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 Traveller's Tales: Getting around in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Know the most popular landmarks in Siem Reap, Cambodia. You may read about best transportation, recommended travel itinerary, suggested routes and directions. Also, you might want to read our
Angkor / Siem Reap city guide,
and Phnom Penh city guide.
Pages (4 of 19):
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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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| H Batt (2nd call) |
07 October 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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We hired a guide to see the temples through the internet at $50 a day including the car. We thought that was not worth it, as everything he said we had read in the guidebooks. A taxi driver from the hotel was cheaper and knew where to go anyway. The temples were spectacular-Bantei Srei is a must see, as is Tah Prom, Tah Som, and Bayon. Climbing up the very dangerous hill to see Pnomh Bakeng at sunset should be done on an elephant both ways($30), as coming down in the twilight is very risky, particularly for anyone over 40!
Have a look in the SR market's food area for the fried large hairy black spiders.We saw them the only time we didn't take a camera. The fast boat down to PP was good (be careful of sunburn because outside it is scenic, cool because of the wind, and hats don't stay on (Harry got burnt). The very best trip was back to SR to catch the plane, on the Meikong Express Bus-$6, but with breakfast, water, and the most incredible views of the countryside, with elephants, dogs, cattle, horses, people (all on the road!!). T-shirts are of a good quality here.The tablecloths, cotton or silk, all wash well. Unfortunately, buying anything from stalls is so harrowing that they kill the experience for many. I would have bought more things if I had been left alone to see what was there, instead of the in-your-face yelling and pushing and decide now.
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| R Benson |
03 October 2004 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Siem Reap is a town not "city" with limited tourist attractions. We hired car & driver for $20 per day. Tuk-tuk is $2 for any destination in the town. Easy to get around, bring small demoniations of US$. Prepare to pay $65 per person over 12 to go in and out of Cambodia in taxes and visa fees. Credit card transactions only at major hotels and often unreliable - bring cash! Pre-read a must, little information provided on site about history of city and tombs.
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| C Usher-clark |
29 August 2004 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Tourism in Siem Reap is growing exponentially with new large hotels being built in multiple locations. Go now before the town is enveloped! A 3 day pass to the temples was about right. We paid $6 for a tuk tuk at our disposal on the first day and $20 for a guide/$20 for a car on the second. A good guide brings the temples to life and is well worth the extra cost as it stopped us getting "temple syndrome" which so many talk about. See Angkor Wat at sunrise - 5.30a.m. Costs more to get to Banteay Srei as it is farther out hence more petrol. Went to the Kulen restaurant for an Apsara dance show - $12 per person with unlimited food buffet (excl. drinks) and well worth the money. By comparison we costed the Angkor Village/Apsara Theatre show at $22 per person! FCC good for lunch but more expensive - Red Piano does a good Cambodian curry; Khymer Kitchen was amazing and very cheap - worth hunting down that side alley for. The Blue Pumpkin inside the Artisans D'Angkor/Angkor Cafe is exceptional and very good value (cheaper than the other more "local" looking restaurants surrounding it!). Would recommend rainy season - so much quieter with about one sixth the number of tourists and it rained no more than an hour a day about 4pm so didn't distrupt our days at all.
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| M Garcia |
18 August 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Village Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Next time we go to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat I would definitely stay in a Cambodian owned hotel. Although we enjoyed our time in Angkor Village (French owned), I would rather have my money directly go to the Cambodian people. I also strongly suggest getting a tour guide to show you around the wats. I recommend ours Ponheary and her brother, Dara, reachable at ponheary@yahoo.com. They also have a guest house or can recommend Cambodian owned hotels.
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| K Stiern |
10 August 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Village Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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You have many good and cheaper restaurants in town where you can easily walk to from the hotel. Our favourite restaurant was the "Soup Dragon". There you can peacefully sit upstairs without being harassed by begging children and enjoy a delicious meal at a good price.
I can recommend our motor-cycle driver for the temple tours Mr. NAT who stands in front of the Angkor Village Resort and who speaks a good English.
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| J Rhee |
30 June 2004 |
Stayed at Borei Angkor Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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The hotel provides free pickup from the airport. The rest of the time we used a Tuk Tuk to see the town. For the temple, we used a driver the first day to see the smaller temples. The driver costs $20. It was worth it b/c it is so hot in June and it was nice being driven and being able to sit in air conditioning from one temple to another. Also, you can keep all your junk in the car and just bring your camera. The driver will also recommend a restaurant for lunch that is pretty good and cheap. Our driver was Sopheak Chhim. He was fantastic. Really nice guy. Spoke English fairly well. The second day we decided to use him as our driver again and our guide. Although he is not officially a professional guide, his explanations were more than enough. I highly recommend him. He is very honest and friendly. His contact info is "Chhim_Sopheak@hotmail.com". Contact him before you get there. He can give you advice and help with other matters as well.
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| A Trigg |
14 May 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Century Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Loved Angkor which surpassed my expectations. However can only take so many temples and after 2.5 days was "templed out". Hired driver and car through hotel and he was excellent. Sorry can't remember his full name right now. "The" was the name he called himself and think C18 was his car number. Didn't bother with guide and relied on guide book which suited me fine. Pleasantly uncrowded in May but weather was hot. Need lots of water and stops for coconut drink. Child beggars and hawkers quite agressive near Angkor Wat but otherwise no problems. Ended up buying lots of T-shirts and postcards I didn't really want. Siem Reap town very pleasant with plenty of bars & restaurants to eat & relax in. In May the trip up the river from Phnom Penh is tedious with two changes of boat due to low water. Decided to pay the extra money and take the plane back!
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| D Plane |
07 May 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Village Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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FCC is good for lunch. Buy souvenirs from the Central Market, not from the large souvenir places along the road to Angkor Wat - we bought shadow puppets at the markets for US$10 each which were on sale at the other places for US$75 each, and a wooden buddha for US$14 at the markets which were on sale for US$140 at the larger establishments - they looked identical to me. We had a driver and guide for 2 days - I think a guide was good for one day but I would have liked to just wander on my own on the second day. The tour groups are alarmingly ubiquitous, and it was rare for us to be on our own at any of the wats or temples, which I found disappointing. The shadow puppet show on Wednesday nights at La Noria (with dinner) was really great. And the people, without exception, were friendly, charming and seemed genuinely interested in talking with us.
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| W Hull |
20 April 2004 |
Stayed at Angkor Century Hotel - Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Visited Angkor Wat which was fantastic and well worth it. We got a good guide and driver (total US$45 for the day) and so covered a lot of the main sites.
Used Cyclos at night to get around and got a local who we used each day. Watch the cab desk at airport as he seems to want to sell tours before wanting to tell you about the fare $7 to get to your hotel. Just be persistant!
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