In Phnom Penh we arrived at different times that first day, with a few of us exploring and ending up at a local food market where we recognised a young guy and woman from our group deciding to try the local dare: a fried tarantula, legs and all, straight off the stall.
We gathered round, offering a bit of encouragement and stared in shock has he popped the tarantula in his mouth, chewed a bit and declared “Crispy chicken skin … with a curiously chewy middle.” I took his word for it.
It set the tone nicely — you go for the temples, and a spider steals the show!
The next day – it turned serious.
The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, with Buddha statues genuinely studded in diamonds, gave way that afternoon to Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields. It's confronting, as it should be — you can't understand Cambodia without understanding what it survived.
I met a survivor who had penned his story, he sat at a table with his stack of books in front of him. I bought a copy, read it from cover to cover in a day – unbelieving of the horrors.
We packed and left Phnom Penh for Siem Reap, where the trip changed gear entirely.
The next day, before the rest of us had even had breakfast, one of the woman in our group had already slipped off to Artisans Angkor, a silk-weaving centre founded in 1992 to train rural Cambodians in traditional craft. She came back full of stories about silk worms and paraded silk scarfs made in front of her eyes!
Later that morning we travelled to Angkor Thom, and stood awestruck beneath the great stone faces of Bayon, then onwards to Ta Prohm, where roots the size of tree trunks have swallowed the ruins whole — you’ll know it as the Tomb Raider temple, which looks better in person than on the screen.
Our second morning began before dawn, with Angkor Wat at sunrise. We all gathered with strangers standing in near silence as the sky turned pink and gold behind those famous towers. Time slowed down as the sun rose.
Later, at Preak Dak village, our group met with families who we then planted trees for, as part of a funded programme providing — mango and jackfruit saplings – given to local families so they'll have more food-producing trees, helping them become that bit more self-sufficient.
Next we drove on and arrived at Tonle Sap Lake and were stunned by Kampong Phluk – a village on towering stilts! If that wasn’t enough we went on to the floating villages moving their homes as the water levels change constantly – and with monsoon season closing in, the water was already rising, and those floating homes were genuinely shifting and bobbing on the water — a strange, wonderful thing to see up close.
It was busy all the time, but paradoxically felt like time was moving slowly!
Most people fly out from Siem Reap. I took a bus to Phnom Penh instead, and it turned out to be one of the nicest surprises of the whole trip — cheap, air-conditioned, and properly comfortable. A paved highway all the way with stunning views – even drove through the main outlet for tarantulas - Skun also known as “spider town”! Now I know where that chewy Tarantula morsel came from!
Singapore was a complete contrast after five days of temples and tuk-tuks, three nights was plenty to fall for it too.
A bike tour around the city is a great way to get your bearings and see far more than you would on foot.
And a visit to Gardens by the Bay for Impressions of Monet was a must do for me an absolutely mind blowing interactive experience!
Marina Bay Street Circuit, where the Singapore Grand Prix is raced, a walk past the famous Raffles Hotel, a hop-on-hop-off bus around the city, followed by an afternoon of shopping on Orchard Road was perfect and thrilling! Such a beautiful, clean and friendly metropolis.
If you want history that moves you, temples that stop you mid-sentence, someone in your group brave enough to eat a spider so you don't have to, and a welcome change of pace in Singapore to round it all off — this is the trip.
