Cambodia Sojourn

Day 1 :
AirAsia flight departs Kuala Lumpur(KL), slightly delayed, with some turbulence along the way, but arrives on the dot per schedule. Arrival hall chaotic & congested, as passengers are required to fill up & submit health, custom declaration & immigration forms & visa application. Otherwise, smooth & uneventful.
SIM cards can be purchased cheaply from kiosks just after passing custom. Telco Smart has a very good package for US5 with 1.5 gigabytes data & call times, sms.
Many tuk-tuk drivers waiting outside Phnom Penh(PP) airport entrance/exit, willing to take you to your hotel for US5.
A decent room at NaNa hotel near the central market costs US18 per night, & very close to Sorya bus station. There are many travel options to every corner of Cambodia with Sorya transport.


After purchasing a ticket to Banlung, Ratanakiri the next morning, I take a slow & long walk along st 51, an entertainment artery in PP. It is a very dusty street in parts due to road surfacing work. There are many restaurants & food stalls along the road, and quite cheap too.
Post-dinner activities:
A ride on a motorcycle to Hatha Khmer massage costs USD1. About 25 masculine men, shirtless & in jeans quickly gather in the selection room,
for me too choose from. USD10 for 1 hour massage, and any special favour can be negotiated with the masseur. I'm pleased with the services & facilities.

Jack'd & Grindr are very active, with many guys willing to come to your room for a small fee.

Day 2 :

My original intention was to visit Ratanakiri & Mondulkiri, in the northeast, but with only 6 nights for this trip, I had to forego the latter. travelling by bus to Banlung took a good 11 hours, with 3 stops for food & toilet. Departed PP at 7.40 am, ticket costing USD12 bought at the station. Beautiful rice fields along the way. Because of the bad stretches of road in some areas, the bus finally reached Banlung a couple of hours after sunset. Not unlike in Thailand, motorbike & tuk-tuk drivers were eagerly waiting for customers at the station, about 2-3 km from the town centre. A polite driver took me to my hotel of choice for USD1.
I stayed at lakeside Chheng Lok hotel, with huge rooms & high ceilings, but low prices from USD7 fan room to USD 12 air con. the in-house restaurant served tasty food, and drinkers could enjoy cheap alcohol during happy hours. The evening air was quite cool in the low twenties.
Banlung is located about 30km from the Vietnamese border, and most entries in gay sites were Vietnamese.

Day 3 :

I engaged the services of my driver the previous evening for a full-day trip around the province. As it was a Saturday, the primary school teacher moonlight as a tourist guide, & I agreed to his fee of USD20. at first it was quite uncomfortable riding million, but I soon got the hang of it. Saw a couple of waterfalls. I'm not able to upload images :-). help please...

Hi dinagam,

Thanks for the report.

To upload a picture, first press the green "Post Reply" button (NOT the black "Quick reply" button)

The reply box will appear.

Underneath the reply box you will see the following:

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Click on the upload attachment button (circled in yellow) and you will be prompted to browse to select a picture that is saved in your computer.
Once you select it, place your cursor where you want the picture to appear in the reply box and click the black "Place inline" box.
The picture will be placed in that point in the reply box.

Hope this helps!

A friend of mine was in Siem Reap last week and visited Blue Hatha for a massage. Very vocal fucking going on in the next room. No choice of masseurs, his was covered in tattoos so he did the Victorian maiden thing, closed his eyes and thought of England. "special" massage offered and declined. Massage said by my friend to be "poor to average". Paid for 90 minutes, out in 60 minutes - a common complaint about the place when you google for reviews.

Trying out one. [attachment=1:1uxhjw93]P_20141206_100144.jpg[/attachment:1uxhjw93]

Thanks Ronan.

Will resume posting later.

Working on a small tablet, with low memory & slow internet can be quite exasperating.
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[attachment=0:3hwzjimn]P_20141206_160715.jpg[/attachment:3hwzjimn][attachment=1:3hwzjimn]P_20141206_143043.jpg[/attachment:3hwzjimn][attachment=2:3hwzjimn]P_20141206_133635.jpg[/attachment:3hwzjimn][attachment=3:3hwzjimn]P_20141206_113618.jpg[/attachment:3hwzjimn]More pics from Day 3 :

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Some more pics at Yaklom crater lake. The lake is less than 1km in diameter. Entrance fee for foreigners is USD1.5. Life jackets available for hire. No boating facilities though. Lots of locals during weekend. Good place for a picnic.

