Amazing Siem Reap

We spent 5 amazing days in the beautiful town of Siem Reap in Cambodia. What was supposed to be a purely archeological visit turned into a relaxing getaway with great food, entertainment and culture.
We stayed at a really nice boutique hotel called Sarai with an amazing swimming pool which we used extensively.
Besides chilling by the pool, we got to experience a wide variety of cuisines from around the world. Siem Reap may be a small town but the number and variety of restaurants you can find rivals those of many cities in the US and Europe.

During our stay we had great swiss, Italian, khemer (Cambodian), and one of the best burgers I've ever had at a cute pub from New Zealand.

Besides the diverse cuisines, Siem Reap has a great downtown area with a night market with nice paintings and trinkets and a "pub street" packed with modern clubs and all sorts of drink and food stalls including some that sell fried spiders, snakes and scorpions on a stick as a traditional snack. We weren't that adventurous to try them but opted instead for a peculiar soft serve ice cream served in a J shaped come made of puffed rice. Delicious!!

The town's main attraction is the world renown Angkor wat. On the first day of site seeing, we visited Ta Prohm, AKA the tomb raider temple featured in the movie with impressive giant trees growing in and around the temple stones. Even though our tour guide was terrible, we had fun walking around the ruins of Ta Prohm and climbing to the top of some small temples that surround Angkor Wat.

After a day of relaxing by the pool and getting some traditional Khemer massages (complimentary from the hotel as we complained about how terrible the tour guide had been), we set out bright and early (or should I say dark and early as we were picked up at 4:30 am) to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

This time our guide was amazing. He not only gave un interesting history on the site, but also showed us the best spots to take pictures. Angkor Wat is really amazing and it's size and detail are very impressive but to be honest, my favorite temple was one we visited in the afternoon called Bayon, the main temple I the city of Angkor Thom built by the great king Chez... VII which was a place of worship for both Buddhists and Hindus. The temple's top is covered with Buddha faces that are absolutely beautiful.

Overall we all loved Siem Reap and would go back in a heartbeat to visit more of the 200+ temples in the area and enjoy the good food.Read more