Cambodia January 2025

[FunFifties]

Recently completed my first trip to Cambodia. I absolutely loved it, so here are a few highlights, starting with 6 days in Siem Reap.

 

I traveled over land from Bangkok by train to Aranya Prathet. The train is 3rd class only, so it was a warm and dusty affair, but really cheap. I forgot the exact price, but less than 100 baht for the train ticket. There are two trains a day - one early morning and one around 1 pm. Train departs from the old Bangkok Central Station and is scheduled to take 4,5 hours, but I was warned that there were often delays. I was on the afternoon train and it was only about an hour late, so I had time to cross the border at Poi Pet before it closed at 10 pm. I crossed the border and had a meal while I set up the e-sim I had bought to access data in Cambodia.

 

 

 

I then proceeded to find out if I could get to Siem Reap the same evening, and was squeezed into a Phnom Penh bound sleeper bus that dropped me off in Siem Reap around midnight.

A few days before my trip started, I had tried Grindr’s roaming function to see if I could make any contacts before arriving to Siem Reap. I made a few and one of them, an early twenties college student, was very eager to meet me and we kept in touch as my journey progressed. Since I was a day early, I asked him to call my hotel to see if they could accommodate me already.

 

I stayed in the King’s Rock hotel thanks to @vinapu's recommendation from a previous trip report. I found it good value for money, conveniently located, and visitor friendly.

I spend 6 nights in Siem Reap. First day I explored the town itself with college student as my guide. The next three days I had booked a private tour of the big and small temple loop on the first two days and a trip to Kulen mountain on the third. I booked through Affinity tours and was very pleased with the experience.

In the evenings I went out with college student for dinner and drinks and he slept over most nights. On a saturday evening we visited Bar Code for the drag show which started at 9 and finished around midnight. It was not as polished as Stranger Bar in Bangkok, but more camp and equally fun. Besides college student I hooked up with two more guys I met via Grindr. One mid thirties with a great body whom I met twice, and one early twenties cutie who asked for 20 usd which I was happy to give him. There were also offers of massages on Grindr, but between all the sightseeing and me enjoying the company of college student there wasn’t really time to check out that scene.

 

My next stop was Battambang - plan to report on that stop in the near future.

 

[FunFifties]

Battambang - Bat Cave, Bamboo Train, Bicycle Tour, Circus School, and a Close Encounter with the Clergy

 

I made the journey to Battambang by boat crossing the Tonle Sap Lake and then going up the Sangker River until it became too shallow to navigate. We were then transferred to pick-up trucks for a 30 minute drive into town. There are much faster alternatives by road from Siem Reap to Battambang, but it was a great opportunity to see floating villages and different methods of fishing along the way and I quite enjoy slow travel.

 

 

I stayed in in Seng Hout Hotel. Cheap, clean, decent room, visitor friendly, but no breakfast option. It has a pool, but it is not staffed so you have to bring your own towel and drinks if you want to hang out here.

 

Tourists come to Battambang for the Bat Cave just outside town, the Bamboo Train, the Phare Ponleu Selpak performing and visual arts school, and the French colonial architecture. At the Bat Cave you can see thousands of bats exiting at sunset and there are also a few pagodas as well as a temple/murder cave in the vicinity. It is well worth an afternoon’s visit. The Bamboo Train is a really fun ride. The bamboo carts can be assembled and disassembled in very little time to allow for other carts to pass or to change direction on the one track railroad.

 

 

 

 

Phare Ponleu Selpak was also worth the visit. The school was founded in the 90s in Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand. The idea was to let children process their trauma through the arts. Today Phare Ponleu Sak has branches in Siem Reap and Phnomh Penh where artists trained at the school give performances. I enjoyed a tour of the school and a show. In addition to the must-sees of Battambang, I also went on a half day bicycle tour of the surrounding villages with an outfit called Soksabike. It was an interesting tour with focus on local production. The guides were very pleasant and looked very nice in their bicycle outfits.

