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 Traveller's Tales: Things to do in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Learn about leisure and recreation in Siem Reap, Cambodia. You may read about their travel activities and adventures. Find out their travel tips and guides and discover fun things to do in Siem Reap, Cambodia.Also, you might want to read our
Angkor / Siem Reap city guide,
and Phnom Penh city guide.
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| I Baroni |
17 May 2005 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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To visit all the temples you need to buy a pass: US$20 one day, US$40 3 days, US$60 6 days. You need a passport picture! The must see: Angkor Wat, Bayon, TaProhn, the rest you can skip if you don't have lots of time. Take 1/2 day for the Floating Village (US$13 pp)1 1/2h tour. Rent a Tuk-Tuk (US$6 1/2day) to visit the town. The open air war museum is a nice change from all the temples. AngkorWeb, opposite Provincial Hospital, for $l 1hr internet. Go to the Old market for local souvenirs. You can pay everywhere in US$, but have small notes ready. If you can, visit Siem Reap in the low season, when there are less tourists and looks less commeercial!
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| W Osborne |
05 May 2005 |
Stayed at Mysteres d' Angkor - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Plenty of restaurants, bars around town but obviously the main reason for visiting are the temples. The main problem is the heat, try to start early and maybe think of taking a break midday to avoid the worst temperatures.
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| T Rothschild |
13 March 2005 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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We had an absolutely wonderful time in SR. We travel alot & this trip was no exception. The people in this wonderful country are doing such an amazing job considering the devastation they have suffered time & time again. We used Saron Soeun as our tour guide. He was fantastic! His english is great & his knowledge of the temples is amazing.You can look at Saron's web site at www.sarontours.com. We had three days in SR & had Saron as our guide for 2 days. We found that this was ample time to spend around the temples. We pretty much saw every temple in the area & even went out to Bantreay Srei which is 35km out of Siem Reap. We did these temples in great detail & didnt feel like we skimmed over them at all.
By the 3rd day we were most happy to have the day to ourselves to do a bit of shopping & go back out to Angkor Wat in the pm for one last look. Angkor Wat is best in the am. The crowds are much less & you can have many spots to yourself. Would suggest going out there in the am to do the big tour & then go there again one arvo for a look with the sun setting,but the crowds at this time are huge & the place takes on a whole different experience-not as pleasant as in the morning when it is all still a little mysterious.
If you are there on a Fri or Sat nite, please take an hour out of your time & go and see Beatocello. He is the Western Doctor who has spent his life dedicated to building Children's hospitals in PP & SR & caring for those who cannot get care. He plays the Cello and sings a little,which is quite entertaining. He plays in the Children’s hospital at 7.15pm for one hour & its free. The more important part about this is he shows 2 movies which will change the way you will think forever(not gorey)just eye opening. If you can please go, make a donation to this very necessary cause & if you are there during the opening hours of the hospital, please go and give blood. I know that this sounds like a scary thing to do in such a poor country, but I can assure you that it is totally safe. These children need us to help. Please dont just be a tourist, give something back to these people who have had so much taken away from them. I urge you. We had the best time in Cambodia & are already planning our next trip back there.
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| M Banks |
06 March 2005 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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We had guide and driver for our three days which we organized before arrival which was helpful. We ate at the excellent Red Piano and the Ivy. We went to Dr. Beat Richners concert at the hospital on the Friday night...an interesting and thought provoking experience! The real highlight, other than the temples, was our wonderful massage at "Seeing Hands 4" which I would highly recommend. It was easy to walk there from the hotel.
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| S Dominy |
24 February 2005 |
Stayed at Bopha Angkor - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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In Siem Reap, you do not have to worry about being located in the centre of town because everything is a short ride away. Central Market is good for nice gifts - beware that everything that looks old and antique probably isn't! We had a fabulous guide for the temple visits, Ponheary, who was a fascinating and knowledgable person to spend a few days with. Contact her on ponheary@yahoo.com. She speaks French and English. All her family members are also guides but I believe she is the best.
I was told 2 days was all you need to visit the Angkor area if you are not a temple buff. However, I wish we had at least 3 days as there are some wonderful sights further out which sounded very interesting. If you can't afford to stay at The Grand Hotel, Angkor, at least try to have a meal or drink there. The Fine Dining restaurant serves wonderful Khmer food. Even though it is probably the most expensive place in Siem Reap it is still very reasonable by Western standards (about US$40 per head with wine). They also do Apsara dance shows with buffet on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. These require advance booking. Beware the Apsara shows at the cheaper restaurants - they tend to be amateurish.
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| P Lippett |
11 February 2005 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Strong recommendation to book the services of Saron Souen as guide, at only $20/day in 2005 plus $20/day for a car and driver. Speaks excellent English, is totally knowledgeable, is fun and personable, and can't recommend highly enough for visiting Angkor Wat and surroundings. email him at saronan@camintel.com, and check his website at www.sarontours.com. We booked him months in advance via email, and recommend others do too (some are disappointed when they arrive in town and find him booked up).
