Many of you may not know, but I’m Cambodian American.

My parents came here many years ago, and I was born and raised in the States.

When I was younger, I honestly never had that much interest in going back.

I really just wanted to read, play basketball with my friends, and play games.

You know, kid stuff.

But last year, when the opportunity to go with my parents came, I took it.

I was a bit traveled out from my recent month in Japan, but I figured this might be the last chance I’d get.

Today we’re going to dive into that adventure.

I’ll share with you the different cities, unique and interesting things to do there, and of course the many photos I took.

This is me, photographing my homeland for the first time.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia.

During our trip, we honestly didn’t spend too much time here, save for a few days.

Nevertheless, there’s a lot to do here, and you can spend your entire trip in this city alone.

Upon landing, my first impressions were: it’s packed.

It’s about what you’d expect of a developing capital city: narrow streets, lots of people, and tall buildings.

The chaos can be a bit fun but also tiresome if you’re trying to get from place to place.

If you come here, make sure you visit the street markets like: Phsar Tmei, Phsar Orussey, and the Olympic Market.

It’s here you’ll find a lot authentic street food like num chek (fried bananas), changkak (skewers), and tek daung (coconut water).

You can also look around and buy some authentic Cambodian fabric.

These are typically used for traditional or formal wear and could be something nice to bring back.

The markets in general make for great street photography.

It’s a bit chaotic, and admittedly, crowds can be sometimes be suffocating, but I think it’s worth it.

The reason being: you’ll get a lot of shots you can’t find elsewhere.

Just the environment and vibe makes for a unique aesthetic and there are plenty of small moments to pick out.

Aside from the markets you can take a walk down the river, visit the palace, and explore the many other things the city has to offer.

Again, I only stayed couple of nights there, so I didn’t do everything there is to do.

Phnom Penh is sometimes talked about as a dangerous city where one should be careful in.

I was warned once to be careful carrying my camera around, because I could get mugged, but I was fine.

Most of the people are nice, and it’s not too different from any large city like LA.

Your experience obviously may vary, but just try to be careful.

Have street smarts and don’t do stuff that’s asking to get robbed.

Overall my impressions of Phnom Penh were: nice but a bit too hectic for my taste.

Honestly, I enjoyed my time in the other cities more.

Here’s why.

Battambang

Initially when planning for this trip, I didn’t think I’d like Battambang much.

Because…I wasn’t quite sure what there was to do there.

But if you’re tired of the crowds and density of cities, you wanna escape a bit and go somewhere more rural, or you just want to see some unique stuff, I’d go to Battambang.

Battambang is a city just a few hours north of Phnom Penh.

It doesn’t have overly dense crowds or super tall buildings, giving it a calmer more relaxed feeling.

But in my opinion, Battambang has some of the best food in Cambodia.

Most of the foods here are found in markets, restaurants, or just random street pop ups.

And everything is made by a mom, an aunt, a grandma, or a grandpa.

So that’s how you know it’s good.

Battambang is also near the border of Thailand so you can find some good Khmer/Thai fusion.

If you’re looking for something unique, you can find foods like pot laeh (black corn) or tuk tnout (palm tree water), but you’ll have to know a local and be lucky.

There are also fried insects like crickets at the markets if you’re into that.

In terms of stuff to do and places to photograph, you have street markets similar to the ones in Phnom Penh.

There’s a nice river where everyone walks down at night.

And you can visit the popular landmark “Ta Dumbong” in the middle of the city.

There are also various temples and ruins you can explore, much like Siem Reap, but you might need help from a local to find them.

So lots of similar stuff to do, just less crowded and cheaper.

I will say though, if you plan on visiting Battambang, make sure you check out the bat caves.

Every day, around sunset, millions of bats fly out of these caves to hunt.

The spectacle lasts for over an hour which is crazy and shows just how many of them there are.

I had a fixed lens camera when I visited, so they just look like little dots in my photos, but still pretty cool.

It’s honestly one of the more neat experiences in all of Cambodia.

So that’s Battambang.

Now, let’s move onto what many people visit Cambodia for: Siem Reap.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap is probably the most traveled to and well known city of Cambodia.

It’s home to what’s widely considered the largest religious temple in the world, Angkor Wat.

Over the decades, the city itself has become a tourist hub.

andre pel cambodia siem reap travel photography

Many people travel to visit and see the various temples that exist in the area, and the architecture itself has begun to reflect that.

Much of Siem Reap feels like a resort, kind of like a city mixed with jungle.

Because of the many tourists, prices are higher than compared to what you’d get in other cities, but still cheap relative to the rest of the world.

The main attraction here is of course Angkor Wat.

I visited the temple during sunrise in an attempt to get good photos and there was surprisingly a decent sized crowd there.

Getting there requires a tuktuk and a long walk across the bridge.

You’ll pass through a few entrance structures which look as if they could be temples themselves.

And once you get past the main gate, that’s when I think the sheer scale of the place sets in.

For sunrise, most people were crowded around the lake as the reflection of the temple and sky helps get you that “bucket shot”.

It honestly felt like I was standing in the middle of a concert waiting for the show to start.

Framing the shot as best I could, this is what I came out with:

It’s a silhouette of the temple alongside the sunset and reflection.

I would’ve loved to bring out the details in the shadows more but it didn’t look right so I kept the shadows crushed.

Exploring the rest of the temple was also a lot of fun.

There’s so many different rooms and areas to go through that you could spend hours and hours here.

And each room has intricate carvings, designs, and builds.

It was a bit sad to see though, since many of the statues and apsaras had been broken or stolen.

The state of the temple in general honestly wasn’t the best, and there were several areas under construction.

But you could definitely get a feel for and imagine what it looked like during it’s peak.

Now, if you come to Siem Reap, don’t just go to Angkor Wat.

There are many other fascinating temples in the surrounding area, and some of them are very unique on their own.

We’ll explore them more deeply in another video, just keep that in mind.

Hearing about Angkor Wat my whole life, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I think you’d often expect places like these to be overrated or less impressive than you’ve heard.

But there were plenty of moments where I felt surprised, impressed, or in awe.

I think if I hadn’t heard so much about it growing up, and had visited with no expectations, I might’ve been speechless.

So in my personal experience, it’s accurately rated.

Probably just as, if not more, impressive than what you’ve heard.

Reflections

Going from one of the most developed countries, Japan, in October prior, to a place like Cambodia a couple months later, the difference wasn’t as drastic as you might expect.

It honestly just felt like another city, another town.

Cambodia is a country with a bit of a rough history, yet I’ve found some of the people to be remarkably more happy than many of those back in the states.

This isn’t me dismissing anyone’s struggles or being ungrateful for what I’ve got, it’s just a small thing I’ve noticed.

All things considered, photographing my homeland for the first time was an experience I won’t forget.

The whole country felt quite familiar as I’ve grown up around Cambodian people and Cambodian culture my whole life.

I only know a little bit of Khmer, so at times it did feel like I was not a “real Cambodian” going to visit.

And there wasn’t a moment of euphoria or sort of “I’m home” moment like you’d expect, but that’s okay.

The trip as a whole, the experiences, connecting culturally, and the photos were worth it - and I’m glad I went.

I hope you enjoyed or found this interesting.

We’ll be exploring more specific photo spots for the different cities in Cambodia in future videos, flip flopping with the Japan ones as I’ve got a lot of stories lined up.

So stay tuned for that, we’ve also got new prints and limited merch available.

Thanks as always for reading, have a great day.