Siem Reap: A Must-See Before You Die

Asia » Cambodia
June 16th 2009

Published: November 18th 2009

Edit Blog Post

port80

Photo 2

siem reap international airport

Flying in from Kuala Lumpur via Air Asia, we arrived at Siem Reap at 8AM (minus 1 hour from Perth / Singapore / KL / Manila time). The airport is small but very charming. As pre-arranged, we were picked from the airport by the tour guide I booked - Saron. But apparently, we were also picked up by the hotel so Saron said he was surprised to see 2 placards bearing my name 😊 In the end, he just sent away the hotel driver and waited for us. We got lost for a while looking for our hotel as it is new and Saron and his driver friend were not familiar with it but after a couple of phone calls, we found it 😊

ACCOMMODATIONS
I found the Kool Hotel through tripadvisor.com where it got a lot of raving reviews despite it being new. I found the rates very reasonable and the customer service fantastic. Having had several days’ difficulty in securing bus tickets for our trip to Ho Chi Minh, I finally just emailed them and asked if it was possible for them to secure the tickets for us. The next day, they got back to us and informed

Photo 2

bayon

us that they can buy the tickets for us and we can just pay them using their online payment system. What a relief! Sure they charged USD1 per ticket for processing but what is that compared to the convenience and security of knowing you have a reserved seat in a bus route known for its unpredictability and inconsistency? So in short, I have already fallen in love with Kool Hotel before I’ve even seen the place! 😊

When we arrived at the small, unpretentious hotel, I fell in love even more! The hotel is small but very lovely, very quiet and very low-profile kind of classy. Service is efficient and warm. The only downside is that we were mistakenly sent to our room and when we got there, the girls were still getting it ready for us. I’m not really sure if it’s standard practice, but I was pleasantly surprised to find them ironing our bedspread and quilt! 😊

The room itself is good-sized, with a small balcony (no view to speak of though as it was in the middle of a typical residential neighbourhood), a sparkling bathroom with a tub (and dispensers regularly filled-up with aroma therapy

Photo 3

siem reap international airport

Jasmine and Green Tea shampoo and body wash!), remote-controlled lights and aircon, and power points that did not need adaptors! There is Wi-Fi anywhere in the hotel and a couple of internet kiosks per floor if you did not bring your laptop. Breakfast is free, above-average but very substantial. You get to choose from an ala carte menu. There is a nice pool but again, we were not able to enjoy it because we were so busy. But the best thing really is the service. On our last day, knowing that we needed to be at the bus station early, they asked us if we wanted to have our breakfast prepared early (as in before 6AM) or if we wanted it packed for our trip! I have stayed in many hotels but have never really been offered something like that! Considering the price of accommodations in Kool Hotel, it is service deluxe and hands-down my favourite among all the hotels we stayed in during our Asian trip.

DAY 1: THE TEMPLES
After settling down in the hotel, we immediately went back down again to start our tour. We hired Saron and his driver for 2 whole days. It costs

Photo 3

bayon

US$25/day for Saron’s services and USD$30/day for the car rental (plus tips at the end of the tour). I was just so glad I decided to hire a car because it was stifling hot and while touring the temples on a tuktuk or a moto or a bicycle would have been more a authentic experience, I probably would have fainted from the heat and not enjoyed anything at all.

First we bought our temple 3-day pass at the ticket counter. We were only actually going to be there 2 full days but the only choices were 1-day pass, 3-day pass, and 7-day pass. The 3-day pass costs US$40 each and comes complete with a picture of you and an ID lace because you are required to display your pass while touring the temples.

Our itinerary included visits to the following temples: South Gate, Bayon, Baphoun, Phimean Akas, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Ta Prohm, Takeo, Thormanon, Chao Say Tevada and Angkor Wat. I have lost track which temples we actually visited and those we were too lazy to explore and just passed by. I just remember that on the first day, we visited the

Photo 4

siem reap international airport

temple where Angelina Jolie shot Tomb Raider 😱 We had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants outside Angkor Wat where a cute boy with an unmistakably American accent sold us a postcard set for $2. I have read of these kids vending all sorts of goods to tourists and the general advise is that you can “promote local commerce” (as I love to say) but not to the extent that you get ripped off. $2 is not so bad so we got a set but declined the 2nd set he was trying to sell us 😊 He gave us a thank-you note after we had our lunch and my heart just went out to these kids. I read that $2, when converted to Cambodian riels, can actually go as far as a week in a student’s daily allowance for school so if you encounter them, be generous. The Khmer people are still very poor from the war that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge set on their country and while the sprawling hotels in Siem Reap seem to say otherwise, the common Khmer still is a long way from being comfortable.

There is not much to be

Photo 4

bayon

said about the temples - they are magnificent and awe-inspiring. I only have pictures, not words, to show you just how amazing they all are. Saron was very good and patient in explaining the carvings in the temples and it made a huge difference having him. We saw several tourists exploring the temples on their own, armed with their Lonely Planet guidebooks - I am a fan but I’m pretty sure they are missing a lot not having a guide like Saron. It made us appreciate the temples even more.

