travelling to Cambodia - tips?

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pangmei

Registered User
Hi all,

We are planning on taking our 6 month old to Cambodia for a 1 week holiday. I have checked with our paediatrician re: vaccinations and he has advised that Finn is up to date and doesn't require any additional vaccinations. I also asked about malaria and he said that babies cannot take anti-malaria medication and just to be careful and use insect repellent (with deet less than 10%).

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with travelling with their babies to Cambodia and what precautions you took for malaria? Any other tips to ensure a safe holiday for Cambodia?

Thanks,

Grace
 
I have never been to Cambodia so this message might not help but I will write from my experience going to Africa. I took my at that time 2 year old daughter to Africa and she could not also take anti-malaria medication. I sprayed insect repellent on her,
put the insect repellent stickers on her clothes and made her
wear long trousers and shirt. And have also read that darker colors attracts insect(mosquitos) so I made her wear lighter colors. I don't know if this all worked but luckily she did not get any mosquito bites. I hope you have a safe and fun trip.
 
I haven't taken our children to Cambodia but have visited myself. Definitely dress your baby in long-sleeved light coloured clothing and get a baby friendly insect repellant.

If you are going to the temples of Angkor then be aware that it is HOT there, I've not seen any rest rooms (but that doesn't mean they are not there) and you WILL be hassled by children trying to sell you stuff for "$1". You will need a baby carrier or sling, as in many cases a stroller would be impractical. Many of the hotels are quite close to the temples, so if you can then go back there for a break at lunchtime. When we did a tour there, they scheduled a lunch time break which I thought initially was a stupid idea - but after a long, hot morning at the temples I was thankful.

Having said all this, I think the temples are absolutely amazing and I'm sure you will find it fascinating.
 
My husband is Cambodian and we took our son there for three weeks when he was 5 months old. We didn't use any mosquito repellant but took a mosquito net, made sure we were inside in the early afternoon (when dengue and malaria mosquitoes are out) and used a hand fan to keep bugs away.

Definitely take a sling or carrier since strollers are a bit of a hassle.

We took lots of clothes but most of the time just dressed our son in a nappy. He was really, REALLY hot there. Take a folding change mat so you can change baby wherever. Nobody minds, that's what Cambodians do.

If you're breastfeeding, Cambodia is the easiest and most supportive country ever in my opinion. You can breastfeed anywhere. Even in markets I asked sellers if I could sit down and feed the baby in their stall, they'd get me a chair, a glass of water and fan the baby and me.

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.
 
thanks koan. we've just come back from our cambodian holiday and had a fantastic time. the sling certainly came in handy and we managed to keep the mozzies away from finn by using lots of rid!
 
This thread is very interesting because I am heading to Cambodia and Singapore with my 7 month old at the end of November! Pangmei, any advice for me since you just did it? I am planning to use a baby carrier plus insect netting. How about transportation? Did you feel safe in cars with your baby?
 
Hi there,

We stayed 5 nights in Siem Reap and 2 nights in Phnom Penh. If you haven't booked your accommodation yet, I can highly recommend the Shinta Mani (http://www.shintamani.com) in Siem Reap. It's baby friendly and the staff are very helpful.

In terms of visiting the temples, I would recommend going early (before 8am) as it gets very hot by about 10am. You also get to avoid the tour groups which tend to arrive en mass around 9am.

Siem Reap is considered high risk in terms of dengue fever and malaria, so we dressed Finn in long sleeved lightweight cotton clothing and were pretty vigilant with applying 'rid' on the parts of him that were exposed. A hat is also a must. He didn't get bitten at all so we must have done something right :-)

We hired a car with driver and a tour guide through our hotel and although not ideal, we just held Finn on our lap. The distances are quite short though and the driver drove pretty slowly. I would not recommend getting in a tuk-tuk with the baby as it is quite a bumpy ride.

We used the sling most of the time, but still brought along our Maclaren stroller. It was useful at night when we went out to dinner as Finn could sleep in the stroller and we put a mosquito net over the stroller.

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
 
Hi pangmei and Koan,

Any recommendations for restaurants that are good with a young baby in Siem Reap? We are heading there this week and really looking forward to the trip. We are going with in-laws who are visiting from the US and none of us have been before so restaurants with character and good food where we can easily manage with a wide awake baby or a sleeping one would be good!

Thanks
 
I think all restaurants in Cambodia are baby friendly, because Cambodians are very friendly. Everywhere we went people wanted to hold our son and play with him. He was famous amongst staff in the restaurants around our hotel after a couple of days, everyone knew his name and played with him. Wherever you go, you'll be fine.

Have a nice trip!
 
Temples of Angkor - What are and are not accessible with a small baby?

Travelling to Siem Reap with my 11-month old baby and wondering if anyone had some tips for how many temples they managed to visit... are the far flung ones attemptable at all with such a small infant? Bantey Sreai, River of a Thousand Lingas?
 
We went to Bantey Sreai with our 6 month old and it was certainly do-able and well worth visiting. We did about 2 temples per day early in the morning and found that worked well.
 
Kimthong11,

We just got back from Siem Reap. Had a fantastic time. My LO is 8 months old and we also traveled with grandparents. We managed to do 3 big temples a day but it was slow going primarily because of the heat. (I think harder on the adults than on the baby!) We were going to do a farther out temple like Bang Meleay (sp?) but decided at the last minute not to because of too much time in the car but again, I think the constraint was the adults not the baby. We went the very easy route and hired a tourist van and driver that took us around. The van was air conditioned and very comfortable for five of us. We took the tuk tuks around town and loved riding in those but for the longer days, the van was perfect. If I was to do it again, I would have done the farther out temples with the van. Supposedly a lot of the roads out of town have been improved so the travel time is not as long as it may have been a year or so ago.

Thanks to the rest of you for all the Cambodia tips! We tried them all. Did not stay at the Shinta Mani but went there for lunch one day!
 
Hi all,
We are planning to go to Cambodia for CNY with our 12 month old. We were going to take our helper but airfares are so expensive at CNY that we might have to shelve that idea!

Did the places where you stayed provide baby sitting services? We would like to be able to go out for meals while baby is asleep.

Also, did you fly to Siem Reap or did you fly into Phnom Pen (sorry about the spelling!) and then transfer by car to Siem Reap?
 
We flew directly into Siem Reap from HK. As for babysitting, you may want to check around. We stayed at the Le Meridien and they would not provide babysitting services for below 2 years old because they said they were not accredited for it. I wonder if some of the smaller hotels may have been more willing though to provide.

The wonderful thing about Cambodia is that everyone is EXTREMELY baby-friendly!
 
Hi, we are heading to Cambodia for CNY on Thurs. We will be staying in a large resort in Siem Reap. My 14 month old is now drinking cows milk rather than formula. Will it be easy to get pasteurised and homogenised milk in Siem Reap or should I take a tin of formula as back up? I assume it's fine but thought I should check. Thanks ladies.
 
I don't know about availability of milk in Cambodia, but you could always take some packs of UHT milk as a back up if you have the space. Then you don't need to worry so much about the quality of the water.
 
sherwes: we are planning to go to Cambodia this autumn. Can u tell me which hotel/resort u stayed in Siem Reap. We have a31 month old boy.

thanks
 
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