 

Hook-up wise, I wasn’t overwhelmed with the amount of attention I got on Grindr, but I did manage to secure 4 meets. One was meh, one was ok, one was good, and one was very good. The very good one was a bit of an adventure actually. It was in the morning on the day of my departure and a guy that I had chatted with a little the previous day sent me a picture and his location. The picture was of him in monk’s robes and the location was a temple a 15 minute walk across the river. So I went there, met him in his cell/office - a small room with a desk, a bed and an ensuite bathroom. He was mid thirties with a great body and we had two rounds of really good sex. In case you were wondering, he didn’t wear anything beneath his robes ;).

 

In the afternoon I got on a minivan to go to Phnom Penh. I considered the train, but it only runs once a day and would take considerably longer and only arrive in Phnom Penh after midnight. 

 

[vinapu]

corrupting clergy, that must be first report of this kind here , lol

Thanks for report as we hear rarely about that area of Cambodia 

[macaroni21]

Had a similar "encounter" with Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka several years ago. He was the tour host for visitors to the temple, so we got to talking. Invited to his room after the tour, in which was a desk, a bed and a wall full of shelves and books. Had some non-penetrative fun, but the trouble was that there was no attached bathroom... so could only wipe up and goodbye. It would be far too obvious for a visitor to be taking a shower in the common monastic bathroom!

[FunFifties]

Phnom Penh - Killing Fields, POC Lounge, massage

 

Arrived early evening. While on Tuc-tuc taking me from Bus terminal to OK Palace Hotel (convenient location, spacious room, visitor friendly as reported from by other Forum member), I opened Grindr and a lot of messages started pouring in. One was from an early 30s Indonesian tourist: We agreed to meet, went to the area in front of the Palace, took a walk along the River and had dinner before we ended back in my room. All in all a very pleasant meeting and we agreed to keep in touch the next day.

In the morning of the next day I visited Killing Fields/Choeung Ek Genocidal center. The Audio Guide was excellent and gave a chilling account of what had happened in this location and in Cambodia in general. Some of it based on personal accounts of survivors and their relatives.

Was back in the city centre around noon and met with fellow tourist from previous night for lunch. After lunch he joined me for a nap. It was a nice nap, but the before and after nap activities were even nicer We agreed to meet again later to check out POC Lounge (Pride of Cambodia), a gay bar close to the hotel. I arrived a little before 9 and shortly after that my nap buddy informed me he was going to arrive later than expected. I spent the waiting time chatting to a couple of the staff members who readily accepted my offer to buy them drinks. There were 4 kinds of staff members; fully clothed bar men working behind the bar, guys in shorts and tank tops, dancing boys (all looked very young) in only shorts and sneakers, and drag queens. The guys I chatted with wore shorts and tank tops. They advertised that they worked upstairs in the massage place called Paradise. I exchanged whatsapp number with one of them, as I was interested in getting a massage the next day. Nap buddy arrived a little after 10, just as the Drag show started. It was a great show with Asian songs and outfits as well as the more standard lip syncing to gay anthems that you would expect in a Drag Show. After the show, nap buddy and I went back to the hotel for a sleep over.

 

Since I had been travelling for almost two weeks by now, I decided that I needed a slow day before the next leg of my journey. I had my nails and feet done at a nail salon in the morning, and the masseur from last night’s visit to POC Lounge got in touch asking if I would come by for a massage and extras. Massage was good. Extras were also nice, but a bit mechanical. I guess I had been hoping for something that felt a bit more personal since I thought we had a good connection the previous night. Massage was 15 or 25 and I gave him 60 including tips and he seemed pleased with that. After the massage, I walked around for a few hours until sunset. Had another dinner and sleepover with Indonesian guy. We woke early next morning, as I had a train to Kep to catch and he was bound for Siem Reap. 

 

  

[vinapu]

which bed out of three you guys choose? I stay in similar if not exactly the same room in Aug and opted for bed by the balcony door.

[FunFifties]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

which bed out of three you guys choose? I stay in similar if not exactly the same room in Aug and opted for bed by the balcony door.

We chose the one closest to the bathroom grabbing an extra pillow from the middle bed. Your bed was left untouched

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, FunFifties said:

 Your bed was left untouched

You are gentleman and a scholar !

[AsianExplorer]

I have an updated list of combodia massage and fun shops. I will post later.

[vinapu]

16 minutes ago, AsianExplorer said:

I have an updated list of Cambodia massage and fun shops. I will post later.

you have  a good heart!