I keep getting conflicting reports. Do I need Malaria drugs for Cambodia? I will be in Koh Kong, Sihanoukville PP and Siem Reap. If yes, what have you taken and what are the side effects?

According to the CDC website:

Malaria Risk by Country

Cambodia: All, except no risk in Phnom Penh. Risk exists at the temple complex at Angkor Wat. Special note: Travelers to the western provinces bordering Thailand should use either doxycycline or Malarone™ as their antimalarial drug, because of mefloquine- resistant Plasmodium falciparum in the area.

I have never taken the drugs. However, when I have gone to Southeast Asia I have always stayed in populated areas like Bangkok and Pattaya.

May not be a bad idea to be safe rather than sorry.

http://www.cdc.gov/travel/seasia.htm

You don't need them for Siem Reap. I've been there twice. The place is crawling with mainstream tourists these days and it's quite safe (as long as you don't go trekking into the deep jungles, which you probably won't).

McDijj has been to both Koh Kong and Sihanoukville, so you might want to contact him. I don't think he took any Malaria pills.

Also, Khun Mor posted in Asia chat a while ago about Malaria pills. He is a doctor and he was recommending against them.

The only pills I took in Cambodia were blue ones!!!

However, I do carry doxycyclina while traveling. It is recommended for dysentary in my wilderness medical book for North and South America. There are no water born bacteria in Asia so you never have to worry about getting the "Trots" there. (-; Actually Floxin is recommend for Asia. Doxycycline is also used to treat the clap and was the first drug recommend by the surgeon general when the Anthrax scare happened. Perhaps Khun mor will respond with more on this.

As for Malaria ... you will not be in terrible danger. Sihanoukville & Koh Kong are coastal stuff, rocky and well drained. Very beautiful places. If you take the land route between Sihanoukville and Koh Kong you will get to see the rice paddy deltas from some of the mountain passes ... awesome. Misquitoes might be a problem in the rice paddies, but no standing water to be seen in the mountains. Don't wander off into the jungle if you cross the mountains. Malaria is not much of a threat BUT LAND MINES ARE !!!

Koh Kong is small with only a hand full of drivers. They all speak a different version of English. When you ask them to take you to the best resturant in town it means the one that pays them the highest commission, not the one with the finest food. Watch out for a little bastard called "Sam" Sam's motto is "Good for me/double for you". The K-11 style "Chicken Ranch" a very short distance from town is the cleanest that I have seen anywhere in Cambodia. Take a moto to avoid heavy tout. No more than $20 USD over night, short time much less.
You are not insulated from the local population by Tourist District in these small rural towns. Remember that Khymer and Viet do not mix. If you rent a young Viet girl and want to take her to a Khymer restaraunt for dinner the reaction you get will be similar to taking your "Nigger Bitch" into an all white diner in the deep south circa 1950, ie. don't expect good service.

Angkor Waht is in my top ten all-time awesom list ... enjoy.

McDIJJ

Is there anyone out there who didn't get the runs in Cambo? Not just that but I'm one(I think Murasaki too) who got totally sick(2 weeks!) right after leaving Cambo. Bumrangrad every other day. Thank goodness I had a Thai girl look after me everyday.

I didn't get the runs. I caught a cold, which combined with a bronchitis flare up to turn into some type of viral infection. But the shitter was working fine.

However, on my first trip, I had a severely nasty bout of food poisoning. A French doctor at the Naga clinic in Siem Reap saved my ass.

The food handling sucks..needs improvement.. food poisoning, runs etc. Took two weeks out of my vacation lying in bed, can't get my dick hard, can hardly walk. Paying for hotel, hospital etc. I was in Bumrangrad and other hospitals numerous times and every single time the diagnosis was different, or at least the suspected cause was different. Finally they said I just got a bad flu. And then I was better than new.

(Sorry to sound like a lil bitch.)

Murasaki: I have Asthma so when I travel overseas I ALWAYS get sick, from the plane air or from that at my destination. This turns into either the flu or a lung infection.

Dickjohnson: I too got the runs in PP. I just keep my ready supply of Vitamin C, Ecinacia, Doxycycline and ImmodiumAD topped off and I am never more than 3 hours from feeling better.

I don't care how careful foreign countries say they are with food... the USA has the top standards on earth, and since our tummies are tuned to the American level of bacteria, and the KIDN of bacteria we get in the USA, there is no viable prevention method. You simply must treat the syptoms with drugs. I do not believe in being careful with what you eat overseas (outside of reason... i.e. fly-molested raw meats). Oh, and one more thing... these countries have no reason to upgrade their food handling to our standards. We go to them, remember? Their tummies do just fine!

Remember with Dox that you should limit your exposure to sun (which I do anyway). I mentioned above that I get sick whenever travelling overseas. My secret to symptom treatment? I take my first Dox pill as I board the plane in the USA and don't stop popping until three days after I am home.

The food poisoning is another matter. You don't want a cork in your ass if your body needs to get rid of a bug. Just ride it out for one day while drinking SEVERAL gallons of bottled water and soda, then pop the ImmodiumAD and get back to your vacation. I have had the pleasure of a Thai lady care for my fever-laden, under-prepared ass (and the rest of me), and loved it... but I would rather have been fucking her.

Has anyone taken Hepatitis A and Typhoid shots before their trips? If yes, has it been effective?

I have, at the recommendation of my local clinic. Effective? Who knows? I didn;t catch anything but a cold and 12 petite chicas!

There are many countries where the food safety standards are as good as U.S.

Certainly not Cambodia. They do have reasons to upgrade their food cleanliness standards, at least to the tourists' sector. The reason is obviously something green, and it's not the Hulk.

I have gotten both my Hep A and B shots, though I still need to go back for the second shot on the B. Hepatitis is very common in many Asian countries, so it doesn't hurt to have the shots. And mind you, I just got my shots last fall, and I have traveled in Asia since 1991, so don't sweat it if you don't have them.