Here I am going to write my Cambodia Travel Blog series. When I browsed Google, Youtube and Pinterest on Cambodia travel, I did not get much more than some professional tour operator’s Cambodia Travel Itinerary type blog articles. I mean, exactly what a tourist guide told to do and showed to that blog writer, that writer wrote exactly the same thing. Nothing more or nothing less. Also I saw a few articles written by foreign tourists about personal scam experiences from Cambodian people.
What I will write here all are my personal experiences from the point of view of a foreign tourist. Traveling to Cambodia and any part of South East Asia is really very exciting. For many tourists it is like an adventure for a lifetime. So, let's overlook some negative facts on this blog article and talk about financial freedom during Cambodia travel.
Cambodia is the land of wonder. Yes, I agree with it 100%. There are many natural beautiful places in this country which can give you lifetime sweet memories. When I first saw the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap, I couldn’t even believe my eyes, how beautiful it is still now. And I wondered how they made it all those stone curves so many years ago and all those Apsara statues! I will write another blog article on this topic (waiting on the list).
Today let’s talk about MONEY.
Before going inside the main article lets read this blog:
> BEST TRAVEL TIPS FOR A PLANE JOURNEY <
MONEY MATTERS (or how not to drain your hard income money for nothing.)
Awesome fact
According to my knowledge, Cambodia is the 2nd (?) (!) country after the USA, where US dollars are used everywhere along with Cambodian currency (even you will get US Dollars from ATM’s everywhere), from the government office to the cheap street food shop. For a foreign tourist or visitor it is very easy to buy anything with US dollars while traveling Cambodia. You can use them everywhere without exchange to Riel (Cambodian currency name).
Exchange rate
1 US Dollar = 4000 Cambodian Riel is the flat rate for buying and selling everything everywhere in Cambodia from the last few years. But the tricky part is, when you exchange money from 1 US Dollar to Cambodian Riel in any money changer shop/booth/office (always better rate then any bank), you will always get more than 4000 Riel (like 4100 and +/- around it depending on the world currency up-down rate).
Count before spending
A 2 US Dollar beer can will cost 8000 in Cambodian Riel. It's not really 2 US Dollar (2 x 4100 = 8200 Riel). If you change money from US Dollar to Riel, you could save 200 Riel from this beer can (and later on every beer can and every money transaction). 200 Riel is not a big amount of money. But you will lose around this amount of money on every money transaction if you use the US Dollar here in Cambodia.
Reality
If you are not careful about it and use US Dollar everywhere in Cambodia, at the end of your ‘Cambodia travel’ when you calculate every expense, you will realize how much US Dollar drained from your pocket just for nothing.
Conclusion
Tipping a person for a work/service willingly and just losing money only because not knowing something are different things. Also it can vary from person to person and state of living. I very much hope this article about ‘Cambodia Travel’ will help you during visiting this country.
Tip:
Don't ask any Cambodian people during any money transaction/business anywhere (if not written official notice anywhere) 'how much 1 US Dollar equal to how much Cambodian Riel'. They will always tell you 1 US Dollar = 4100 or higher as much as possible and argue with them useless due to their act of 'don't understand your language' only for this factor. Just pay 1 US Dollar = 4000 Cambodian Riel how Cambodian local people do.
Learned from experience that, Do not TIP in any hotel, restaurant or cafe after eating or drinking something. Most of the owners and their family members work in their own cafe as a family business, from cash register to waiter/waitress. It's not honorable for them to get TIP money.
