Siem Reap
Cambodia, and more specifically Angkor Wat, had been on my bucket list for quite some time. I’m not too sure why we didn’t get there earlier but I’m certainly glad we have been there now.
Cambodia is an amazing country. From the history and monuments, to the food, culture and people, everything delivered above our expectations.
We had just over a week to squeeze in as much as possible so focused our visit on SIem Reap and Phnom Pehn, with the majority of our time in Siem Reap and surrounds (see our full itinerary further below).
Where we stayed
We stayed at a fairly new hotel called Blanc Smith.
The hotel is about a 5 minute walk to the main areas of Siem Reap such as Pub Street. The location was perfect because although we were in a quieter area (good for sleep) there were still plenty of food options and amenities near by and the party area was still really close. Siem Reap is not a very big town and felt perfectly safe to walk around at night.
We paid approximately 65AUD p/n without breakfast but the hotel did offer complimentary shuttles to/from the airport. It also has a good value cafe downstairs - Coffee Today- so breakfast and coffee wasn’t far (although we did tend to venture out most days).
The hotel was super clean and also had a reasonable size pool for a quick dip.
How we got around
Our hotel helped us a lot initially with working out a good itinerary for the Angkor Archeological Park, as well as a visit to the floating village of Kompong Phluk. They also helped with organising transport which was a motor taxi with the loveliest driver.
I think we may have paid a little over the going rate at the equivalent of 30AUD per day - in general expect to pay 20-25AUD. For us the cost was worth it to have someone who was tied to the hotel, super reliable and a little bit flexible.
Where we ate and drank
There is no shortage of places to eat or drink in Siem Reap. Actually the most difficult part is getting to as many as possible, there are so many fun and tasty options.
As noted above, we did have a cafe in our hotel however we found coffee more suited our tastes at Fifty 5 Kitchen Bar (illy coffee) and Sister Srey Cafe. Both of these cafes also served incredible breakfasts, so good that I forgot to get photos of our food, only have photos of the coffee.
We ate local food at a few different places including the Khmer Kitchen (food pictured below) and The Brothers ( including The Brothers Plus). Actually we ate at the later a couple of times as they were also close to our hotel.
For a change from Cambodian food we ate burgers at Jungle Burger Sports Bar and Bistro and had really good Italian food at a hidden away restaurant called Il Forno.
As for drinks, I lost track of all of the places we stopped by at for a quick beer. The Brothers offered 50 cent beers and we certainly took advantage of that on our arrival night. Then pretty much a pub and bar crawl over the following days up and around Pub Street. One place that did stand out and a little away from the main area was Temple Skylounge.
Temple Skylounge has a mixture of businesses in the complex including a bakery (ground floor), restaurant and then a rooftop bar. The view is of the town is great and the cocktails were impressive. We were there pretty early in the evening but it looked like it might get pretty party later in the night (Note: Do not confuse this Temple bar with the Temple Nightclub in Pub Street).
What we did
Siem Reap town (Including Pub Street)
We generally like to start our time in a new location getting a feel for the place and just walking around, which is what we did in Siem Reap.
The main tourist area is pretty laid back during the day and becomes party at night. We checked out the little lane ways in the main tourist area, visited the old market, walked along the river up to the Royal Residence and Preah Ang Chorm Shrine and basically just took in the town.
Pub Street is blocked off to traffic at night which is great for the hoards of people eating, drinking and having fun at one of the many bars, clubs and restaurants along the strip. The area felt very safe although as with any poorer country we did spot homeless people and children selling goods way past their bed time.
Angkor Archeological Park
First thing first. There are a few ticket options for visiting Angkor Wat, so choose according to how much time you want to spend there. Passes are sold in one-day (37USD), three-day (62USD) and seven-day (72USD) blocks that must be used on consecutive days. Passes are also specific to you and a photo is taken on the spot to attach at the time of purchase. We did a 3 day pass which worked well for the time we were there and gave us more than enough time to see what we wanted to see. Before leaving I read blogs with people spending a week or more there and travelling to some of the further out temples - that was not for us. By day 3 we were a little ‘templed out’, as much as we loved the temples because they are pretty awesome.
Also, the ticket office is a 15 min drive away from the Angkor Wat main gate, so make sure you or your driver remember to stop there first before heading to the main site.
Angkor Archeological Park has two main circuits that people generally stick to - The Small Circuit which consists of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, plus the Ta Prohm (Aka. the Tomb Raider temple) and a few others. Then there is the Grand Circuit which covers some of the further away temples. If you are there for only a day then the Small Circuit is definitely your best option. Start with the main two sites and choose from the rest based on time. If you have 2-3 days then you will have more than enough time to cover the Grand Circuit and maybe a coupe of others outside of it, like we did.
