Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia dates back to 1327. According to legend, a rich widow named Don Penh found a tree with five Buddha statues in it. The tree was washed to the shore of the Mekong River after a devastating flood. In honour of Buddha, she founded a pagoda which was later named after her, Wat Phnom Don Penh, on top of a large mound in the center of the city. Today too Cambodians flock to the temple daily to make merit and to ask for good luck. In 1866 Phnom Penh became the capital of Cambodia. The city is located right at the “crossing of the rivers” where the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap river meet each other and then separate again to each go their own way.

Phnom Penh fuses Asian exotica, Indochinese charm and Cambodian hospitality. The city was formerly called “The Pearl of Asia” and although the many wars have have taken their toll on it, one still gets a flavor of what it must have been through its present day ambiance.  The city is small and ther are no traffic jams like other South East Asian capital cities:)

Phnom Penh is also the political and economic centre and the gateway to all the other sights that the Country has to offer. Phnom Penh has several cultural and historical attractions such as The Royal Palace with the Silver Pagoda, Wat Unnalaom, Wat Langka, Wat Botum, the National Museum, Wat Phnom, The Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, the nearby Killing Fields and the grand views of the Mekong River. There are lots of places to sit and relax, or to have a good dinner at any of Phnom Penh’s riverside restaurants and watch life go by.

There are several fresh markets of which the best known is are Phsar Tuol Tompoung (Russian Market). Here they sell not only fresh food but also pirated CD’s, clothes, tools and equipment, spare parts, shoes, ceramics and a great range of souvenirs. Popular among foreign visitors are the “genuine fakes” of all the top brand garment factories.

Boat at the Water Village, Siem Reap

A visit to the floating villages near Siem Reap is not the authentic ethnic experience that guides in town would have you believe. In fact it is a very organized and extremely voyeuristic affair, with all Siem Reap tour agents offering some sort of trip to the villages and dozens of boats ferrying visitors along the river. Just beyond Phnom Krom, at Chong Khneas, a new toll station has set up business and you can’t even get to the GECKO exhibition centre (Greater Environment Chong Khneas office), an NGO whose main role is to improve the environmental awareness of the local fishing population without paying the toll.

Boats seating about a dozen people run from the toll booth every 15 to 30 minutes with a fixed price of USD 20 per person for a 1 and a 1/2 hour trip. Naturally enough, villages visited by the boats have capitalized on the tourism – there’s even a cafe now where many of the boats put in – so if you want to get down to Kompong Phluk (about 40 kilometres from Siem Reap, south of the Roluos Group) through Cambodia, it’s worth visiting the floating villages that are further off the beaten path. In the rainy season, when the lake floods up to the foot of Phnom Krom, you can get a feel of the floating villages just by walking along the causeway; here the houses are either on enormously tall stilts or are lashed to pontoons that rise with the flood waters.

Most tourists make for the cosmopolitan capital, Phnom Penh, at some point during their visit. A pleasing, low-rise city graced with leafy boulevards, the capital offers the chance to take in the splendour of the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, while the cream of ancient Khmer art is housed a stone’s throw away at the National Museum. The capital also boasts a vibrant riverside of pavement cafes and bars and is the best place in Cambodia to shop, its colourful markets stocked with shimmering silks and intricate handicrafts.

The main reason that most people come to Cambodia however is to visit the world famous temples of Angkor, just outside the engaging town of Siem Reap. Chief is the majestic Angkor Wat, but close by are the compact Banteay Srei with enchanting bas reliefs of demure divinities; Ta Prohm, clamped in the grip of giant kapok trees; and the intricately designed, slightly surreal Bayon carved with hundreds of faces. The pre-Angkorian temple Sambor Prei Kuk lies just to the northeast of the provincial town of Kompong Thom, while more intrepid travellers can escape the crowds and head for remote temples such as Preah Vihear which clings dramatically to an escarpment on the Thai border, Koh Ker and Beng Mealea, all a day-trip northeast of Siem Reap.

