| J Hamilton |
13 November 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Village Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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On our first visit to the temples we hired a car and guide through the hotel for $50, not being too sure of how things worked. It’s not necessary, and much cheaper and more comfortable to hire a tuk-tuk for maybe $6 for half day. Visit Angkor Wat in the morning, Bayon in the afternoon, Ta Phrom in the morning to miss the crush. Enter Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom from the east entrance to get even more peace and buy a copy of Dawn Rooney’s “Angkor” for $5,4, or 3 from the first kid who approaches you when you get out of the tuk-tuk. That’s all you need.
Soup Dragon near old market serves excellent food and cold beer at reasonable (for Siem Reap) prices. Old market is fun to wander round in and has some nice souvenirs. Interesting pictures can be taken in the meat and vegetable market section. Make sure you have a lot (say 50 for 3 days) of 1$ bills, and make your life easy. A visit to the land mine museum (ask the tuk-tuk driver) is a must, just don’t get so fascinated as I did and forget to take any pictures!
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| L Milis |
16 October 2004 |
Stayed at Angkoriana - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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We visited Siem Reap for the richness of the Angkor Wat complex: splendid and for Europeans used to medieval buildings an enriching experience of what the contemporary Kmer culture could perform. We had contacted before we left an excellent guide (laoukchhou@yahoo.com) (I guess most guides are well trained) who gave (in French) very adequate explanation on the monuments, daily life, monasticism, nature etc. He made us understand much better the deeper sense of the architecture and sculpture. The price was fair and so was the organization and price of the transport (by 'remorque'). Since everybody is paying in US$ everything is cheap for €-people.
By the way: asia-hotels.com was effective in the reservation procedure.
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| F Moey |
12 October 2004 |
Stayed at Bopha Angkor - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Angkor was astounding, best to get around on the remorque-moto's, fun & convenient, but remember to bargain! Restaurants, cafes & bars are aplenty in city centre, but most look like each other. Day trip to floating village was a rip-off as the sights do not justify the US$7 per head, 1 1/2 hour boat trip out to the Tonle Sap Lake.
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| K Russo |
03 October 2004 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Cambodia is an excellent destination with so much to see and do. We stayed for five days in Siem Reap, which was ample time to see all that we wanted of the Angkor temples; relax and sample the excellent restaurants of Siem Reap; do a day trip to include Bang Malea and the floating Village; and extra time to shop at the Old Market. Such a wonderful holiday destination.
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| M Smith |
02 October 2004 |
Stayed at Borann L'Auberge Des Temples - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Angkor Wat and the associated temples is a must see.This was our main target in Siem Reap and took up most of our 3 day trip.We paid $20 per day for a guide and $13 per day for a tuk tuk driver, both organized by the hotel.The Red Piano was worth a visit and the Angkor What bar.We tried several Thai restaurants and had no bad experiences apart from maybe some table clean up issues.Try the traditional Kmer massage also which was $10 for 2 hours,very relaxing after a day at the temples.
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| G Brown |
27 August 2004 |
Stayed at Raffles Hotel Le Royal - Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Great little restaurant is Rega's, just near the Holiday International hotel, itself just near the French and British embassies. Enjoy a wonderful three course French meal for just US$5. The chocolate mousse is superb. And a great place for massage is Bliss on Street 240. The treatment rooms are in a stunningly renovated colonial building. Have a steam and plunge in their pool as well. And if you like organza, measure your windows and have curtains made here very cheaply at the Russian market. Organza is a buck fifty a metre and it costs about the same to ask a seamstress to sew curtains to your design.
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| W Susanto |
20 August 2004 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Life in Siem Reap was utterly simple...temple trekking in the morning, return to downtown for lunch, swim and take a nap in the hotel, temple trekking again in late afternoon for sunset, dinner in downtown, and finish the day with bar hopping. Repeat this for the next 2 days. In addition to the temple trekking, you can also add a bit of fun by doing the elephant riding ($10 from South Gate of Angkor Thom to Bayon) and Hot-Air Ballooning ($11 for 10mins). All prices in Siem Reap are in US$ and always rounded to the nearest dollar. For Khmer food, Bayon Restaurant was my favourite. For pubbing, try the Deadfish Tower where you can use the internet for free and feed live crocodiles. For evening drinks, go to the Red Piano and Temple Bar. For massage, you can go to Chai ($25 for 90mins). Have fun!
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| M Wong |
08 August 2004 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Excellent pizzas at Ecstatic Pizza, very cheap drinks plus cheap and good food at Temple, very good salads, breads and sandwiches at Blue Pumpkin and must try hotpot and homemade sherbets at Soup Dragon. All around the Old Market area and within a 5-10 minutes walk from Passaggio.
Also look out for the Seeing Hands Massage done by the visually impaired (a UNESCO project).
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| M Hanaya |
09 July 2004 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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A beautiful place to visit but really all you would need is 2-3 days. Not much to do except to visit all the Wats (which are spectacular) and visit the old market. Highly recommend the speed boat to Phnom Penh or vice versa. What an experience!
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| J Goss |
27 June 2004 |
Stayed at Holiday Villa Phnom Penh - Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Central market and Russian market are nice trips. For those interested in "dark tourism": Tuol Sleng is a gruesome must-see; the "Killing fields" at Chuong Ek is a long drive, and it is not well preserved, but it can be a moving experience. Take plenty of sunscreen and water for the boat trip to Siem Reap!
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Traveller's Tales: Things to do in Cambodia