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| N Ng |
09 February 2005 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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We didn't use a guide to see the temples, instead we just hired a tuk-tuk from a really nice Cambodian fellow, one Mr. Hang RA, tel (855) 12 732 211, email ra1_heng@yahoo.com. He was very friendly and suggested a list of temples we should see, all for $12 the entier day. Guides cost $20-25. Not having a guide gave us the freedom to spend as much or as little time at each temple. I also found that the Cambodian drivers haven't gotten as greedy nor pushy with tourists as those you might find in the more tourist-visited countries of Vietnam or Thailand. Try to get to Cambodia before this changes!
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| J Morris |
04 February 2005 |
Stayed at Angkoriana - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Hotel Restaurant very good and reasonably priced. Seeing Hands massage in town is great! 1 hour massage for $4, and can walk to large selection of restaurants from there. Piano Bar is good cheap food.
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| A Mccullen |
30 January 2005 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Moto-trailers and motorcycles are absolutely everywhere so you will have no problems in finding transport, though contact lens wearers, be warned - the roads are very very dusty! There are plenty of great restaurants around Siem Reap ranging from Khmer to Indian to French, or if you wanted to go local, you could always eat at one of the street stalls serving Khmer noodles, rice, and baguette sandwiches. We even saw fried beetles with garlic for those with a more adventurous palette! Although I only saw them being sold by one vendor on the East bank of the river, over the bridge from the Old Market.
There are loads of souvenir shops round the old market area as well as classy little boutiques that support local Cambodians like Rajana, Senteurs and Artisans D'Angkor which also had tours around their workshops if you wanted. The Khmer Kitchen is a gem - their amok is wonderful with the coconut milk made fresh (we could hear them grinding the coconuts!) and deservedly popular. It's tucked away in a small lane behind Bar Street so look out for its sign or you'll miss it! We also tried the Soup Dragon which serves a great pho (pronounced 'fur') noodle soup dish in the mornings and the Red Piano restaurant with international food and generous portions. Most of the restaurants have upstairs balcony seating, nice for the street views. The Blue Pumpkin cafe serves great pastries, breads and ice cream. If you wanted to visit some bars, there is 'Bar Street' with the very popular Angkor What?, Temple Bar, Buddha Lounge to name a few, and Linga bar just around the corner, a very trendy affair and SR's one and only gay bar.
One thing I would definitely recommend visitors go to is the Beatocello concert held every Friday and Saturday evening at the Jayavaraman VII pediatric hospital next to the Sofitel hotel. The founder and director, Dr. Beat Richner puts on informal concerts playing the cello (hence Beatocello) combined with talking about the hospital's activities. Their services are offered completely free and it is depends very much on donations. You can see that it is put to good use with world-class facilties having been built for the Cambodian children. Even if you can't give any money, you can give blood so I would urge visitors to support this project in either way.
If you hire a local guide, around lunchtime they will 'suggest' a Khmer restaurant for you to go to. As it was our first day, we thought why not? and were taken to a nice enough restaurant. We were the first customers, but one by one, we saw tour guides bringing in their guidees(?) until the whole restaurant was filled! It wasn't that the food was bad, it was alright but it was expensive by Siem Reap standards ($18 for three dishes) and we thought Khmer Kitchen and Soup Dragon were much much better. So insist that you go to a restaurant of your choice or just ask them to drop you off at the Old Market where you can walk around and pick for yourself where you want to eat. You'll spend less and get more authentic food!
There's a balloon ride that gives you a great view over Angkor Wat and Phnom Bakheng, $11 for 10 minutes but worth it! Would have been nice for sunset but book ahead because the tour groups often go for this option. There are also helicopter tours, I can't remember how much they were but it is very very expensive! Take a break in the middle of the day from touring the temples (we usually stopped from 12-2 or 3) because it was hot, hot, hot! However, if you can stand the heat, you'll be rewarded by an infinitely more peaceful wandering-round-the-temples experience! Have fun, we certainly did!
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| D Brickell |
24 January 2005 |
Stayed at Passaggio Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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For our first day of visiting Angkor Wat and other temples we hired a driver and a guide. We paid $20 for the driver and another $20 for an English speaking guide for the day. (with an hour and a half break for lunch). Our guide took us to all the major sights of Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Angkor Thom area. One of the things we did, that was a lot of fun for us, was to take an elephant ride. Just outside the Angkor Thom south gate there is a group of elephants at a road-side facility. You can hire an elephant with a handler. The cost is $11. Our ride took us through the south gate into Angkor Thom along the jungle. Our ride lasted about a half hour. It was a great experience.
For the second day we didn't use a driver or guide, but hired a tuk tuk (mortorized rick-shaw) for the day for $10. We merely told our tuk tuk driver where we wanted to go and off we went. Our first stop was at Ta Prohm where we hired a guide for $4 for a 1 hour tour. This was very worthwhile as our guide showed us all the best locations to get good photographs as well as explaining some of the history. (The guides at this location are local young men who seem to hang out at the temple -- they do not have official guide badges, but are very knowledgeable). We also visited several lesser known places in the area that we spotted while driving through the Angkor Wat complex.
One of the best restaurants we ate at was the Chivit Thai. It is a Thai restaurant and the food was outstanding. The price was also very reasonable (Under $20 for dinner and beer). Another restaurant that had good food was the Foreign Correspondent's Club (FCC). However, it was more expensive than the Chivit Thai. In our opinion the food at Chivit Thai was better.
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