Vietnam / Cambodia / Thailand next year

Doshwaster

PompeyPete wrote: »

A tuk tuk from the airport into town is a great introduction to PP.

I try to avoid tuk tuks in most of SE Asia as they are often tourist ripoffs but in PP they are by far the best way of getting around. They are cheap, friendly and reliable. You just have to be prepared to get very wet when the heavens open.

I think I only paid $10 for a whole day hire to do a tour of the city and out to the Killing Fields.

bylromarha

Doshwaster wrote: »

I think I only paid $10 for a whole day hire to do a tour of the city and out to the Killing Fields.

We have a friend we hire for the week when we're out there - $10 a day too. He is lovely and adores our kids - his own live back in the village he comes from and so he rarely sees them, so he's full of tickles and high fives for any child he's got contact with.

It was he and his buddy who took us back into the airport along the track in 2007. We got a big air con bus into the city after we landed - didn't feel the gravel so much in that.

Travel SR - PP again was a track in 2007. But only $5!!!!!! Bumpy bus fun there - all part of the fun of travelling.

Bangkok tuk tuks so very different to Cambodian ones, I agree. Bangkok want to rip you off or take you on a tour to their shops - Cambodian tuk tuks so friendly and easy to negotiate with. Remember to walk round the corner when you leave restaurants as the ones waiting outside the restaurants are a little more determined on price as they've strongarmed onto the prime pitch outside the place.

Doshwaster

bylromarha wrote: »

Bangkok tuk tuks so very different to Cambodian ones, I agree. Bangkok want to rip you off or take you on a tour to their shops - Cambodian tuk tuks so friendly and easy to negotiate with. Remember to walk round the corner when you leave restaurants as the ones waiting outside the restaurants are a little more determined on price as they've strongarmed onto the prime pitch outside the place.

I used to think it was hilarious to come out of a restaurant to find a load of tuk tuk drivers competing with each other for your attention. It was always friendly though and never got out of hand as it can do in Bangkok.

I'd like to get back to PP soon before it changes beyond all recognition with shopping malls and international hotel chains starting to pop up. Like many other places in SE Asia there is a lot of Russian and Chinese inward "investment" and it's not all for the better.

One of my favourite things to do was to hang out in the riverside bars (especially the Foreign Correspondents Club), drinking very cheap and very strong cocktails while watching the sun go down.

bylromarha

Doshwaster wrote: »

I used to think it was hilarious to come out of a restaurant to find a load of tuk tuk drivers competing with each other for your attention. It was always friendly though and never got out of hand as it can do in Bangkok.

I'd like to get back to PP soon before it changes beyond all recognition with shopping malls and international hotel chains starting to pop up. Like many other places in SE Asia there is a lot of Russian and Chinese inward "investment" and it's not all for the better.

One of my favourite things to do was to hang out in the riverside bars (especially the Foreign Correspondents Club), drinking very cheap and very strong cocktails while watching the sun go down.

Memories - went to FCC on 1st visit there. Good times.

My favourite place to be is the Blue Pumpkin. Discovered it in Siem Riep in 2007 and spent 3 hours there while friends went shopping. Was so impressed to discover in 2012 that Blue Pumpkin have done so well that they now have expanded and have branches in PP - one on the riverside. You may have seen on in PP/SR airport? If you haven't been to one of their proper city outlets, go.

If Apple did coffee shops...

maggiesoop

PompeyPete wrote: »

Any chance of a few clicks on the Thanks icon before we invest any more time on your behalf?;)

Sorry guys I didn't realise I had to thank all posts individually, I posted a message saying thankyou last night and hope that was enough. Please forgive my lack of online manners!:o

lovesgshp

When we were in Cambodia (PP) some years ago, we had one tuk tuk driver that we always used. Again it was about $10 per day. We paid for $50 worth of food for his family and were taken to his village for a meal, which was a really nice gesture as his aged parents wanted to meet and thank us. There was also a festival going on at the Temple close to the house and we were taken there and made very welcome by the locals, such friendly people, considering what they had gone through.
Then we went to SR for a week, and took him with us for a holiday. His brother, also a tuk tuk driver, contacted a friend there whom we hired again for the duration of our stay. Good time for all, as wife also went off to Koh Kher, which I believe is even older than Angkor. Having a local guy, meant we did not have to go through tour companies and prices were far more reasonable.
Yes, the Correspondents Bar is great for a few drinks in PP. We preferred to eat in the local restaurants that the Cambodians used and even in the roadside hawker type places, where our local guy introduced us to a locally produced, milky looking alchoholic drink, the name I cannot recall, but quite good.
Vietnam was very good as well, but we went before all the big hotel chains moved in, again we had 2 cyclo drivers who we used every day to take us around. At the end of the day, we would get them to take us to a local street restaurant, where we would pay for a meal for all of us. (may not be to everyones idea, as the plates were washed with cold water from a hose, but we had no ill effects).
Thailand: Phuket has become the real pits of a place and even though son lives there, he doesn't recommend going. Places off the island are better, although becoming far more commercialised. Koh Samui is again heading in the same way.
Go to Chiang Rai as against Chang Mai, as not so hectic, plus hire a car and drive towards the border crossings.You can go across if you get a visa.

PompeyPete

maggiesoop wrote: »

Sorry guys I didn't realise I had to thank all posts individually, I posted a message saying thankyou last night and hope that was enough. Please forgive my lack of online manners!:o

Thanks for getting back, I've thanked your posting!

Doshwaster

bylromarha wrote: »

Memories - went to FCC on 1st visit there. Good times.

My favourite place to be is the Blue Pumpkin. Discovered it in Siem Riep in 2007 and spent 3 hours there while friends went shopping. Was so impressed to discover in 2012 that Blue Pumpkin have done so well that they now have expanded and have branches in PP - one on the riverside. You may have seen on in PP/SR airport? If you haven't been to one of their proper city outlets, go.

I can't say I noticed the Blue Pumpkin when I was in PP but their website looks fantastic: http://tbpumpkin.com/

The FFC may not be the cheapest bar in town but it's still a great place to hang out and to swap tales with other travellers and NGO workers.

I only got back from Thailand a month ago but this thread is giving me the travel itch.

PompeyPete

Best time for a drink at the FCC is to be there just before the Happy Hour starts (1700-1900).

Grab a seat on the balcony overlooking the traffic madness below on
Sisowath Quay for the next two hours.

A rewarding day out is: Killing Fields - S21 Genocide Museum - lunch - Russian Market - hotel for a scrub - FCC (Happy Hour) - Dinner.
Personally, I avoid NGO workers completely.

PompeyPete

Doshwaster wrote: »

I'd like to get back to PP soon before it changes beyond all recognition with shopping malls and international hotel chains starting to pop up. Like many other places in SE Asia there is a lot of Russian and Chinese inward "investment" and it's not all for the better.

I think that the Sorya Centre Mall is still the only shopping centre in Phnom Penh with an escalator to each floor.

Here's the chaos on the outside...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKStcJtNsQA

And the calm inside...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dywN1Kd1a6Q

Locals go into the Sorya Centre just to try it out, and there are female guards for the escalator on each floor.