My arrival in Cambodia from Vietnam was already a struggle. The bus driver harassed me to pay 5 extra dollars to be able to cross the border by bus which I refused to do. He was so upset, he kicked me out of the bus and told me that I better start walking if I was refusing to add 5 extra dollars to the regular price of the visa ...No biggie! I walked and waited for the bus on the Cambodian side! 

This was my first impression of the country: a struggle to pay the real price of things.

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After talking to many backpackers that visited Cambodia few years earlier, it appears Cambodia has been drastically transformed by tourism.

 

Cambodia is making money on 3 types of tourism: Gambling tourism (The first thing I saw when crossing the border was a casino),Chinese tourism (Sihanoukville is the saddest example of it...the whole town has been destroyed to be rebuilt... The construction will probably never be over since half of the constructions have been engaged to cover money laundering) and sexual tourism (most of the time this concern young children and teenagers).

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So yes, by running after money, the country has not necessarily positively evolved.

But some place remains quite preserved or at least preserved from mass tourism. this was the case of Kampot, Koh rong, Koh rong Samloem and Koh Ta Kiev.

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Even if it was very touristy, I also really enjoyed visiting the Angkor temples by bike. If you leave early enough you can enjoy the sunrise : just save the main temple for later since every person going to Angkor early is enjoying the sunrise there.

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