This trip was done last August (10th to 17th) which we arrived at Siem Reap and spent 3 days 3 nights there before coaching over to Bangkok. Since there's plenty of info on Bangkok, I shall concentrate on our 3 days in Siem Reap as well as the journey to Bangkok.
Cost
One-way ticket (Jet-star) to Siem Reap: $185.40 (we only bought the tickets a few weeks before departure so tickets weren't really cheap. Not to mention missing the sales period)
$ exchanged: US$200 / S$250 (Considering it was a 3-day trip and having to just spend on 1 breakfast, 3 lunches and 3 dinners, transport, tours, admission tickets and minimal shopping)
Currency
You can use US$ there (no pennies nor dimes) though for certain items (we bought stuff from the minimart and the items were priced with some cents) that are not rounded up to the nearest dollar, they will give you the change back in Riel (yup, that's their currency).
Weather
It was really sunny(!!) during our 3 days there. Scorching hot and burns your skin but the good thing was it wasn't as humid as it is in Singapore. So apart from getting all tanned, we didn't feel too uncomfortable there. Just remember your shades and spam sun block every few hours!
Food
You can easily find food at the area around Pub Street (as the name suggests, it's lively with bars and bistros). Khmer food (which looks like a fusion of Vietnamese and Thai food) at little restaurants, Cambodian bbq (like Mookata), and definitely not a problem about not adapting to the Cambodian cuisine because there's western food like Pizzas and Pastas around! Price wise it's not exactly very cheap nor expensive. So I guess setting aside US$5-US$8 for a meal would be recommended, though we spent quite a bit on food because we always ordered a little more to share.
The drinks are dirt cheap though - and we mean alcoholic ones. Beers (try their Angkor beer - smooth!) are as cheap as less than a dollar and a glass of Mojito at US$1(?!!).
Shopping
Around Pub Street area too, and there's a Angkor Night Market just around the same area. There are also stalls at the Siem Reap Art Center. Do remember to bargain every where you go!
Hotel
It's not difficult finding a low-cost accommodation in Siem Reap. We were all happy with the hotel I found on Agoda, not to mention I got it at a 50% rate (promotion!)! How lucky!
Khmer Mansion Boutique Hotel
Apsara Pool View
Double bed (King-sized)
Rates for 2 nights: USD72
I then emailed the Hotel to request to add an extra bed, unfortunately the room I booked was too small to add an extra bed. Thus, the Hotel gave us a complimentary upgrade to a slightly bigger room (Mansion suite) and we added the extra bed at USD30 per night.
That makes up an average of US$44 (SGD55) per person for 2 nights! Totally within our budget, considering it includes breakfast (though I remembered there wasn't breakfast when I booked on Agoda)
Though the Hotel compound was small, these are the reasons why we liked this hotel
- It is relatively new, or at least the hotel exterior and interior looks new
- Staff are extremely welcoming and friendly
- Mansion suite was spacious for 3 pax and toilet was very spacious too
- Bed was really comfy!
- Room came with a balcony that overlooks to the (small) swimming pool
- A couple of eating places along the street where the hotel was situated
- 2 minutes walk to the minimart along the main street
- 3 minutes walk to Pub Street!
- FREE pick-up service from the airport!
Highly recommended! (Psst, while we were there, the land beside was sprouting a new building, most probably a new hotel. Keep a look out for it!)
Getting Around
Tuk Tuk! Be sure to bargain as getting around the main area of Siem Reap is rather short distance and usually they will quote you minimum USD3 for a less than 5-minutes-distance.
Itinerary in short
Day 1
Late Afternoon: Sunset at countryside on ATV
Evening: Dinner at Pub Street & walking around Angkor Art Centre
Day 2
Morning: Angkor Wat
Afternoon: Lunch & Nap
Evening: Dinner and walking around Pub Street
Day 3
Morning: Tonle Sap
Afternoon: Lunch & Angkor National Museum
Evening: Dinner at Koulen 2 (Performance & Dinner)
Though I said we had 3 days in Siem Reap, technically it was only 56 hours or slightly less than 2.5 days. And the reason for a short stay at Siem Reap was because of the departure date, timing and price from Bangkok to Singapore as we wanted at least 3-4 days in Bangkok. Otherwise, I would recommend a full 3 days (or even 4) in Siem Reap for a more paced-out and relaxing trip..
