CAMBODIA
What is Cambodia best known for?
https://borgenproject.org/why-is-cambodia-poor/
Phnom Penh
start of the pandemic, end of Feb 2020/ early march, lots of cancelled flights. it was coming to an end in china but just to erupt everywhere else. I arrived in Cambodia at the end of February and left in a crazy flight and experience on march 22nd
someone stood to pee. they squatted on a seat of a western toilet, looks like they have signs and instructions pictures in some countries for a reason..... 
to be fair, when I first came to china in 2014 it was similar. especially at night/early morning, however China employed street workers, in the form on the elderly/late middle age, plus many homeless/poor would go through rubbish to sell to recycling plants. this still happens, even with the new rules and recycling policiesI landed in the capital city airport, years before I had went to Siem Reap and visited Angkor Wat and enjoyed the experience, not this time for many reasons.
some hilarious translation fails, hoping it means nose/ear piercing?
asia also seems to love its bird's nest items, especially drinks and facials make , bird spit, yum yum.
market fruits? no idea what they are though
lotus seeds
KHAMPONG CHAM
HOTHOTHOT!!!!
departed super early. the bus had simple AC and I got a free mini water and a wet wipe. I dozed most of it a short journey of around 3 hours we got there around 11.
I stayed in Sunrise villa, staying on the second floor with some other girls, it was simple. along with river side, I had a coffee to wake myself and rented a bike then set off exploring in the intense heat!
bamboo bridge to the island, for this you need to push the bike across to get to the other side, not so easy as its so bumpy! some people were along the beach on the island but it was a bit dirty and not so nice. I explored a bike on my bike into the island seeing the local houses and chilled life, coming across a quiet temple with a beautiful cat inside. there were some children playing nearby, but apart from that the place was quite empty and peaceful. the don't have floating villages per say, just some houses, not like in Laos or Brunei.
ko pen bamboo bridge
stilt house similar to that of thailand but not as high, perhaps for flood prevention? or storage?
the cat was so cool, huge ears due to the hot climate, it looked like a wild cat of the dessert to me!
back on the mainland I came across another beautiful temple full of a variety of statues.
it was nice cycling around and exploring, I stayed a night and left the next day checking out the night market later the night. there's also a riverside park and a lighthouse to check out.
KHAMPONG THOM
khampong Thom is north west of Cambodia and borders Siem Reap, it therefore also has a lots of ancient temples to see. though they aren't convenient to get to an are spaced apart. Although its close to Kampong Cham, it's difficult to get. to, there are. no direct buses and it is in fact easier to just return to Ph and get another bus. If you drive or rent a driver then you can get there in about 3 hours or so. I UNFORTUNATELY GOT ROBBED AFTER THIS IN Phnom Penh here the lack of photos (I later borrowed a phone fro a Chinese girl from couchersurfer)
I had wanted to visit Preah Vihear (a mini Angkor wat) but with no bike and unable to drive I wasn't able to. though there is still plenty of other things to see such as:
BATTAMBANG
everything is pretty easy to get to with a bus if you go from the capital, Siem Reap has many options too.
in the middle of the town is the big market - Phsar Nath Market, full of foods like fresh fruits etc. it's bustling with activity most of the day. with plenty of unusual foods I'd never seen before
Phsar Nath Market
other areas to check out include all of which are easy enough to get to with a scooter.
"Norry" bamboo trains nearby : https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bamboo-trains
well of shadows: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/well-of-shadows
Wat Piphetthearam
I then heading in the direction of the main river, cycling along and stopping to check out the beautiful buildings and park. I had a picture of the big "black man" Ta Dumbong Kro Aung Statue the local ethnic symbol which stand =/squats on a roundabout, but when my phone got stole......
he's a bit like the Cambodian "christ the redeemer" statue or Rio in Brazil, believing he takes care of the whole city, that he still alive and has power,
"The legend of how Battambang came to be..
He was a cow herd who found a magic black stick and used it to usurp the king. After the king was deposed his sons ran off into the woods and became monks. When he became king, Ta Dumbong had a dream that a holy man on a white horse would one day defeat him."its meant to be based on reclaiming the land from Siam/ Thailand.
https://www.gpsmycity.com/gps-tour-guides/sihanoukville-5749.html
There are plenty of random nice temples throughout the city, some, like the palace and main temple complexes requirement payment to enter, others are simple temples and of course are free.
