Finished my first visa run, returned to Thailand on July 11th. Just missed the night train from Bangkok to Buriram so had to stay one night in Bangkok, and finally was back to Buriram at about 05:20 on the morning of the 13th of July. Both flights were just under an hour, no problems either way.
Cambodia is not an expensive country, but I still managed to blow 1600 USD in two weeks. Stayed in Nordic House hotel for the entire time for 13 dollars a night. Did not do much, just checked out a lot of bars and just generally chilled out. Of course I had to go and see the two biggest tourist attractions, the Killing Fields about 15kms outside Phnom Penh, and the Tuol Sleng prison in the city. Not very cheerful places to visit.
The weather was just about the same as Thailand with daytime temperatures somewhere just above +30, and some rain almost every day. Only had heavy rain once.
Raining in Phnom Penh
Also went to see the home of a local friend, I forget the name of the province but it was about 2-3 hours’ drive East of Phnom Penh. Farming country, very basic standard of living. But it was a welcome change from the city.
Farmhouse in the country
All the local ATMs give out US Dollars which are used as currency all over the country. The local money Riel is used as change instead of US cents, with about 4000 Riels to a Dollar. So if you buy a 50-cent can of beer and pay with a one-dollar bill, you will get 2000 Riel as change. I do not know if there are any coins in use at all, but at least I never saw any.
All in all a good trip, but way too expensive for my budget. Before I went I read a lot of warnings about Cambodia being very dangerous, but I never had any problems and also the few expats I talked to said that it is no more dangerous than Thailand. Beer was very cheap at 50-80 USD cents a small can, as was the local tobacco at 40 cents a pack. Coffee was expensive as was Coke, comparing to Thailand that is. Hotels and food were about the same price as Thailand.
EDIT: Let’s try to see what happens when linking some YouTube videos here… It’s a video from just a block from my hotel after a day of heavy raining…
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