About Us

We are Mel and Nehru, an Australian and Cambodian couple living and travelling in Cambodia. We travel whenever we get the chance, usually with a long list of places Mel wants to visit and Nehru working out how we’re actually going to get there. Together we’re slowly making our way around Cambodia, one road trip, pagoda and unexpected stop at a time.

Mel and Nehru with hills and the sun setting behind them.

Mel is from Australia and moved to Cambodia in 2019 after her second visit to the country. Nehru was born in Moung Ruessei in Battambang Province. Together, we love travelling around Cambodia.

For years, friends and tourists have asked us for advice about where to go and what to see, and we’ve always loved sharing what we’ve learnt along the way. What to expect, somewhere good to stay or eat, or that little piece of advice that makes a trip easier.

Mel and Nehru celebrating Khmer New Year. They are both wet and have white powder on their faces. — Celebrating Khmer New Year by splashing water

We’re also lucky that we get to travel to some really interesting parts of Cambodia. Nehru’s work as a journalist and documentary filmmaker has taken us to places we probably wouldn’t otherwise have seen, like when we followed a tarantula hunter into the forest to dig for spiders.

Mel knows she would never have been able to see or do many of these things without Nehru’s local knowledge, and the fact that Khmer is his first language. Darleng is about bringing all of that together and sharing it with other people travelling around Cambodia.

Mel is the planner, the dreamer, the writer and the photographer

Mel has always been a travel planner. For anyone who has travelled with Mel, you know it’s not a trip without a spreadsheet. But she also appreciates the advice of others and spends many hours reading travel blogs and learning about what there is to see and experience.

Mel is the one who sees an ancient bridge on Facebook and says, “Ooh, can we go?” She is also the one with hundreds of saved places she wants to travel to.

Mel does most of the writing, with lots of fact checking from Nehru, who is also responsible for the Khmer translations. She’s usually the photographer, although Nehru takes plenty of photos too.

Nehru is the curious one, the question asker, the fixer and the videographer

Nehru is the one who finds a fishing festival happening in the rice paddies of Siem Reap and works out how to get to the small lake by taking the path next to the crooked house that looks like it goes nowhere.

He’s a journalist and documentary filmmaker who loves to talk, ask questions and listen to people’s stories. Whether he’s talking to the person parking the motorbike, the owner of a restaurant or a monk at a pagoda, he always listens and engages. He makes people want to tell him their stories.

Nehru is also responsible for the video and the drone. Between his camera, the GoPro and even his phone, we have hundreds of hours of memories from travelling around Cambodia.

Nehru stands next to a large camera on a tripod with Angkor Wat in the background.

What we’re trying to do with Darleng

We know Cambodia has some amazing places, and we’re lucky enough to have been to many of them. What we want to do with Darleng is make it easier for other people to visit them too: how to get there, what you might want to add to your itinerary and those little pieces of advice that are useful to know before you go.

One thing that’s important to us is that we only write about places we’ve actually visited. The destinations you’ll find on Darleng come from our own travels and the photos are ours too.

Nehru takes a selfie wearing a helmet. Mel is in teh background next to the cream FTR motorbike, also with her helmet on. — We love to travel with the motobike. This is when we stopped at Kampong Chhnang airport.

And we live here. That means we go back to places, notice when things change and keep updating Darleng as we travel.

We aren’t trying to “discover” Cambodia. The places we visit aren’t undiscovered. Cambodians know them, people live there and many have histories stretching back generations. Some are simply less visited by international tourists. We want to share enough practical information to make it easier for other travellers to visit them too, while remembering that we’re visitors in somebody else’s home.

Why we love travelling around Cambodia

We love those little windows into Cambodia, whether we’re visiting a small pagoda on top of a hill or joining the crowds at a festival for Khmer New Year. Cambodia is the kind of place where you can stop on the road and ask to use someone’s toilet and end up staying for dinner.

And there is still so much more we want to see.

Mel and Nehru sit in front of a tent with the motorbike on their right. In front is two dogs playing and the sun is setting behind them — We always take every opportunity to go camping. This is at Thmor Da Thom in Pursat.

Darleng is still growing, with new posts coming out each week. We have a lot more of Cambodia to share, and plenty more places still on Mel’s spreadsheet.

So drop back from time to time and see where we go next.