Southeast Asia Travel News

If Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre was located, for example, between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, it would undoubtedly see far more overseas visitors than it currently does and its location in southern Cambodia’s Takeo Province is undeniably well off the main tourist trail. The site itself is fine and consists of some 6,000 acres of protected woodland, provided by…

What follows is a brief account and selection of photos of our Cambodia boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang.   I think we first ran this Cambodia boat trip way back in 2000. It was a very different country in those days and the journey across the Tonle Sap and up the Sangkar River to Battambang was an adventurous…

We have covered this topic in earlier posts but, with several Southeast Asian sites having been added to UNESCO’s list in recent times, here’s a brief update of Cambodia World Heritage Sites, as well as some of the candidates on its Tentative List. Current Sites Considering the wealth of unique archaeological and historical sites across the kingdom we can’t help…

As you’ll discover on our Beyond Angkor tour there are myriad, spectacular, lesser-known Angkor temples (as well as pre-Angkor) lying the length and breadth of Cambodia just waiting to be explored. Of course, iconic Angkor Wat, Bayon’s mysterious carved faces and the roots and creepers of atmospheric, jungle-clad Ta Prom are justifiably world-famous but some of these remoter and far…

A few images of some of the hard-working women in Phsa Prahok, Battambang’s fish market, taken over the course of several recent visits, To point out that topping and tailing fish all day long, every day, is extremely laborious, dirty and tiring would be rather stating the obvious and certainly a very tough way of earning a living. We can…

Costing the Apopo organisation around 6,000 Euros each, including training and importation, these are certainly the world’s most expensive rodents yet when you see the giant African rats – or Gambian pouched rats to be precise, Cricetomys gambianus – in action, you’ll understand why. Easier to maintain and handle than trained dogs (and much lighter so less likely to set…

Some Vietnam and Cambodia photos gratefully received from David taken on his recent 2-week Saigon to Phnom Penh Overland tour. Keeping the blurb to a minimum and in approximately the correct order then we have… A tight squeeze for David at Cu Chi David struggling to emerge from one of the Vietcong tunnels at Cu Chi, near Saigon (Ho Chi…

The now rather remote and rarely visited site of Koh Ker was for a brief period in the early 10th-century the capital of the vast Khmer empire. Lying in the Cambodian province of Preah Vihear, around 3 hours’ drive from Siem Reap Town, this extensive complex of forest ruins is what remains today of the imperial city of Lingapura constructed by…

The vast, ruined temple complex of Banteay Chhmar is well off the regular beaten Angkor path and although only 3 to 4 hours’ drive from Siem Reap sees very few visitors. The somewhat remote location – close to the Thai border in the far northwest of the kingdom – does mean that the elaborate 12th-century site had been, until very…

Although far less well-known than the justifiably reputed cuisines of neighbouring Thailand or Vietnam, we reckon the rich and varied Cambodian, or Khmer, cooking more than holds its own amid Southeast Asian fare and local food is generally a serendipitous and tasty discovery on any of our Cambodian tours. Here then is just a short a selection of some of…

The following Cambodian visas information was valid for late 2017, early 18 but bear in mind firstly, that regulations can change at short notice and secondly, that our information is primarily applicable to UK, Australian, NZ, Canadian, US, and Western European nation passport holders. With regards Cambodia, your choice is applying for an e-visa in advance or obtaining a visa…

We’re delighted to see Cambodia gain a 3rd UNESCO World Heritage Site, after Angkor and Preah Vihear, with the granting of such status to the ruined 6th and 7th century Khmer capital at Sambor Prei Kuk.   These picturesque ruined temples, scattered through forest north of Kompong Thom in central Cambodia, represent the remains of the royal capital, Ishnapura, of…

Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh has 3 principal downtown, city centre, markets that casual visitors are likely to come across; Psa Thmei, Psa Chas and Psa Kandal – psa, (psar or phsar are also commonly seen – there’s no official transliteration), being, as you may have guessed the Khmer word for market thus translating as New Market, Old Market and Central…

A new addition to our Cambodia itinerary, this half-day tour to discover some of the local ‘cottage industries’ in one of the villages outside of Battambang has proved very popular.  Also very practical since it can just as easily be done by bicycle or by tuk-tuk for the less energetic and the 3 or 4 hour round tour then leaves…

Traditionally the kingdom’s 2nd largest city, the western town of Battambang Cambodia has surely been overtaken by now by booming Siem Reap and although still relatively prosperous from the Province’s fine farming land, (indeed it’s sometimes known as ‘Cambodia’s rice bowl’), it has been largely bypassed by the country’s tourism boom. Well until recently that is but these days Battambang’s…

The famous floating villages and fishing communities around Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake are well known with the more easily accessible ones such as Chong Kneas and Kompong Phleuk now firmly on tourist itineraries. Far less known are these river nomads of western Cambodia – people who spend the whole year travelling up and down the rivers leading into the huge…

Came across this nameless Angkor period ruined temple whilst poking around in some villages outside of Siem Reap recently: even the locals didn’t have a name for it and though these days the few remaining stones scattered across the grounds of a contemporary Buddhist watnf don’t really merit the term ‘temple’ it’s interesting to think that even these meagre remains…

Once again perfect weather for this ‘rainy season’ tour of Cambodia – clear blue, dust-free skies providing some great landscape views, enough fluffy white clouds about for pretty photos and the occasional evening shower to cool things down. As with our recent Burma tour, the relative lack of crowds was also a big plus – particularly at popular sites such…

Our boat journey through Cambodia from Siem Reap, across the Tonle Sap Lake and down the Sangkar River to Western Cambodia’s Battambang Town, was a particularly tricky one this month due to the combination of low water levels on the lake and a slow current on the river itself which had lead to a serious build-up of the pestilent water…

We’d have thought it was fairly obvious that dawn – whether sunrise at Angkor Wat, The Taj Mahal or anywhere else you can think of vary enormously. Some – spectacular explosions of vibrant colours whilst others – just plain, grey, overcast and however fantastic the setting is for the dawn is it has no influence at all over how dramatic…