We always wanted to try a riverboat tour, so when we found that G Adventures offered a small riverboat option from Siem Reap to Phenom Penh, we decided to give it a try. The boat only had 14 2-person cabins, so it was a reasonable number of people to coordinate. The group was an interesting mix of mostly Aussie’s, Brits, and Canadians, but also 2 Norwegian’s, 2 Kenyan’s , and 1 German. We only did 3 nights on the boat, but everyone else was going on to Ho Chin Min city, and doing 6 nights total.
This boat tour confirmed that I am really not a ‘tour’ person. The daily activities included too much shopping time, and to me any shopping time is too much shopping time. I had never heard of G Adventures before, but several on the boat had done previous tours with them, and they offer some very interesting tour options. Unfortunately the ones the appeal to me most are often their “18 to 30 something” tours. Maybe I should get a fake ID that makes me 39 again?
The boat tour included a number of interesting stops, including a floating village, a brick factory, pottery making, palm sugar making, and more. See the photos in the link below. It also included a chat with a couple survivors of Khmer Rouge prisons, and a visit to one of the killing fields. See this documentary if you want to know more about the Khmer Rouge, which is responsible for the 3rd worst genocide in modern history.
In Phenom Penh we did the Vespa Adventures “Nightlife Adventure” tour, which was a blast, and helped me forget about the killing fields.
Overall we liked Phenom Penh a lot. Lots of friendly helpful people, great food, and good nightlife. Unfortunately the air pollution bothered us both enough that 2.5 days was our limit there. In PP we stayed in a great AirBNB near the royal palace. It was a great local experience, as the apartment was at the end of a hallway where everyone on that floor of the building did their cooking in the hallway. Everyone was super friendly, and the food always looked and smelled really good. Unfortunately we did not get invited to dinner. 🙁