Since we had a (rather) tight itinerary, we wanted to see as much as we can. So here's how I planned for our Siem Reap trip (and I'm glad the other two of The Happy Trio were satisfied)
Arrived at the Siem Reap International Airport at 2.50pm and it was...blazing hot (we walked out of the plane to the arrival hall) and different. No big arrival hall or customs and the airport infrastructure looks traditional. We're picked up at the airport by a hotel staff and greeted by a really friendly staff with a cup of juice to quench our thirst in the hot weather. Since the room was still being made, we went out to the main road to find food and settled for ice-cream. The room was ready by 4pm.
Yup, this is the arrival hall.
And that's our plane.
Since we wanted to make full use of the day, I arranged for an ATV tour to catch the sunset!
Quad Adventure - Read the reviews on Agoda which were positive and so I checked them out. Impressive response as I only booked a slot with them (and pick-up from our hotel) only one or two days before flying to Siem Reap.
They offer 3 kinds of tour and we went with the
Sunset Tour which takes us around the countryside, and into the village/residential areas.
There was a driver/guide allocated to each group so we had Phy who picked us up from the hotel at 4.30pm and drove us to the Quad Adventure office just 5-10 minutes away. Since Shyan wasn't comfortable with driving her own vehicle, she was my passenger and TC had his own. We spent about 10 minutes test driving before Phy led us on the roads towards the sunset.
It was honestly an eye-opener for 3 of us, driving the "huge" vehicle on the roads while other road users were on bikes, and I remember even sharing a tiny stretch of road with a couple of oncoming bikes. Secondly, it made us realise how urbanised and well planned Singapore is -- the busy/touristy district is just beside the residential area in Siem Reap. Thirdly, as we drove deeper into the countryside, that's where we saw how poor the living conditions were for the lower-income Cambodians.
But of course, it was a happy thing as we drove past every kid who never failed to greet us (we don't even get such friendly greetings in Singapore) and seeing a couple of them having fun in the most simplest setting. Oh, not forgetting passing by two herds of cows on their way home. This was truly a good experience of having a glimpse into the locals' life.
It took us about an hour to reach the place to view the sunset, of which the last long stretch of the road was on full speed because we were late.
We were given masks which I highly recommend to put on because the soil that's coming your way will choke and blind you.
A pit stop by a paddy field.
They were this close!
Beautiful sunset across the field.
Love the skies.
Our friendly guide, Phy, who picks up English by watching English films and speaking more to tourists! And he enjoys what he's doing.
The ride back was much shorter (thankfully, because it was really dark when we drove back with little street lamps on the way) because we started off with a longer route to reach the fields, when actually it's just a few turns/roads across the office of Quad Adventures.
We were provided a wet towel to clean ourselves and that's how dirty we were! I recommend wearing a shirt which you do not want anymore so you can throw it at the end of the day. Because my white tee shirt was completely soiled thanks to the sandy grounds. Haha..
Quad Adventures
COST: USD70 (for 2 vehicles. 3 pax)
TOTAL TIME OF EXPERIENCE: 1.5 hours
DRESSING: White tops not recommended. It was recommended to wear pants but we were so afraid of the heat that we all decided to wear shorts. Good and bad. The ATV heated up as soon as we were 10 minutes into the drive and my bare legs could feel the heat throughout the drive. not forgetting have soiled legs. And the good - it was so hot I can't imagine wearing pants and sweating inside. Lol.
CONCLUSION: The Sunset tour is really worth it if you have a couple of hours in the late afternoon and not sure where to spend it - especially if you have just reached Siem Reap and doesn't make sense to visit the Angkor grounds. (unless you're joining the group of tourists at Mount Bakheng to watch the Angkor sunset) And it's a good experience to take a peep at the countryside of Siem Reap. Plus, honestly, driving on an ATV for more than an hour is good enough!