Before going back to town for a little exploring, I was sweet-talked again into buying Cambodian silk scarves (5 for $20 - who could refuse?) and a couple of artworks on rice paper (what they do is press the rice paper on carvings in the temples and rub. According to Saron, this has been prohibited as it wears off the carvings and oil from hands make the carvings glossy but these sellers are not supposed to be inside the park as well but they’re here so.... ). We also bought a Thai silk table cover that now covers our TV stand proudly 😊 The artworks have not yet found

Photo 5

our uber-cool kool hotel

a place in our home because we have not gotten around to having it framed yet 😊

Saron brought us to town and showed us the market, etc. They dropped us off at Pub Street and recommended a Khmer restaurant for dinner. We explored the market - lots of interesting trinkets and lots of dried fish. Kim bought a DVD of The Killing Fields. Finally, we had dinner at Khmer Kitchen where we tried the local cuisine and some BBQs. After dinner, we walked around a bit at Pub Street and finally, with great difficulty, instructed a tuktuk driver to take us back to our hard-to-find hotel. (Note: It is always best to bring a card of your hotel whenever you go out as sometimes this is the only way you can get back!)

DAY 2: MORE TEMPLES
The next day, we toured the temples again. This time, we went to Angkor Wat. Again, there are no words to describe the temples so I have taken as many pictures as I can, knowing that I will probably never visit these temples again.

After Angkor Wat, we went for a cruise on the Tonle Sap lake. It was

Photo 5

bayon

smelly and the fumes from the motorboats were nauseating but as it is when I’m travelling, I was game and tried to keep awake for the rest of the cruise. By the way, we rented the boat so it was just me, Kim and Saron on the boat for the entire cruise. The lake is home to several communities of boat people and it was amazing how normal life on a boat seems here. They had gardens, TVs, a school, a church, a snooker hall (billiards), a basketball court, crocodile farms, convenience stores, restaurants - all floating on water! At the end of the lake where the lake opens to the Mekong Delta, we were taken to a crocodile farm cum restaurant cum souvenir shop called Tonle Sap Restaurant. Of course, everything was expensive here and I was not about to eat anything here so we just bought 3 cans of drinks and a can of Pringles and set off.

Before going to Bantay Srei, we had lunch at Pub Street again, this time in a small restaurant called Angkor Famous. Lunch of spring rolls and tom yum lobster was cheap and fabulous! Khmers normally do siesta from 12-2

Photo 6

our uber-cool kool hotel

so while Saron and our driver rested somewhere, we walked around for some shopping. Except for some pirated DVDs (which later turned out to be very expensive) and a couple of shirts for Kim, we were unsuccessful shopping in Cambodia. Everything here is paid for in USD so it turns out expensive if you convert it. Cambodian riels are only useful for areas very far away from the city as we would find out later on our stopover travelling by bus to Ho Chi Minh.

On the way back to the temples, we asked Saron to look for Madam Sachiko’s Cookies store which I have also read in tripadvisor.com. I bought a gift box of cookies for US$20 (I realized later on how expensive that was) and just looked around the pretty store. We ended up giving away the cookies when we got home - they were nothing spectacular so I don’t understand really why it is so famous (???) except that there’s one kind which is shaped like the Angkor Wat.

After that, we went straight to Bantay Srei which is farther away from most of the temples. Bantay Srei, popularly-named the Pink Temple, is my favourite

Photo 6

bayon

of all the temples. The coral stones look pink at a certain time of the day but it was the intricacy of the carvings that amazed me so much. We just sat down for a very long time there soaking in the beauty of the ruins.

On our way back to town, we dropped by the Landmine Museum. It was small and a bit scary because there on display are all sorts of landmines and ammunition from the previous regime. The video shown at the end of the tour was depressing but highly-enlightening. Donations are very welcome.

Exhausted from all that, we had Saron drop us off at the hotel for a bit of a rest before going to the Apsara dinner Saron booked for us ($11 each). As the Apsara show starts at 7:30PM, the driver picked us up at a little past 7PM and brought us to Koulen Restaurant. Saron, ever true to his word, got us a table for two right at the very front, at the left of the stage, where we had the best view. The dinner was lousy but the show was entertaining so I guess it is still worth the $11

Photo 7

our uber-cool kool hotel

😊

DAY 3: OFF TO VIETNAM!
The next day, we travelled early by bus to Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. It was supposed to have been a direct trip from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh but since there were just 6 passengers, the SAPACO bus had to transfer us to another bus that goes to Phnom Penh and then the SAPACO bus that goes to Ho Chi Minh. That added 4 or so more hours to our travel time and instead of arriving in Ho Chi Minh at about 4PM, we arrived at about 8PM!

The bus ride itself was comfortable and we saw the Cambodian countryside AND AND AND... the bus actually rode on a ship or whatever it was to cross the Mekong River but still it was a very long ride and we were just so glad to see Saigon after a whole day on the bus listening to Khmer and Vietnamese telenovelas!

Additional photos below

Photos: 299, Displayed: 30