10 Days: Khmer/Cambodia Exploration

Leave at 9:00am for Battambang, a 4hour drive.  On the way we will make a stop for a ride on the norry rail system (bamboo train riding). After the ride, you will head to a “killing cave”, used during the Khmer Rouge Era and where thousands of people were killed under the Pol Pot regime.  You will also visit a bat cave at sunset and witness tens of thousands of bats flying out into the night to feed on the millions of insects in the Cambodian sky. You will then go to your hotel for an overnight stay.

Breaking the trip to Koh Rong Island in half, you’ll be stopping at Kam Pong Cham for an overnight stay. This will provide you an opportunity to visit a pottery making village and experience one of the longest bamboo bridges in Cambodia which crosses a section of the Tonle Sap.  You will also want to visit a genuine floating village and a former palace of the Cambodian kings. This evening you’ll want to get a good night’s sleep for the long ride to Koh Rong on Day 5.

A full day of traveling and a ferry ride at close of this leg of the trip.

You will spend two nights here. Think about snorkeling, paddle boarding, kayaking or just hanging out at the islands’ beaches.  At night, be sure to catch the glowing plankton.

A three-hour drive will take you to your next destination, Kampot, home of several salt and pepper farms.  Kampot is also the site of a national park, used during the French Colonial Period. Many French vacationed here to enjoy the cool surroundings of the park and its close proximity to the ocean. A river cruise at sunset is well worth considering to round out your time here.

A four-hour drive will take you from the coast to the capital city of Phnom Penh.  This beautiful city lies at the junction of the Tonle Sap River and the Mekong.  It was the hub for the Khmer Empire and the French colonials.  It also has a dark history of being where many of the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime were committed.  You will go to the Killing Fields, visit Tuol Saleng (a high school transformed into a notorious, evil prison) and meet survivors of those horrific years.

The beauty of this city, however, rises above these memories.  Take time to walk the streets around the Phnom Penh Temple, the Royal Palace, and the National Museum.

An early morning flight will take you from the Land of the Khmer to this former capital of South Vietnam. There are still many sites in the city and surrounding countryside, including the Mekong Delta, where the Vietnam War was fought.  The evidence of that war is still visible in museums, caves where the Vietnamese hid, and on sides of buildings and structures throughout the city.