So, it's been just over a year since I embarked on my first solo trip. I travelled to Cambodia for just under a month and it was an incredible experience - perhaps the best of my life thus far. For those of you haven't read my other Cambodia Diary (the link is here) I spent 3 and a half weeks volunteering at a street kitchen for children in Phnom Penh. We had the weekends off, so spent this time travelling to different parts of the country. I personally went to Siem Reap once, and then Koh Rong Samloem twice. 

Travel

We took the Mekong Express bus, which picked up at the Riverside, to Siem Reap and it took about 6 hours. We were given a complimentary bottle of water and a croissant (yum!!) when we got on, winner. The roof leaked and I got rained the whole way, not so much of a winner. But for $12 all in I'm not complaining, and would definitely recommend the service. 

Accommodation

Once we'd arrived we took a tuk-tuk straight to our hostel: One Stop Hostel. It was right next to Pub Street and had some really good reviews. After checking in, it became apparent that we'd made a good choice. The hostel was really clean, in a great location, had aircon, lockers and wifi, and the staff were really helpful and friendly. After dropping our bags off we headed for some food. The first place we spotted was a fast food place, so just dived straight in there (I'm sorry I can't remember the name). The hunger had completely taken over, and as we had to be up early the next morning, it was ideal. 

Back at the hostel, the girls I met on my trip and I were discussing our plans surrounding visiting Angkor Wat the next day. It was only when we decided to set an alarm for 4am, and heard a boy scoff in reaction to that, did we realise we weren't alone in the shared room. Long story short, I invited Eric along with us, and he became the fourth member of our Siem Reap gang. 

Angkor Wat

Our alarms went off at 4am and we all bundled into a tuk-tuk headed to Angkor Wat to catch the sunrise. Unsurprisingly, we weren't alone in this plan and joined the hundreds of other sleep-deprived tourists at the ticket office. The ticket to enter Angkor Wat and a number of other temples is $37 for one day - so it makes sense to hire a tuk-tuk and a driver for the day and see all of the ones you want to.

As for Angkor Wat, I was really impressed, but where we didn't opt to have a guide, we were sort of wandering around aimlessly. We also just missed the sunrise, so definitely head their earlier than you initially planned, as the queue for tickets is pretty long! The Jungle Temple (Ta Prohm) was a really cool place to visit - there are trees growing in and around the ruins of the temple, and is also included in the Angkor Wat ticket - it's definitely worth seeing. 

After exploring a few more temples we headed back to the hostel. Now, our hostel was a sister hostel to 'Onederz' which has a rooftop swimming pool, meaning we had free access to its facilities. So, we grabbed our bikinis and headed for an afternoon of chilling by the pool, after our early start and morning full of exploration. 

Food

For dinner we went to a restaurant called 'Pots and Pans' and the food was really good, I'd highly recommend. Then, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks as it was one of the girls' birthdays! Following this, we of course had to hit up Pub Street. As the name suggests, it's essentially just a road absolutely crammed with bars and clubs, each offering dirt cheap drinks and lots of dancing. A great night was had and it's fair to say I don't remember an awful lot of it. We then grabbed some noodles from a street vendor for drunk food, and sat on the hostel's roof terrace eating them at 2am.

Massages

We woke up the next day feeling surprisingly perky, so went for massages at one of the nearby beauty salons. After walking into a few, and walking straight back out, it's fair to say you get a vibe of a place. Once we found a welcoming salon, I opted for a moisturising full body massage. It was genuinely amazing. I'd never had a massage prior to that, and I'm definitely a convert. It is a bit weird having a stranger poke you all over your oiled up naked body, but yanno, you get used it. Nothing like getting naked with your newfound travelling friends (that you've known a fortnight) to bond a friendship, hey.

After putting our clothes back on and restoring some dignity, we just about had time to squeeze in some more food. We popped to a nearby restaurant and had noodles before I caught the bus back to Phnom Penh ready for my volunteering placement the following day. I very much enjoyed my time in Siem Reap, but I'm not sure how much longer I could've stayed there. It was really good fun, but besides the temples and clubbing, I'm not sure what else there is to be done. There's much more to do, see and explore in Phnom Penh in my opinion - and definitely enjoyed my time more there. So, if you're planning a trip I'd definitely slot in more time in the capital!

So, summer 2017 saw me pack a rucksack, board 2 planes to Cambodia and spend a month there travelling on my own. I booked this trip in the previous December as a sort of taste of the gap year I wish I'd had. My parents dropped me at the airport, and from then on I was self-reliant. I volunteered with an agency Monday to Friday for 3 weeks and had accommodation provided for me. Which leads to my first tip:

Don't worry about feeling lonely whilst you're there!! Unless you are staying in private hotel rooms and ordering room service every night, you are bound to cross paths with lots of other people, many of whom are in the same situation. I became really good friends with the people I was living with, despite only spending a few weeks with them. (Coincidentally, this weekend I'm actually travelling to London to meet up with a group of the people I met whilst travelling!) So, if feeling lonely whilst out there is holding you back - don't let it!

Start conversations with people. Whilst in a hostel in Siem Reap, I was talking to a friend I'd made out there about our plans to visit Angkor Wat (featured in the above photo) the next day. A guy in the hostel overheard this conversation and said he was keen to see the temples too... So, I invited him along and soon 3 became 4. He was a solo traveller also and quickly became part of our group for that weekend. So much so that we then took him with us to all the other things we did that weekend... None of the above would have happened if he hadn't started that conversation.

Be extra cautious. There definitely is safety in numbers, so, when doing anything that could be considered risky take extra precautions... For example, don't go wandering the backstreets of a city late at night, and don't accept deals that seem way too good to be true. Both of the aforementioned situations could be perfectly harmless, but when travelling on your own it is important to be alert.
Keep in touch with people at home. Now, this might sound like a given but it's really important to let people at home know what you're doing and what's going on. I tried to message home once a day, just with a quick update to say that I was alright and my plans for the day etc. This meant that when I visited islands that had absolutely no signal/wifi, people at home weren't worried when I disappeared off the radar for 3 days.

Confidence: fake it til you make it. Even if you're totally unsure of what you are doing it's a good idea to not let it show. Firstly, because acting confident has been shown many times to lead to an increased feeling of confidence. And, also, looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights can lead people to take advantage of this and charge you more for things, ask you to pay for things that aren't necessary and just agree to things you wouldn't usually. So, fake it baby, fake it.