only reason anyone thinks seven days is a plan. Temple fatigue is real and the heat is cumulative. Our full reasoning is in Angkor in two days, three days, or five.

What we book instead: those nights in Battambang, on the coast, or in the east.

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng

A small hilltop temple with a capped number of visitors and a queue that forms an hour before the light. You climb, you wait in a crowd, and the view is of forest with the towers of Angkor Wat distant and small.

What we book instead: sunset at Pre Rup or Srah Srang, or the last hour of the afternoon at Angkor Wat itself, when the western face is properly lit and the sunrise crowd is long gone.

The bamboo train at Battambang

The original was a genuinely eccentric local improvisation on a working line. What operates now is a rebuilt tourist ride on a purpose-made stretch of track, and it is fifteen minutes of noise.

What we book instead: Battambang itself, which is the best-preserved colonial town in the country, plus the circus at Phare in the evening. Our reasoning on the whole province is in Cambodia beyond Angkor.

Sihanoukville

The town 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 place it was a decade ago. We mostly do not send people there.

What we book instead: Kampot and Kep for a river town and a crab market with a quiet swimming beach, or Koh Rong Sanloem for proper white sand and low-rise accommodation. Boats to some islands still leave from the Sihanoukville port, so you may pass through it, which is fine.

Koh Rong’s party beach

Loud, young, and not what most of our travellers have in mind when they say island. Koh Rong Sanloem, next door, is the answer.

The Kratie dolphins, if your days are tight

The Irrawaddy dolphin population in this stretch of the Mekong is very small and shrinking. Sightings are usually distant dorsal fins from a quiet boat. We will build it, and we will tell you first that it is a gentle hour on a river rather than a wildlife spectacle.

What we book instead: if the east is in your route anyway, keep it. If it is a six-hour detour, skip it.

Bokor Hill Station as a headline

The abandoned French hill station above Kampot has largely been overtaken by a modern casino and resort development, and the atmospheric ruin most visitors are expecting is a smaller part of the visit than the photographs suggest. Worth a half day from Kampot for the road and the view on a clear day, not worth a night.

The long bus, and the slow boat

Buses and the reopened railway are cheap, and on a two-week trip they cost you more in hours than they save in dollars. The Siem Reap to Battambang boat is seasonal, frequently much longer than advertised, and depends entirely on water levels.

The apsara buffet dinner show

Amplified music over a lukewarm buffet in a room built for coaches. Classical Khmer dance is a serious art form and deserves better. See a dedicated performance, or see the circus.

A single night in Phnom Penh

Not a place, a scheduling error, and the most common one in draft itineraries we are asked to review. One night forces the memorial sites against a travel day, which is exactly where they should not be. Two nights, always. See Phnom Penh and the genocide sites.

Things we would defend

Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek. Hard, and essential to understanding the country. Placed properly, they are the most important two hours of the trip.

The National Museum in Phnom Penh. Ninety minutes, and it makes Angkor legible. Go before the temples, not after.

Beng Mealea, and the drive to it. Largely uncleared, about ninety minutes east of Siem Reap, and the closest thing to what nineteenth-century visitors described.

The Tonle Sap floating villages, from November to January when the water is high. In March and April they sit above mud and we would skip them.

Angkor Wat at sunrise, if you genuinely want it. We will get you there very early and tell you honestly that several thousand people will be standing at the same pool. It is not serene. Some people want it anyway, and that is a legitimate choice as long as it is an informed one.

Kep. Small, quiet, crab, pepper, and almost nothing to do. That is the point.

The rule underneath all of this

Cambodia is a nine to twelve day country with slow roads, and the constraint that matters is not how many days you have but how many times you change hotel. Every item on the skip list above is really a claim about where a day belongs. Take the fourth temple day and the bamboo train and the tight Phnom Penh night out of a route, and you have bought two unhurried days on the coast, which is what people remember.

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Keep reading

• Cambodia, the complete guide to planning your trip
• Angkor in two days, three days, or five
• Cambodia beyond Angkor: Battambang, Kampot and the coast
• Phnom Penh and the genocide sites
• Classic Cambodia in 9 days
• Wild Cambodia, 12 days

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