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Dinner was settled at a Khmer restaurant, along Pub Street, which I thought was pretty similar to Thai and Vietnamese cuisine.
Cheap Angkor Beer - light and smooth.
Spring roll which has mint leaves that we all dislike. We swore to only order fried spring rolls from this meal onwards. Lol
Fish amok! Pretty similar to green curry.
After-dinner activity: walked around pub street and Angkor Art Center, which you can find a couple of tour agencies that offer day trips to Tonle Sap, Bangkok, etc.
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DAY 2
Here's a pretty good itinerary to plan your time at Angkor:
Rusty Compass Website
You could cycle to Angkor but I would suggest, Tuk Tuk is still a better option. 1) It's HOT. 2) It's quite a distance to cycle in. 3) Consider climbing the steps at the temples after cycling (omg.)
We left the hotel at about 4.30am in the morning with the plan to catch the Angkor sunrise (at Angkor Wat of course). We didn't book any vehicle before hand to drive us to Angkor Wat. In fact, at there were already a handful of tuktuks out on the streets to start the day's business (all prepared to drive tourists to Angkor Wat). It took us about 10 minutes to get a tuktuk driver who was agreeable to our quote of USD 14. This includes half a day trip around Angkor.
WHAT TO BRING
- Water!!
- Sunglasses
- Spam the sunblock
- Cap/hat
WHAT TO WEAR
- Sleeved clothes are recommended and safest because our tour mates wasn't allowed to go up to the pavilions of Angkor Wat as they were dressed in tank tops (scarfs didn't make the pass).
- I couldn't find much information on the net prior to the trip whether mid-thigh shorts were acceptable. But to be safe (and we didn't catch any one in shorts being rejected at the moment), wear pants at least 3/4 in length.
- Good walking shoes because you're going to be climbing lots of steps!
Our driver, Daro, could converse in basic English. So he dropped us at the ticket counters first (along with a lot of other tourists and their modes of transports). Admission ticket/pass is priced at USD 20 for one-day and USD 40 for three-day. We got the one-day pass since we had limited stay in Siem Reap.
By the time we were dropped off at Angkor Wat, it was about 5.30am and there were already lots of tourists like us, swarming into the world's largest religious monument precinct to catch the beautiful sunrise.
ANGKOR WAT
Good morning Siem Reap.
The massive amount of early birds.
After taking lots of pictures with the magnificent view, we were starving. Thankfully, by 6.30am most of the stalls (right beside the lake) were open for business. So just grab a bite before exploring Angkor Wat.
We spent the next 2-3 hours in Angkor Wat! Daro was shocked that we spent that long time inside and even thought we were lost or went off on our own (haha). I would recommend getting a guide if you have limited time or didn't do much homework like us (the tour guides can be found at the entrance of Angkor Wat) but we didn't walk back to the entrance because it was far away (fine, we were just plain lazy). Thankfully, we saw 2 ladies who were with a guide and best thing, they didn't mind us joining in! The tour takes about 2 hours and covers quite a good overview of Angkor Wat's history and its architectural structure.
The exterior walls of Angkor Wat's third enclosure are beautifully carved with many religious beliefs and legends over 600m in length.
Each pavilion is well-designed and carved with religious sculptures.
One of the basins
We can't get enough of this. view.
It was about 10am when we left (we were at Angkor Wat for a total of 4.5hours!) and there were many tour groups which arrived, and we know it was definitely a good time to leave, because they were mostly from-you-know-where.
There are 2 ways you can go about in Angkor, depending on the time you have in Angkor. If you've gotten the day pass, I would say going the shorter route like us, would be less tiring. We were, in fact, very tired by the time we were at our last stop/ the third main attraction.
THE BAYON
The state temple of Jayavarman VII/ VIII.(Late 12th to late 13th century)
This is how tan we were after less than a day in Siem Reap!
Mass of face-towers to create the stone mountain of ascending peaks
A really impressive state-of-art. There were lots of visitors at that timing and we didn't stay too long.