After seeing the temples of Angkor, many people head down to Sihanoukville to spend a few days lazing on the pristine white sand beaches lapped by the waters of the Gulf of Thailand. The cost is peppered with islands and there is a nascent diving industry. Just outside Sihanoukville is the Ream National Park where you can putter downstream as monkeys play in the mangroves and fishing eagles soar overhead. East of Sihanoukville, Kampot is a delightful town of mixed French and Chinese influences, with views to the brooding slopes of Bokor Mountain. Nearby is the beguiling seaside resort of Kep, with a minuscule beach and atmosphere of faded gentility. Its decrepit buildings are being restored, and the tiny town already hosts some of the country’s most stylish accommodation. Inland from here is Angkor Borei, third century capital of Cambodia, accessible only by water for much of the year.

Northeast of the capital, the Mekong at Kratie is home to a graceful population of Irrawaddy dolphins. Getting out to the remote northeastern provincial capitals of Banlung and Sen Monorom takes more time and effort, but the natural beauty of this part of the country is unrivalled, the hillsides brimming with wildlife, dotted with scenic waterfalls and home to the villages of the minority chunchiet tribes, where you can trek on foot or by elephant.

The northwestern border crossing from Thailand at Poipet is an increasingly popular point of entry to Cambodia, while nearby Battambang retains some of the country’s most attractive colonial architecture and makes a convenient stopover on the way to Phnom Penh or an interesting side trip from Siem Reap.

Thanks to the stunning temples of Angkor, Cambodia is now firmly established on the Southeast Asian tourist trail. Many visitors head straight to the temples, staying in Cambodia just a few days, but those who look deeper find that Kampuchea as it was formerly called, with its balmy climate and laid back attitude to life has much more to offer: white sandy beaches and relaxed off shore islands, forest clad hills and impenetrable jungle, a dynamic yet beguiling capital and sleepy provincial towns, in many of which colonial houses and shop-house terraces are now slowly being restored.

For a small country, Cambodia encompasses a surprisingly diverse range of terrain and scenery. Rice fields may be the quintessential feature of this predominantly flat and agricultural land, but there are also significant highland areas and 440 kilometres of coastline, as well as the massive Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, which dominates the heart of the country. In the east, the mighty Mekong River forms a natural divide, beyond which rise the mountains of Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri, where the last of Cambodia’s jungle can be found. In the southwest, the heavily forested Cardamom Mountains run down to the sea, while parts of the southeast are regularly inundated, as the Mekong and its sister river, the Bassac, overflow their banks.

For all its natural beauty and rich heritage, Cambodia is still probably best known in the West for its suffering at the hands of the fanatical Khmer Rouge, who came to power in the 1970′s with a program of mass execution that resulted in the death of a fifth of the population. Their three year reign of terror was followed by a protracted guerrilla war that ended only in 1998 and left much of the country in ruins.  Nowadays however, Cambodia is at peace and visitors will find it a safe place to travel.

Supported by Western aid, the infrastructure has at last improved; new roads now connect all but the most remote provincial centers, rendering most air and river routes redundant, and trade is booming, attested to in the capital, Phnom Penh and major towns by thronging markets, restored colonial villas newly opened as boutique hotels and the re-emergence of a modest middle class.

Cambodian food, influenced by the cuisines of both Thailand and China is delicately flavored and delicious, while the country’s long tradition of artisanship has been revived with weaving, stone carving and silversmithing much in evidence. Temple sites, some dating back to the 6th Century, dot the countryside – several have only recently become accessible and many are now being restored. The majority of the country’s towns still retain some old-world charm, preserving quaint shophouse terraces and colonial architecture dating back to the period of French rule – though perhaps their most tangible colonial legacy is the piles of crusty baguettes heaped up in baskets and hawked around the streets in the early morning.

Though much still has to be done before Cambodia is properly back on her feet, and before most of the population see a substantial improvement in their standard of living, the recovery of the country is largely down to the Cambodians themselves, eternally optimistic, tenacious and tirelessly hospitable.