Siem Reap

Our flight starting in Phu Quoc brought us via Hanoi to Siem Reap in Cambodia. This of course seems ridiculous given that Phu Quoc is closer to Cambodia than the Vietnamese mainland. However, we unfortunately were constrained a lot by the very few exit ports we could use with our E-Visa to leave Vietnam, which made these flights the most reasonable way for us to get to Cambodia.

When we arrived in Siem Reap - Cambodia, we were warmly welcomed by a stunning sunset. Our first impressions were pretty good and certainly much better than our expectations after reading that Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in that corner of the world. But it sure did not feel like a poor country at all. We were totally impressed by how nicely built and modern the airport was and that the people seemed to speak English very well. Also their infrastructure looks generally very good, from well built roads up to European-like supermarkets. From the beginning on, besides the much better infrastructure, Cambodia reminded us of Laos which we liked a lot due to the people being very kind and always having a smile on their faces. The only thing that seemed a bit odd to us was that it is recommended to withdraw US Dollars instead of Cambodian Riel as not every place accepts Riel but they all accept US Dollars.

Siem Reap is known for being next to Angkor Park with its world famous temples but the city itself has much more to offer than just being a gateway to the park. It is full of markets, from the Old Market to the Center Night Market to many more to explore. And if you’re up for some nightlife, don’t miss Street 08, packed with bars and blasting music from every corner.

In Siem Reap we spent one week in the Sabara Resort, which is a five star hotel that we could get for only about 20CHF per night. While it did not at all provide what you would think of in an European five star resort, we had a nice room and pool area and their staff was very friendly and helpful. For this week, we bought a three day pass to the Angkor Park, which allowed us to visit the park and its famous temples during any three days of that week. We decided to do alternately one day in the park and one day relaxing and doing some sports, which ended up being a great plan because the park days with early sunrises and visiting one temple after the other in the heat are tiring.

After our first relaxing day, we booked a whole-day tour through the Angkor Park by remourque, which is basically a trailer with seats attached to a motorcycle. On this tour, we visited the world famous and gigantic Angkor Wat, the Bayon Temple, Ta Prohm which is well known from the Tomb Raider movie, and two smaller temples. The day after we relaxed at the hotel’s pool and apparently took the relaxing part a bit too seriously such that we missed our opportunity to rent a scooter for the next day, which we wanted to start before dawn. So the next morning, we took a Tuk Tuk to go see the sunrise at the Srah Srang lake before taking a Tuk Tuk back to have breakfast and a nap at the hotel. By that time, it was finally late enough that we could rent a scooter and visit the Phnom Bakheng and Neak Poan temples and also enjoy the sunset on top of the Ta Som temple.

A little side note on remorques: Cambodia was the only place where we have seen this type of transportation. But as it seems typical in southeast asia, people know no limits to what loads can be put on small vehicles. In the case of remorques, we have seen small motorcycles pulling trailers with an entire room worth of furniture and, Matthias’ favorite, a roughly 125cc motorbike pulling a trailer loaded with four cows.

Another day, another relaxing pool session, but this time without missing our opportunity to rent a scooter for the next day, which we wanted to start again before dawn. So we started our last day in the park, together with thousands of others, by watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We then visited the Pre Rup temple before returning to the hotel to enjoy breakfast and a nap. After this, we went to the city to have lunch and enjoy a back massage at “The Spa” from which we even got a voucher for a free 30 minute massage because we did not state that everything was perfect on their post-massage survey. All of this still left us time to visit the park one last time which we did by walking through Ta Prohm (aka Tomb Raider) again and watching the sunset over Angkor Wat.

The next day was also going to be our last day in Siem Reap. After checking out of our hotel room, we could still spend time at the pool for most of the day. We then headed to the city to redeem our massage voucher and have dinner before taking a sleeper bus overnight to get to our next destination.

Restaurants we can recommend:
- Nick Restaurant (They have traditional dishes, good curries and a huge variety of other dishes.)
- Street Three Eatery Siem Reap (Big portions! Everything is delicious!)
- Angkor Indian Restaurant (Authentic Indian dishes)Læs mere