Southeast Asia Travel News

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…

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…

Gary Latham Cambodia photographs; a superb selection of Cambodia images taken by travel photographer Gary Latham on his recent Images of Indochina photographic tour of Vietnam and Cambodia. So, without further a-do…..all images by Gary and comments by All Points East. (Please note that for the purposes of speed and space the images’ resolution have been reduced so apologies for…

Cambodia – much more than Angkor Wat! Sure, Angkor Wat, Bayon and the temples of Siem Reap are the highlights for most visitors to Cambodia but there’s plenty of other fascinating sights architecture-wise to be seen in the kingdom. The country’s rich architectural heritage indeed covers everything from the recent and French period to Funanese and pre-Angkor sites. Here are…

Siem Reap’s Psa Chas, or Old Market, with its souvenir stalls, packaged herbs and spices and tourist-friendly cafes is well known amongst visitors to Cambodia yet the similarly named Psa Chas Phnom Penh is rarely included on anyone’s city itineraries even though it’s centrally and conveniently located on 13th Street close to both the riverfront and Wat Phnom. There are…

Phnom Penh totally wired – one of the Cambodian capital’s more unusual holiday photo subjects. Views such as the below never cease to amaze visitors to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and indeed not surprisingly end up as the subject matter of a fair amount of holiday photos. What for Western visitors is, to say the least, pretty odd cabling and wiring…

Prasart Ta Prom, at UNESCO World Heritage-listed Angkor. Cambodia’s famous, so-called, ‘Tomb Raider Temple’ with its giant trees and sprawling roots is certainly one of the vast Angkor complex’s most famous and photogenic sites and so consequently, it does see a lot of visitors and in the high season particularly can get rather busy. A regular, classic itinerary would have…

Kompong Chhnang, Cambodia, a provincial capital lying on the bank of the Tonle Sap River some 2 hours north of Phnom Penh and without a doubt one of Cambodia’s most interesting and photogenic regional towns. (Yes we’ve already posted a couple of articles about Kompong Chnang but we reckon it’s so good a few more photos won’t hurt!) For much…

That’s Preah Vihear Temple to the Khmers or Khao Preah Viharn for the Thais. The recently promoted UNESCO World Heritage site is situated smack bang on the border and yes….you may well have noticed in the news that there have been a few border ‘issues’ between the two countries in recent times. Note the disagreement has never been over ownership…

Can’t go wrong really with giant roots and towering trees, mysterious carvings and jungle-clad ruins so here’s another selection of photos of Preah Khan and Ta Prom temples in Cambodia’s World Heritage Angkor temple complex, taken on our recent Cambodia Overland small group tour. Preah Khan, as with the more high profile Ta Prom, is a late 12th-century Buddhist temple…

Prior to the construction of Angkor Wat Baphuon  – the 11th-century royal temple of King Udayadityavarman II (trying saying that after a couple of Angkor beers) – was the largest temple of the Angkor empire. With a main tower surmounting the massive sandstone pyramid  – said to have originally been clad in bronze – and it’s spectacular, raised, entrance causeway…

Banteay Kdei Temple in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Angkor complex is not generally considered one of the ‘major’ Angkor temples and is thus skipped by many visitors and tour groups, though one of its major attractions and, why we think it’s well worth including in any temple itinerary, is precisely because much of the time you’ll have the temple almost…

Hanging around the Phnom Penh riverfront or Siem Reap’s ‘Pub Street’ tuk-tuk drivers will flock to offer you massages with; fish, their sister, grannie, themselves as well as attempt to flog you the gamut of soft and hard drugs – some may even offer you a ride – but turn up in Kampot these days you’re more likely to hear,…

To discover another of our very favourite spots in Vietnam, the riverside town of Chau Doc, we’ll travel to the opposite end of the country from the hill-resort of Sapa and the rugged mountains of the Chinese border to the lush Mekong Delta region in the country’s far south. This small yet bustling riverside town is located right on the…

A selection of photos from our Cambodia Overland tour or at least the Cambodia section of various tours since Dan and Sara, having signed up for the Indochina Adventure, had already travelled through Northern Thailand and Laos for a couple of weeks and Yvette was doing Cambodia as part of a Saigon to Phnom Penh Overland tour. First pic then…

Prasart Kong Phluk – another very little-known temple a kilometre or so past the earlier described Prasart Chrei, situated just off the track that leads east from Beng Melea at the point where it passes the southeast corner of the ‘baray’. (And thanks again to Reinhart at Angkor Guide for confirming the name). The only problem being it was surrounded…

Turn up in just about any Cambodian village and ask the locals if they have a ‘prasart boran‘ in those parts and they’ll almost certainly direct you down some track, across a field or round the back of the village wat to their very own Angkor period ruined temple. Now don’t get your hopes up since many of these will…

Not one of Cambodia’s most well-known tourist destinations but the small brick Neang Khmao Temple (or Prasart Neang Khmau) is well worth a peak if you’re passing and is conveniently located in the grounds of the modern Wat of the same name right on highway #2. (Approx 50 kilometres south of the capital and 30 kilometres from Takeo City.) That’s…

After some of the more extreme examples of modern transport one comes across on Cambodian roads in our previous post here’s a selection of photos of more traditional Cambodian transport, Just emphasizes what we said in the previous post – there’s always something interesting to see when on a Cambodian road trip! (Note, they were all still very commonly seen…