A taste of Cambodia… our first impressions

Last Updated on January 31, 2023

We fell head over heels for Cambodia – which caught us completely by surprise. This South East Asian country isn’t perfect, definitely rough around the edges. Here are our first impressions we made – and some fun facts about Cambodia! Enjoy!

Cambodia fun facts and random observations

The famous temples of Angkor Wat
These are Cambodia’s greatest pride and an interesting Cambodia fact we noticed within hours upon arriving in the country. The temples of Angkor Wat are resembled everywhere! On the money, on the beer, in hotel names & restaurant names, and it is the national symbol on Cambodia’s flag.

Water buffaloes as common in Cambodia as sheep are in Scotland!

Cambodians love to cycle
While it’s all about moto-scooters in neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, Cambodians cycle everywhere – between villages, in town, to get to school or to work, or to transport goods.

Old-fashioned cyclos are still used in everyday life of Phnom Penh and other towns.

Durians...
While we weren’t the biggest fans of the fruit whose odor is best described as ‘pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock’, Cambodians LOVE durians! The Durian is the national fruit of Cambodia and we even found an entire statue dedicated to this interesting fruit.

Monks get up late in Cambodia
We’ve seen monks receiving their alms very early in the morning in neighboring Laos (6.30am), the monks in Cambodia make their way around time much later – we usually saw them around 9.30am!

Pigs on motorbikes are a common sight…

…so are cows in the streets.

Cambodia’s terrible past is still ‘tangible’ everywhere you go.
Almost ¼ of the population was killed during the Khmer Rouge’s regime 1975 -1979 and there is a distinct lack of people between 45 and 65. You can read about our visit to the Killing Fields here.

Buses? Nah…
In the capital, and most other cities, there are no inner city buses. Instead, they have shared pick-ups or trucks.

Cambodians love fresh-squeezed lime juice
So did we! A fantastic thirst quencher in the sweltering heat!

The beaches in the South and on the islands are stunning!

A surprising Cambodia fact: Who knew that the country had so many gorgeous beaches?!

Motorbikes pull anything!

The typical Khmer dish ‘Amok’ (similar to a Thai curry, but with egg added in the sauce) is delicious!

Smoking is ridiculously cheap in Cambodia.

Sadly, Cambodia is dirty.
We see piles of garbage everywhere. People just don’t seem to realize that throwing their garbage out in front of their house means it will rot there for eternity. This is one of the most frustrating observations of Cambodia, and a fact about Cambodia we did not know before we arrived here.

Most of the gas stations still look like this:

Gas at a ‘real’ gas station is expensive!
It costs $1.29 per liter ($4.88 per gallon) in a country where the average GDP is $912 per person per year.

Barbershops are open-air on the side of a road or in the market.

People in Cambodia love to wear pajamas.
Not sure why, but we saw people in PJs everywhere we went! (We are aware that these gowns are not actual PJs worn at night, but the PJs still describes them best.)

Dirt roads leading to a temple are often marked with detailed gates at the start. The countryside is full of these!

Ice is usually transported on the back of a tractor, uncovered. The ice transport stops in front of every shop / house and then cuts off as much ice as needed with a rusty old saw. More ‘Western’ places thankfully make their own ice with filtered water in house.

Cambodians love karaoke on public buses. These low-budget videos blare constantly, even on long-distance rides, and while we really, really don’t like Khmer music, we’d sing-a-long if we could…but we can not read Khmer so we are left to observe…

Need a new external hard-drive? Pick one up for the same price in Cambodia as at home, but these come filled with hundreds of TV shows, movies and music of your choice – a traveler’s dream!