How to bring together lovers of traditional temples, fans of fishing villages and aficionados of exotic culinary practices? Cambodia may have found the solution, by offering a range of extremely varied landscapes and cultural practices, which Jean-Bernard Carillet invites you to discover in his column for the program Et si on departait? on Europe 1. The author for the Lonely Planet reveals his favorites of a country little known in France, but which definitely deserves to be.
The sweetness of life in Phnom Penh
Arriving in Cambodia, you can start your visit with Phnom Penh, the capital. Unlike other Asian metropolises, such as Hong Kong or Bangkok, Phnom Penh retains an almost provincial charm. There are no skyscrapers, no hectic side, but an incredible sweetness of life, an indolence, which makes you quickly take your marks. In recent years, with Chinese investments, this atmosphere has been changing.
Angkor and its bewitching beauty
The visit can be followed by a tour of the Angkor site. It is a tourist gem and a major archaeological site. Visitors are immediately captivated by the historical dimension of the site. Angkor was the political and cultural center of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th century, the soul of Khmer civilization. It is estimated that at its peak, the Angkor site had one million inhabitants.
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There is no need to be an old stone enthusiast as the site itself takes visitors to the guts. We are totally captivated by its size: 300 km2, or three times the area of Paris! The beauty and quantity of monuments is equally impressive. There are dozens of palaces, temples and pagodas.
The decor is particular: some temples are surrounded by banyan lianas (trees with aerial roots), which gives a bewitching appearance. From time to time, we see a bonze in traditional dress, an orange toga, who walks in the middle of these remains. It takes two to three days to visit this site, part of it on foot, by tuk-tuk or by bike. The ideal is to be accompanied by a French-speaking guide found in Siem Reap.
Aquatic life at Tonlé Sap
Tonlé Sap Lake is a huge inland sea in the center of the country. It really makes Cambodia a country apart in Asia. It is the country's green lung, which has the particularity of inflating or deflating to the rhythm of the monsoons, thanks to a phenomenon of silt communicating with the Mekong River. With 14 meters of amplitude, it is as if there were tides. Its waters are full of fish, which makes it Cambodia's pantry.
It is possible to take a boat trip in the middle of the many fishing villages located on its banks. They look like lakeside towns, with wooden or woven bamboo houses, some on stilts. Others are floating houses. Moored to each other, they are moved several times a year to follow schools of fish and adapt to the lake's rising and falling levels. There are schools, grocery stores, gas stations. These water people, who live in harmony with nature, are fascinating.
We witness incredible slices of life in this amphibious world: we meet children going to school by boat, mothers go shopping in floating stalls (jewelers, hairdressers ...), fishermen bring back the catch of the day . It's a real world apart.
Try your hand at insects
Then take the road to the south of the country, with a rather special stop: Skun, 70 km north of the capital, and its insect market. Sensitive souls refrain ! In Cambodia, insects and spiders are delicacies and there is a wide variety of fresh products on this market: ants, crickets, water fleas, cockroaches, tarantulas, silkworms, grasshoppers… These foods can be eaten fried, marinated, grilled, sautéed in a wok, in fritters or even roasted in the oven.
In Siem Reap, near Angkor, there are also specialist insect bar and restaurants, such as grasshopper tapas, ant spring rolls, tarantula fritters, and scorpion salads. For dessert, we can indulge in a chocolate fondue, in which we dip crickets and silkworms, or a fresh fruit salad with caramelized crickets.
A hidden paradise to discover
To end your stay in Cambodia in style, what could be better than a seaside resort? The other great asset of this country lies in its maritime facade, with a string of seaside resorts that are much more authentic than their Thai neighbors. You can choose Sihanoukville, Kampot, but Kep has a special charm. It's a bit like the local 'Cancale', except that we don't taste oysters but crabs, sold every morning directly on the seafront. The grilled fish is also very good.
Finally, there are hidden paradises in Cambodia: for the white sand beach, turquoise water, lazing around, the coconut palms, the small bungalow and the hammock, the ideal is to go to one of the offshore islands. from the country. It has nothing to do with Thailand, which has a lot of islands. Here is the name of a nugget: Koh Rong, a heavenly place 2 hours by boat from Sihanoukville.