CAMBODIA

We entered Cambodia via the border with Laos at the level of the 4,000 islands. Initially, we had planned a 30-day stay in this country, which we finally shortened to 21 days. We often travelled accompanied, so we spent more than 10 days with Christine and Mickaël, then 2 days with Chloé and Romain from the Playing The World blog and Camille and Joris from the Envie d'ailleurs blog.

BUDGET

On average during our stay, we had a rate of 1 € for 1,11 $. And yes, you read correctly, the particularity of Cambodia is that we pay everything in dollars and this is unfortunately a disadvantage for our budget. Indeed, prices have increased a lot because of this and Cambodians respect the "one dollar" rule which means that you don't find much at less than a dollar... The advantage for them is that when you look at the prices to see a "1" and suddenly you think it's nothing, and in itself you may not be wrong, but compared to other Asian countries it costs more in the end! As you are used to now, we still had a budget of 20 € per person per day. For a 21-day stay we had a budget of €840 for both of us and we really spent €717.33, an average of €17.08 per person and a saving of €123. Cambodia is currently the country that has cost us the most in food for two reasons: first, if the price of fried rice could not be excessive, the rest, on the other hand, was rising very quickly in the $3 or $4 range. Second reason, we have travelled with friends and as everyone knows, we tend to be a little less reluctant about prices in this case! The cost of the visa must also be taken into account. As a reminder, we did it at the Embassy in Vientiane, Laos, which cost us $30 each. The average budget per person per day is as follows: 3.51 € for transport, 3.81 € for accommodation, 7.23 € for food, 2.17 € for visits and 0.37 € for extras.

TO KNOW ABOUT CAMBODIA

You can also pay in Riels (local currency). In general, below 1 dollar they will give you change in Riel so it is up to you to manage to liquidate them later. Cambodia is an extremely dirty country, the dirtiest we have seen so far. You can drink sugar cane juice on the street, it's good even if it's a little disgusting at the end! There are a lot of Westerners living in Cambodia, for example in the centre of Kampot, almost every second restaurant is run by a Westerner! On the road it's a ordeal! They don't even respect their direction of travel and cut corners in all winds, we'll never know who has priority! Obviously the children have school on Saturdays There are small guides in every major city for tourists. We found the one from Kampot (The Kampot survival guide), it is written by a group of locals, it is really very well done with lots of explanations and good addresses and a comic tone pleasant to read. Angkor beer is not bad for cooling down The sun is very strong in Cambodia! Despite an already accustomed and tanned skin, we have resumed sunburn, it really burns! And as a result it is also very hot in the bedrooms. If you're wondering how much something costs, don't forget the "One dollar" rule! All you have to do is ask the charming shopkeeper to confirm! We found the Cambodians rather hard in business and we dropped several times because at one point the $1 postcard should not be abused what!

HOW TO GET AROUND?

The bus system in Cambodia is well developed. You can reach big cities without any problem but in general if you take the big roads, allow a little more time than what is announced. Bus company 168 is very good: the buses are equipped with wifi, you have a bottle of water and a correct comfort. However, it is so hot, so don't be surprised to see the driver stop to water the engine to cool it down! We only hitchhiked once between Kampot and Kep for a short distance of 20 km. If there are a lot of scooters, the number of cars is much less important so if you want to try the experience plan to get on a big busy road to get the most out of it.   If you rent a scooter, the price of gasoline varies greatly from one city to another and even from one street to another (between 2700 and 3500 riels per liter). Try to get out of the city centre without going into the countryside, that's it.