My Daily Budget in Cambodia

I’ve been in the town of Ban Lung for a few days now and thought this would be a good place to break down an average day’s expenses. My daily budget goal for Cambodia is $25 US — I’d hoped to get by on $20, but the summer heat has led me to spurge on AC rooms more than I’d like.

Room — I’m staying in a beautiful hotel called the Tree Top, in a large bungalow with a view of the surrounding hillsides. The bungalow runs $10 a night and was the only room they had available when I got here. Standard rooms with a shared toilet/shower are only $5 a night, but I’ve grown to love the bungalow so much I haven’t got around to changing rooms. Throughout Cambodia, it’s been pretty easy to find fan-cooled rooms for $5-6 and AC rooms for $10-12.

Food — I’ve been eating in tourist-oriented places more here than Thailand. Cambodian food is fairly tasty, but lacks that zing that Thai food has, so I don’t feel as guilty ordering Western food. Street food isn’t nearly as common as in Thailand, either — I’ve found mostly fruit carts, dried fish, and the occasional fried grasshoppers. Today I ate twice at the Gecko Restaurant, where the food is a little more expensive, but they have free wifi — saving me $1 per hour.

For breakfast, I had muesli for $1 and a couple of iced coffees for $.75 each. Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches with fries for $2 and a coke for $1. For dinner, I had a couple of delicious barbecued skewers of beef and chicken with vegetables for $1 each. This was all washed down with four watery Angkor beers at $1 apiece. In bigger towns, the beer is even cheaper: $.75 in Phnom Penh and $.50 in Siem Reap. Cocktails and wine –as in Thailand– are fairly over-priced at $2-3 per drink.

Transport — I explored the town on foot, walking around the lake district and the market. On other days, I rented a bicycle for $1 a day and a very beat-up scooter for $6. Gas costs $1 per liter and two liters lasted me all day, while I explored the town and a couple of outlying sites. The roads here are too steep for tuk tuks, so any in-town transport is by moto-taxi. They’ll take you anywhere in town for a dollar or less, depending on your haggling abilities.

All of my travel around Cambodia has been via bus or mini-bus and has been really cheap. An eleven hour bus ride from here to Phnom Penh is only $7. Ironically, a minibus ride to Kompong Cham –halfway to Phnom Penh– is also $7 and is less comfortable.

Miscellaneous — On other days, I visited two small parks and paid a total of $.75 in entrance fees. Trekking is the big draw here in Bang Lung, but it can get expensive quickly with prices starting around $15 for a single day and $100 or more for a 3 day trek. If you have a few people, it’s easier to arrange better pricing. Water goes for $1 per large bottle, with many hotels offering safe, filtered refills for $.25. Cigarettes are $1.25 for Marlboro or $.50 for Cambodian or Vietnamese brands — they taste the same and kill you just as fast.

Saving Money — You’ll want to haggle hard with tuk tuk drivers throughout Cambodia. In Thailand, my rule of thumb was to start negotiating at less than half the first offer, but I’ve had drivers here try to charge me three or even four times the going rate. When I was first in country, I bought a knock-off guide book that I haggled down to $7 from the requested $15. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until I reach Siem Reap, where a street kid offered me the same book for $2.

While housing, food, and city-to-city transport are all very cheap, you’ll find yourself spending a lot to see the sights. Angkor Wat’s entry fee is $20 for a day or $40 for three days and hiring a driver will just about double that.

A one-hour boat ride to see the dolphins in Kratie is $9 plus a $5 moto ride to reach them. For popular tourist activities, the drivers seem to have all agreed on a price and aren’t very willing to haggle.

I’ve had to be very selective about what I saw and what I passed by because of this. Renting your own transportation helps, but in many places it can be almost impossible to find the place you’re looking for. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — I’ve often stumbled into the most amazing experiences while searching for a spot I’ve read about in a guidebook. As a result, I’m a big fan of getting lost.

I hope this is of some help in planning your own adventures. If you have questions or a tip to share, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

Tagged as: Budget, Cambodia, cost-per-day, motorcycle