Customer Blog: Kit & Matthew's Cambodian Adventure 2023

Travel Counsellors- and Lucy in particular- came highly recommended from my Mum, who always says Lucy takes the stress out of travelling and that was definitely our experience on this trip! My husband and I were looking for a bit of an adventure together, post-Covid and neither of us had been to South East Asia. Talking to friends who’d been to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia we decided on Cambodia and contacted Lucy around 5 months before the trip. I really enjoyed those initial chats with Lucy, sharing our “essential ingredients” for the trip, from the research we’d done, and hearing her ideas and suggestions to put together a tailored holiday to suit exactly what we were looking for. We ended up with a 1 week group tour through Cambodia, seeing parts of the country we’d have never gone to by ourselves with a local guide who was brilliant, followed by a week on our own relaxing on the beach and seeing the capital before flying home. This was the perfect balance between travelling around & exploring and slowing down & enjoying a rest. Getting it all confirmed around 4 months before the trip was a great feeling and receiving our tickets and itinerary in the post was so exciting! The highlights of the trip included: • Sunrise at Angkor Wat • Cambodian cooking class • Cambodian circus • Homestay in a rural village • Koh Rong Island • Killing Fields in Phnom Penh

We had 3 days in Siem Reap, which was great as it’s a really cool city. This is where we did our cooking class and saw the Cambodian circus. Angkor Wat (and the other temples nearby) lived up to the hype and it’s well worth getting up early to visit at sunrise. We took a bus to Kampong Cham and then onto Chambok for our homestay. We stayed with a family from the village, sleeping on roll-up mats on the floor with a mosquito net, we hiked out to a nearby waterfall, ate local food prepared for us and enjoyed a traditional dance performance from the village children. It was really special and not something we’d have thought of by ourselves. After one night in the homestay, we went to Kampot in South Cambodia- another really interesting city where we visited a pepper plantation and took a sunset cruise. This was the point where we left the group and hopped on a boat over to Koh Rong Island for 4 days to completely unwind by the beach. Lucy booked an amazing hotel with log cabins literally built on the beach and we were happy to spend almost the whole 4 days just sunbathing, swimming and trying out the local restaurants. We did book a night-time snorkelling trip to see the bioluminescent plankton and we hired a moped to explore another part of the island but that was about as taxing as it got! Finally, we returned to the mainland and took a bus to Phnom Penh. The history of Cambodia (its civil war, dictatorship and genocide) is both very harrowing and very recent. We saw traces of it in almost everything we saw and everyone we met. It’s particularly confronting in Phnom Penh though, where we visited the Killing Fields and the S-21 torture centre. We felt it was important to go and to educate ourselves and we’re glad we did but it’s very emotional.

If you’re looking for an adventure, I’d definitely recommend Cambodia and I’d definitely recommend booking with Lucy! A few top tips: • Pack clothes that fully cover your shoulders and knees but are still light and cool. We expected this at Angkor Wat but got caught out on days when we “popped into” a temple or pagoda and at the Killing Fields as these are considered a memorial to the dead. • Bring way more US dollars than you think you’ll need. Lots of places didn’t accept card, even in the cities, and you can always change them back. • Try the deep fried insects if you’re brave- we didn’t!