The Southeast Asia Travel Specialists Since 1999
The Hindu god Indra ought to be very familiar to anyone who’s undertaken even the briefest of visits to any of the famous Angkorian temples, whether it’s Angkor itself, Wat Phu in Laos or Khmer temples such as Phanom Rung or Phimai in northeastern Thailand. His likeness is carved into myriad lintels over eastern doorways, ensconced on his ubiquitous 3-headed…
The rarely visited Angkorian temple site of Prasat Kuk Roka forms a regular break on our overland trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. It’s a small, albeit intact, sandstone tower – probably dating to the 11th century – and a minnow compares to what awaits at Angkor. However, it does illustrate a lot of features which will be seen…
As even a brief visit to the region will have revealed, small wooden, or increasingly these days cement, spirit shrines are ubiquitous in houses, gardens, cafes, and even bars, banks and offices throughout the Buddhist nations of Southeast Asia. Every building, home and commerce should have one. They’ll feature eclectic collections of statuettes and figurines – many may well even…
We’d call these life-size dummies scarecrows – once a familiar sight on farms and allotments – yet, while the idea may be similar, the intended target is very different. The purpose of these Ting Mong, as they are known in Cambodia, is also to scare away unwanted visitors but you’ll find them in front of a garden gate or entrance…
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…
An excursion to discover the (very) hidden Angkor-period Prei Khmeng Temple Cambodia. You can find an ancient Khmer temple marked on a map or dig one up on Google – Cambodia is covered in Angkorian and pre-Angkorian ruins – but for only a tiny fraction, notably, the most famous ones, will you find any accompanying images or explanations. Discovering what…
Coming up, and based on nearly 20 years of leading tours to Cambodia’s UNESCO World Heritage site; a few small Angkor tips and suggestions on how to optimise your temple visit. Firstly though one very big tip! Try and time your visit for the low season. The awesome, often jungle-clad, temples in Western Cambodia are obviously today a huge draw…
Mondulkiri: one of the few Cambodian provinces we’d not yet visited but with new road construction easing transportation concerns we thought it was definitely about time we did check out this remote yet picturesque province in the kingdom’s northeastern highlands. The intention is to include the province in a planned, 2 week off the beaten track Cambodia tour but we…
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…
An isolated and very rarely visited ruined Angkor period temple site, Prasart Kok Roka in Cambodia’s Kompong Thom Province is famous, well locally at least, for being the area’s very own leaning tower. According to some locals, the depression in the ground in front of the temple is rumoured to be a bomb crater which supposedly tilted the tower to…
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…
A few photos of Phnom Penh street-life taken within the space of just a 10 minutes, 500 m or so stroll from 178 St to Psa Kandal, (Kandal Market). Starting at Wat Sarawan on the corner of 19th and 178 streets we came across this nicely restored French period colonial villa – now tapas bar of all things! Some vital…
Not any old Cambodia tuk-tuk pizzeria but one with a wood-fired oven no less! One of the most extraordinary sights we’ve seen of late in Phnom Penh – and it’s a city where the extraordinary is commonplace – is this mobile pizzeria that sets up every evening on the Khmer capital’s 51st Street. The complete pizzeria fits into the back…
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…
As with neighbouring Laos, there are currently 2 entries on the UNESCO Cambodia World Heritage list, yet what entries they are! Firstly, the Angkor Archeological Park, added in 1992, covering some 400 sq kilometres and comprising of scores of temples including all the famous ones: Angkor Wat, Angkor Tom, Bayon, Ta Prom, Preah Khan as well as a host of…