A story of amazing 14 days trip in Cambodia, unexpected!

A friend of mine flew all the way from France to visit me in Cambodia in early 2019. I only highlighted him a few major destinations since he only has 14 days in Cambodia as we don't want to be so rush. So, we made plans for few days here and few days there for only the highlights:

Royal Ballet Dance, Phnom Penh

Travel Plans:

1. Siem Reap: for the world temple of Angkor Wat and activities surrounding
2. Sihanouk Ville: for island and beach at Koh Rong Sanleoum, and 
3. Phnom Penh: the Royal palace and some other colonial buildings tours.

It ends up that he has spent amazingly 14days in Cambodia he never forgot, despite a bit rush of schedule. In 14 days, he has been to 6 provinces - to some of the most popular destinations, which were Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, Kompot and Sihanouk Ville.

 

1. Phnom Penh:

He started from Phnom Penh where I greeted him at the weekend. Besides the activities to do in the program

• Royal Ballet Dance: we accidently (in an amazing way) found a very special event of the Cultural Show at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall. I have never seen any fabulous performance in my life. The dance is to commemorate the 100 years of her creation. This is a surprise to both him and me. The ticket was 40$ online to sit at Section A (right in front of the performance). Other sections costed from 15-25$. This is the highlight of the trip - no plan, not knowing in advanced but turned out the most amazing experience ever! The outfit, the dancing skills, the lights, the live music and everything, just amazing.. 90% of the guests were westerners who really really enjoyed the show - the cheers, the applauses, the screams...cannot say how amazing it was in words! The leader of this amazing performance is no-one other than Late Princess Norodom Bopha Devi who was standing there to greet us (I have never met the royalties before in my life and she passed away after this event - losing the gem of Khmer culture and art icon). I would like to highlight that these dancers are top professional dancers who are always on tours to Europe and America to show people about the Cambodian Dance. You can have a virtual watch at Wadhanadevy and here and more. 

Royal Ballet Dance, Phnom PenhRoyal Ballet Dance, Phnom Penh

Royal Ballet Dancers performing "Neang Wadhana Devy" folktale at Chaktomuk conference Hall in Jan 2019

• LIVE Khmer Kickboxing: another unplanned tour was to see live international kickboxing event on the weekend at the TV station in Phnom Penh, such an amazing experience - everyone was cheering so loud and excited.

Khmer Kickboxing LIVE on TV at TV Station, Phnom Penh

2. Battambang:

• Performance of students at Phare Circus: he was invited by my friend to see the show at the amazing Art Training School called He really loves it.
• After this, he went to the see a flock of Bats fly out from Phnom Sampov at Sunset. 
• He also went to the Meditation Center and met my Master Venerable Hak Seanghay, leader of Buddhism for Education Cambodia (his center is on the way to Phnom Banon for popular Bamboo Train). He got a chance to talk about Dhamma and understood more about life and reality through Dhamma talk - mental remedy.  

3. Siem Reap and Preah Vihear

• Here, we were enjoying the temple tour around Angkor Wat, Bayon, Banteay Srei, Taprum, Preah Vihear Temple & Koh Ker temple and others. You heard about them, I need not to say 

4. Kompot and Sihanouk Ville

• French visitors really loves Kompot - I am not very sure about the reasons, perhaps mountain, stream, beaches, fresh seafood and Kompot pepper?  
• Sihanouk Ville for Koh Rong Sanleum. I need not to say how fabulous the island is.

This is a summary: the highlights would be the performance, the kickboxing LIVE, the most beautiful island and of course, the grand tour at temples - UNESCO World's Heritage Sites since 1992.

Budget of the trip:

The total budget is 1,500$ (excluded return airfare France - Cambodia - P.S. he is not a budget traveler) for all of these activities. You could have spent less than these giving the facts that you save and not indulge in such fancy treats.

• Accommodation: staying at 3  hotel, some point at 4  hotel where he spent about 100$/night instead of 25-30$
• Transportation: Some point, hired a private taxi which cost about 100$ return, while a taxi is 20$ return. Speedboat to the island (instead of normal boat)
• Entrance tickets: VIP tickets for the show at Smiling Angkor (regretting not going to Phare Circus at Siem Reap, VIP ticket is 38$ but very much worth it at Phare). (3) Temples tickets: Angkor Wat for Siem Reap, Koh Ker and Preah Vihear them purchased differently.
• Food and drink: meal at some points at expensive restaurants
• Others expenses..

P.S. The dancers wore WHITE all over their body on purpose - WHITE means purity and that represents God, Devine and Heaven.

Notes***: Cambodian dances were divided into three categories:

• 1). របាំបុរាណ Classical dance (like this one) - needs very long time to train before you are able to dance professionally. They have classes from primary school level to university level (decades of practice). 'Royal Ballet Dance' danced by all women, 'Lakorn Khol or Masked dance' danced by all men. Royal Ballet Dance has many other dances that even me, I can't distinguish them.
• 2). របាំប្រពៃណី Folk Dance - you need to train too in order to dance but only dance occasionally based on events or traditional celebration like Cambodian New year. You don't need years of practice for this one. You can watch them at the National Museum of Cambodia every Friday if you are in Phnom Penh.
• 3). របាំប្រជាប្រិយ៍ Popular Dance - it is a dance everyone can dance. It is for modern music where you dance along [(I can dance this one  ]. Cambodian people dance at parties, wedding receptions, housewarming parties, gatherings.. wherever there are music, Live or play music!

Tips for visit:

• If you want to see the vibrant circus performance at Phare Circus, I would recommend do it in Siem Reap, at Battambang it is more training school (cheaper). This is a top list must see in Siem Reap recommended by visitors, besides temples.
• If you want to see various cultural shows in Phnom Penh, there is a regular performance shown by students from Khmer Living Arts at the National Museum every Friday (check before for the update). In Siem Reap, there are few restaurants you can watch the performance, such as Kulen, Amazon Angkor . 
• There are school for training arts like Cambodian Living Arts, Phare Battambang, EYC, 
• Khmer kickboxing Live at at two televisions at the weekends, CTN and SeaTV. Learn more about the martial arts of Bokator here