Symbolic Cambodia: From the Khmer Temples to Koh Rong

About the destination: Siem Reap is the capital city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. It is a popular resort town and a gateway to the Angkor region. Siem Reap has colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter, and around the Old Market. In the city, there are museums, traditional Apsara dance performances, a Cambodian cultural village, souvenir and handycraft shops, silk farms, rice-paddies in the countryside, fishing villages and a bird sanctuary near the Tonle Sap Lake. Siem Reap today—being a popular tourist destination—has a large number of hotels, resorts, restaurants and businesses closely related to tourism. This is much owed to its proximity to the Angkor temples, the most popular tourist attraction in Cambodia.

About the destination: Sihanoukville is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. MAIN TOURIST ATTRACTIONS - Victory Beach. - Independence Beach. - Sokha Beach. owned by Sokha Beach Resort, it is private but you can access it by paying a couple dollars. - Ochheuteal Beach is a long and narrow strip of white sand beach located in Sangkat No3. - Serendipity Beach. It is the most popular beach at the city. Serendipity Beach is connected to Ochheuteal beach. - Kampong Pier Nup Lok. The old fishing port. Offers some nice views. - Ream National Park. A wonderful mangrove nature reserve. - Koh Russei (Bamboo Island). - Koh Rong. - Buddy Land Water Park. This park is the first and unique water park in Sihanoukville.

About the destination: A few years back, Koh Rong was little more than a jungle-clad wilderness rimmed by swaths of sugary-white sand, with a few beach-hut resorts speckling the shore around tiny Koh Tuch village. Today the Koh Tuch village street-strip that leads out from the pier is a bottleneck of back-to-back backpacker crash pads, restaurants, and hole-in-the-wall bars blasting competing music. Look, you'll either love it or hate it, but for young travellers who descend off the ferry in droves, Koh Rong (particularly Koh Tuch beach) is a vital stop on any Southeast Asia party itinerary.

About the destination: Phnom Penh, located at the confluence of the Mekong and the Tonle Sap rivers, is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. There is a very strong French influence in Cambodia, particularly Phnom Penh, so much so that the city was once known as the Paris of the East. The French developed the canal system, ports, roads and buildings. Even though most of the city’s French flair has disappeared, there are a few beautiful French colonial buildings remaining. The Riverside district with its charming river walk, is full of hotels, restaurants and bars looking over the river and is very handy for visiting the main tourist sites. The main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh are Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the Killing Fields, the National Museum, the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda and the temple Wat Phnom. Today, Phnom Penh is one of the fast growing cities in Southeast Asia and you can find upmarket cuisine, a very good arts scene and a vast array of markets. Phnom Penh is a worthwhile destination and a convenient base to explore the rest of the country.