Going in our plan was to complete the Small Circuit on day one, sunrise at Angkor Wat Temple followed by the remaining temples in the Grand Circuit day two and a couple on the way to visit a floating village on day three. Mostly we stuck to this plan except that on day one we ran out of time for some of the temples on the Small Circuit so had to push them to day two, and our sunrise at Angkor Wat was a bit of a disaster.
#sunrisefail
The sunrise at Angkor Wat on day two was a non-event with foggy conditions and obviously, no sun. Disappointing (especially given the early morning 4:00am start) but still a nice experience. Also note that you do want to get there as early as possible because there are some serious crowds and we almost missed out on a waterside spot.
The temples across the the Angkor Archeological Park were built in different eras and represent different beliefs, generally Hinduism and Buddhism. Also noteworthy is that while many people use ‘Angkor Wat’ to refer to the entire site, ‘Angkor Wat’ itself is a single temple, the main temple and starting site. For further background on the history of the temples, as well as tourist information for the site, refer to the Tourism of Cambodia website, a really helpful reference that appears to be kept up to date.
On day three, on our way to Kompong Phluk (see below), we also visited a couple of temples further outside Siem Reap, referred to as the Roluos Group. There are 4 temples of which we made it to two. We had planned to do the others on the way back but a sudden downpour changed those plans.
The two we did go to were Preah Ko (pictured below) and Bakong, both 9th Century Hindu temples.
In regards to our favourites over the three days, mine was actually the site of Angkor Thom and in particular the Bayon Temple (i.e. the temple with the large Buddha faces). A bit cliche perhaps but it really was an amazing site and temple.
Mike rated Preah Khan as his favourite, an expansive ruins where you can wonder the jungle covered walls and (almost) get lost.
Kampong Phluk Floating village
Kompong Phluk is located 16km southeast from Siem Reap as the crow flies but takes about 45mins when traveling by road (if you don’t stop along the way like we did).
A bit like the Angkor Wat sites, the ticket office is before the village and you need to purchase your ticket prior to arriving at the boat pick up. This boat ticket cost us 20USD per person and the return trip is meant to last about one hour (ours went for longer).
The main boat stops at a mangrove forest (the largest mangrove forest of the Siem Reap floating villages) and you can jump on an optional canoe that goes through the flooded forest. The boat ticket costs USD 5 per person, and the ride lasts about 20 – 30 minute. The canoe option is part of a rowing boat cooperative.
We chose not to do the second boat but probably should have given we ended up having to wait for a third person on our main boat to complete her ride. Tip: If you are forced to share your main boat with another person(s), make sure you have all agreed on doing or not doing the second boat. We got sucked into sharing our boat (the boats are attached to a party of people) not realising it meant waiting around half an hour for a different itinerary.
Seeing the floating village was pretty interesting, although at times it felt weird looking into strangers’ homes. We saw people going about their day to day lives doing things such as washing hair over a basin, cooking, doing laundry, etc. It’s worth seeing but again, just be clear on what you want to do with your boat driver and definitely try and include it with other activities (such as seeing temples) on the way there.
We loved our time in Siem Reap and were sad to leave it. Fortunately we still had Phnom Penh to look forward to.
Cambodia Itinerary
It’s not often we travel to a place or country and leave feeling like overall, we pretty much got the itinerary and timings right. Cambodia was the first in a long time where we left feeling like had seen most of what we wanted to. That said, there’s always more to see and we would definitely love to make a return visit to Cambodia in the future! There’s so much history, culture, delicious food and the Cambodian people are such lovely people .
Our itinerary:
Day 1 - We flew into Siem Reap via Bangkok from Sydney. We arrived in the evening, checked into our hotel before a late dinner and beers.
Day 2 - We could have scheduled Angkor Wat to start this day but instead we opted to check out the town of Siem Reap. We like to do this to get a feel for the place we are staying before jumping straight into ‘tourist’ type activities.
Day 3 & 4 - Explore Angkor Archaeological Park. We started with the Angkor Wat Temple and then Angkor Thom on the first day, moving around the Angkor ‘Small Circuit’. On the second morning (day 4) we began with sunrise at Angkor Wat Temple and then moved our explorations to the ‘Grand Circuit’.
Day 5 - This day we visited a couple more temples, Preah Koh and the Bakong Temples, on the way to visit the floating village Kompong Phluk.
Day 6 - Morning transfer from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Afternoon exploring the Phnom Penh historic district.
Day 7 - Explore Phnom Penh City.
Day 8 - Half day visit to Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Free afternoon for further exploration.
Day 9 - Fly out of Phnom Penh airport.
What would we if we had more time:
Sihanoukville Beach and the southern coast - We were keen to explore the beach town and nearby islands and would do this in any future trip to Cambodia. We had a couple of days we could have added but felt we actually probably wanted more like 3-4 days.
Battambang - Cambodia’s second largest city and from our research has plenty to see and do if you have a couple of extra days. The local culture, countryside, temples and French architecture are all noteworthy.
A Cambodian food cooking class (next time for sure!).