Sangke Pagoda
nearby the black man statue I found another big temple area, this one with khmer style carving reproductions, it was larger and more well kept than the others and full of beautiful flowers
there's also a load of ancient temple ruins such as; Wat Banan, WaT Ek Phnom
stayed a day and a half, my hostel was pretty quiet and the rooftop was great to chiLL-in, you could even over food, not just drinks. sunset was beautiful from it. heading back to the capital for a couples days before going to Ban Lung in north east Cambodia, the capital of Ratanakiri Province. its a bit of a Dusty town and not as well developed or visited as others
BANLUNG
is a small town in North Eastern Cambodia near the borders of Vietnam and Laos. And is know for it's volcanic lake (Yaek Laom) also known as Crater lake, an elephant foundation and nearby waterfalls ( Kachang waterfall, Katieng waterfall and Cha Ong waterfall.) it's a dusty and heavily forested town, with several ethnic minority groups living there or nearby. it's far to get there, taking 11 hours on a bus from Phnom Pehn with only a sleeper bus option https://12go.asia/en/travel/phnom-penh/banlung
I stayed in a really nice hostel near a river run by a French owner, one could order breakfast, lunch or dinner and order drinks. the rooms were at the back, one climbed up steps to wooden cabins on stilts, there were a lot of trees so there were many mosquitoes, and as per usual it was super hot.
Nature House Eco-Lodge & jungle trek: https://www.booking.com/hotel/kh/nature-house-banlung.en-gb.html
I rented a bike from them and explored, I was chill but had a sense of despair, perhaps due to the dustiness and lack of businesses.
KAMPOT
it takes about 3 hours by bus from the capital, from $7
its a town that sits on the coast near Kep in south Cambodia famous for its peppers. I stayed in a hostel on the hill in the town that looked into the mountains , it has a great open air fresh market, and a charming old town to check out.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bokor-hill-station
there's plenty of things to do if you can't explore on bike/scooter, if you can its recommended it check out one of the local pepper farms or salt fields. you can also do a day trip to kep and try to visit rabbit island, hot the beach and relax.
I went for a walk and found interesting homemade fruit alcohol distilling, cute shops and cafes along with cool hammock shacks along the sea/beach to chill in free of charge!
SIHANOUKVILLE
I went at a terrible time as the were basically refurbishing the whole city. It's a gateway to the islands, popular with Chinese due to its casinos so there is of course, lots of chinese food shops and restaurants.
the roadworks were everywhere, it was ongoing constantly. loud! roads all dug up. not a fun place to visit,
however I found a really good hostel that was quiet, full of friendly foreigners and Netflix in the communal area, even sort of indoor/outdoor pool. I met a lot of feigners, so from China and others just travellers or also trying to avoid the madness of Covid which was starting to slowly spread everywhere,
first in Asian after the first reported breakout in Wuhan China, to everywhere else in the world, It was the start of March, our days were numbered.
I met up with a local Cambodian, who also got the bus from the capital, we arranged to explore together, and rather than following the usual tourist plan of going to the expensive islands (popular for drugs and expensive drink with lots of parties) that had little to no internet reception, we checked out the town and stayed only the 2 days.
we walked along the beach, (better than the upturned roads full of builders) and found a really nice temple, with barely a soul in sight!
Phnom Penh
The Cambodia–Vietnam Friendship Monument in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, is a large concrete monument commemorating the former alliance between Vietnam and Cambodia. It was built in the late 1970s by the communist regime that took power after the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, which overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime
I enjoy going to temples however, this hobby was soiled as I was robbed! in the day, while wandering around a temple in the centre not far from the promenade! I local was behind me while I explored and took pictures on my phone, the a**hole grabbed it out of my hand and ran! (I guess I was lucky he didn't try to do anything else, such as steal my bag or hurt me) he instantly ran, bounding over walls, I was no match,. it was an old phone, I didn't back up my pictures (I got some back via messages from friends and family) but the main heartbreaking thing was that it contained the last messages my grandfather ever sent me, things like this cannot be replaced and I was quite devastated. Luckily I had made a friend via couch surfer who was from China who was so kind to lend me a spare one, I later sent it to her when she also returned to China (me to Shanghai and her to Guangzhou)
I made some friends on couch surfer and we explored on scooter the local areas, some huge parks and a combination of colonial architecture and asian
the promenade
I nearly got robbed/ pickpocketed here too, BE CAREFUL!
did exploring with another traveller and ended up at a random island, Koh Dach were they make silk, they invite you in and show you the basics and try to sell you pieces, interesting. we explored the fields and backroads which was great, we even got trapped in one as it was starting to gate late and they closed one haha.
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