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Day 4:

I took the early bus to Kratie for USD10, arranged by the hotel, and inclusive of motorbike transfer. Kratie is a midway town between Phnom Penh & the border with Laos. It has quite a beautiful promenade by the mighty Mekong river, with a little island in the middle of the river opposite. The bus trip took about 4 hours, and I checked in at Heng-Heng II Guesthouse around midday. Nice & attentive staff at reception. Got an AC room for USD14 per night, quite comfortable. There was a common balcony facing the river to take in the famous sunset.
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Having read that there are bicycle for hire on the island, I went to the boat pier for a short hop across the river to get to the island. And lo! I was about to share a boat with an island lad. It was certainly a very promising start. The fare was only 1,000 riel(USD1=4,000 riel). My new found friend didn't speak English nor Thai, but we got along fine. I hired 2 bicycles & we did a circuit of the island in 1 hour since its about 2km by 1km in size. Nice countryside vistas.
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When the time came for me to catch the last boat back to the mainland at 5pm, my friend wanted to follow me back. Well & good.
I told myself that I could take in a street urchin this time. He had nothing on him, no money, no phone or wallet, and he didn't smoke & drink. So we crossed the river as the sun was setting to enjoy the beautiful views.
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Great report from an area where very few travellers dare to venture (me included).

Thank you for sharing your pictures and your adventures ... and the local cuties you bumped into (some more details about the island lad on the way ?)

A great incentive to improve my khmer language too.

Day 4, evening :

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After taking in the beautiful sunset, he followed me back to my room. With no ID on him, I simply introduced him as a friend of mine to the friendly reception guy & up he went to the room to freshen up before dinner. I let him chose the local restaurant & menu and everything was going fine. Since Kratie is a small town & we're both non-drinkers & non-smokers of cigarettes, we soon returned to the room to watch some TV & use the internet. At 9.30 pm the lights went out & sleep soon followed, as we were both quite exhausted.
At around 11 I felt some stirring beside me, and my friend was thrusting his hip against me, and I went about to investigate, and lo he was as hard as an oar on the boat. I did what I had to do to pacify him. And we went to bed again.
This involuntary convulsion from hip hips happened twice again at 3am and 7am. And each time I had to do something to pacify him.
Never in my life had I have to do this to a guest in my own room, ok ,maybe a long time ago when I was young and...

How I was taken by surprise by an 18-year old island lad who a few hours earlier had made me prostrate 3 times before his gods when we visited a wat on the island. It must be the water of the Mekong river ....

Day 5 :

One whole day with the island lad.
After a quick shower we went downstairs to begin my plan for the day. I rented a motorbike for USD7 from the guesthouse, got a map & off we went. First for breakfast in a big local restaurant by the river. After we had our fill, off we went cruising along the river heading towards Kampi where the dolphins are and another big island on the Mekong about 30km northeast of Kratie. USD2 was enough to fill up the petrol tank. Just before Kampi we stopped at a hillock near the river with a Buddhist wat on top. From there the views were superb.
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Mahout on his elephant. [attachment=5:2hzlyp76]P_20141208_103037.jpg[/attachment:2hzlyp76]

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On the big island I let the lad drive the bike, and was he thrilled...

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We were five minutes late to take the boat to see the dolphins as the ticket counter closed at 5pm sharp. But the lady was kind enough to let us go to the viewing platform by the river. I descended the stairs right to the river's edge & managed to see some dolphins surfacing for air about 30 metres away. The sunset was spectacular. If you go alone, a foreigner will be charged USD9 for 1 hour boat ride to see the dolphins. In a group it costs USD7 per person.

Great photos! Thanks for sharing.

yes must say a fantastic report with some great pics too. thank you. so looking forward to my trip in about 7 weeks time

Great report - your nocturnal adventure reminded me of my first trip to Cambodia several years ago, and an encounter with a massage boy who got a massive hard on without any stroking, and an urgent need to unload his balls - which I obliged..

Subsequent visits have been increasingly disappointing though..

Someone has suggested to me that the best way to find a boy for the night in Cambodia is not to go looking in bars, but to ask a tuk-tuk driver. Not knowing where he's going to take you makes the exercise a bit scary - but does it work?