Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ROUGH GUIDES TRAVEL INSURANCE
Rough Guides has teamed up with WorldNomads.com to offer great
travel insurance deals
.
Policies are available to residents of more than 150 countries, with cover for a wide range of
adventure sports, 24hr emergency assistance, high levels of medical and evacuation cover and
a stream of travel safety information. Roughguides.com users can take advantage of their
policies online 24/7, from anywhere in the world - even if you're already travelling. And since
plans often change when you're on the road, you can extend your policy and even claim
online. Roughguides.com users who buy travel insurance with WorldNomads.com can also
leave a positive footprint and donate to a community development project. For more
information, go to
W
roughguides.com/travel-insurance.
check that they cover Cambodia. Students will
often find that their student health coverage
extends during the vacations and for one term
beyond the date of last enrolment.
A typical
travel insurance policy
usually
provides cover for the loss of baggage, tickets and -
up to a certain limit - cash or cheques, as well as
cancellation or curtailment of your journey. Most of
them exclude so-called “dangerous” activities unless
an extra premium is paid: in Cambodia this can
mean scuba diving, riding a motorbike and
trekking.
contents and their value, but it isn't necessary to
leave the package open for checking. Post o
ces
also sell cardboard boxes for mailing items.
Poste restante
mail can be received at the main
post o
ces in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem
Reap, for 500 riel per item. When collecting mail,
bring your passport as proof of identity and ask
them to check under both your first name and your
family name.
Maps
Most maps of Cambodia are horribly inaccurate
and/or out of date. Far and away the best is Reise
Know-How's
Kambodscha
map (that's “Cambodia” in
German), beautifully drawn on un-rippable water-
proof paper, and as detailed and up-to-date as you
could hope, given Cambodia's ever-developing
road network.
Internet
Getting online in Cambodia is relatively easy.
Almost all hotels and guesthouses now offer
free
wi-fi
(as do many restaurants and bars), while most
towns of any size boast at least one internet café.
Rates are generally cheap (2000-4000 riel/hr),
although connections may be slow.
Money
Cambodia uses a
dual-currency system
, with local
currency, the riel, used alongside (and interchange-
ably with) the US dollar, converted at the rate of
4000 riel to US$1 (an exchange rate which has
remained stable for several years now).
Riel notes
(there are no riel coins, nor is US coinage used in
Cambodia) are available in denominations of 100,
500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 and
100,000. You can
pay
for most things - and will
receive change - either in dollars, in riel, or even in a
mixture of the two; there's no need to change
dollars into riel. Larger sums are usually quoted in
dollars and smaller amounts in riel (although
sometimes, as in menus, prices are quoted in both
currencies).
Things get a bit more confused near the Thai
border, where Thai
baht
are generally preferred to
riel, or at Bavet, the Vietnamese border crossing,
where you may be quoted prices in Vietnamese
dong
. If you don't have baht you can generally pay
Laundry
You can get laundry done practically everywhere, at
hotels and guesthouses or at private laundries in all
towns - look for the signs in English. Prices are
pretty uniform, at 500-1000 riel per item or $1-2
per kilogram. In Phnom Penh and Siem Reap there
are a number of places with driers, giving a speedy
turnaround (3hr).
Mail
Mail to Europe, Australasia and North America takes
between five and ten days. Stamps for
postcards
cost around 3000 riel to Europe/North America.
Airmail parcels
to Europe and North America
cost more than $20 per kilo, so if you're heading to
Thailand it's worth waiting until you get there,
where postage is cheaper. You'll be charged 3000
riel for the obligatory customs form, detailing the
