Flying to Cambodia...

We tacked a two-day excursion to the Angkor Wat temples at Siem Reap onto the end of our tour of Vietnam in April, flying there directly from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It’s a very popular route with travellers, so anyone planning on making this trip should book their flights well in advance, and get to the airport in good time as the flights are almost always overbooked.


The guide books warn you to avoid Angkor Wat during the months of March to May, unless you enjoy spending huge amounts of time in steam rooms. They use descriptions like ‘stifling heat’ and ‘sapping humidity’. They are not exaggerating! I grew up in a hot, tropical country and I have visited a few more in my time, but I can safely say that during those months, Cambodia has the hottest, stickiest, most uncomfortable climate that I have ever experienced. On the plus side, at least it was not raining.

Given the unpleasant conditions, we should have more or less had the place to ourselves.... but we hadn't realised that our trip coincided with the Khmer and Thai New Year festivities.  Or that Thailand's fugitive former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, would be holding a mass rally for his "Red Shirt" supporters in Siem Reap that weekend.

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra - Photo source

An estimated 50,000 Red Shirts made the pilgrimage from Thailand to Siem Reap to catch a glimpse of the one-time premier, who has been living in a kind of self-imposed exile for years. As a gesture of friendship, the Red Shirts were all given free admission to Angkor Wat by the Cambodian authorities.... all 50,000 of them!

To be honest, I am not particularly clued up when it comes to the politics of the situation... all I know is, Siem Reap was heaving!

And that security was very tight.....

And that loads of people wearing red shirts can really spoil photographs of ancient temples! It was already a huge challenge just trying to capture the temples, without passing out from heat exhaustion and dehydration.

Angkor Wat is one of those places that I had included on my bucket list of Places I Hope To See Before I Die. Looking back on the experience now, I think perhaps I did not truely appreciate the magnificent temples. The intense heat, the crowds, my tiredness after a fortnight of touring Vietnam and the slightly 'edgy vibe' in Siem Reap just got to me that weekend.

Angkor Wat

The inspiration for the title to this blog post is Kim Wilde's "Flying to Cambodia"... I absolutely loved this song as a teenager (and still have it on my ipod today). Cambodia seemed such a mysterious, secretive place, almost fictional. I was blissfully ignorant of the country's tragic, and still so recent, past...

You can read more about Cambodia's history over here.

I will post more photos on the temples shortly. This post is just to set the scene for my time in Cambodia...