BAPUON
State temple of the middle of 11th century
Spot the reclining Buddha
After this area, we couldn't take the heat and enjoyed an ice-cream each!
TA KEO
State temple of Jayavarman V (late 10th to early 11th century)
Known for being the "incomplete" temple.
TA PROHM
One of the major temples (/monastry) of Jayavarman VII (late 12th to 13th centuries)
The interesting thing here is finding the huge tree that appeared in Tomb Raider (I haven't caught this film myself but this was the selling point of this temple! haha)
Amazing trees and strangler figs around.
Ta-da! And if you want to know if you're a the right 'tomb raider tree' - seeing a queue forming.
We even got ourselves a guidebook which (lots of) kids were peddling. Lots of them selling the same book and some wouldn't budge when we haggled. We got ourselves 2 of the books at US$10-12! Even while having breakfast, there were many young kids going around and asking tourists to buy souvenirs from them. I don't know if it's right to buy from them because you don't know who's the one actually earning from these. They could be paid peanuts. But one of the tourists was being quite a prick as I thought he was being really harsh - taking advantage of the kids' (very) poor English, he asked them to go away in a very mean way.
It was 2pm when we were done with the shorter route of Angkor. We had a quick Khmer lunch at pub street and went back to our room to nap because we were too tired (my first time having time for nap during a holiday!), before waking up for massage to soothe our aching legs from all the climbing! And dinner at Red Piano which serves pretty decent western food (nice pizzas and cordon bleu).
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Day 3
Daro asked us the day before if we had plans for today. Since we were contemplating whether to go with a tour for halfday trip to Tonle Sap (we checked out the tour rates on Day 1), Daro said he could provide the tour. After some contemplation, we thought "why not". Minus the part where we get a guide who can speak fluent English and provide lots of information (Daro wasn't that bad when we asked him questions).
The tour we checked out was about USD29 per person and Daro provided it at USD18 per person (after some bargaining and minus visiting the GECKO education centre and crocodile farm which the tour provided and we could do without, in exchange we got to go Kompng Phluk which tour didn't offer) . Most importantly, we got our own boat (as compared to going with a tour and sharing with other tourists).
Our day started at 8.30am. It was about an hour tuktuk ride to the port of Chong Khneas. We spent about 2 hours
TONLE SAP
The Tonlé sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997.The Tonlé sap is unusual for two reasons: its flow changes direction twice a year, and the portion that forms the lake expands and shrinks dramatically with the seasons. From November to May, Cambodia's dry season, the Tonlé sap drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh. However, when the year's heavy rains begin in June, the Tonlé sap backs up to form an enormous lake.
(Wikipedia)
So yay! It was the wet season (though it was hot as hell) in August for us!
The really bumpy roads before reaching the port. It's not uncommon to see (skinny) cows along the way.
Floating school.
Simple joy and probably the only recreation.
On a sampan at Kompong Phluk, the flooded forest. If you're scared, hold tight like Shyan :P
A very small part of Tonle Sap
On our way back to Siem Reap city and took a picture with the oldest temple.
Visited the Angkor National Museum after lunch since we had 2 hours to spare. It was a good trip! And I definitely recommend you to visit before even going to Angkor. Firstly, you get to have a good knowledge of Angkor and its monuments. Secondly, you'll also get to know each motifs and designs dating to whichever empire and year. It was a pity we had to rush through the galleries because the museum was closing.
Dinner was at Koulen 2 - a restaurant with traditional Cambodian performance. Daro recommended this place and we paid about USD12 per person for a wide variety of buffet choices. However, we didn't quite like the food and felt it was touristy (with lots of tourists there). But a good glimpse into the traditional dance of Khmer culture though the seating was pretty bad.
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Day 4
Siem Reap to Bangkok
We bought our tickets from a tour agency (a street outside the Angkor Art Centre) which cost only USD9 as opposed to USD14-20 which I read online by other travellers. There was a choice to go by mini-van or 40 seater coach - which I think we were on the latter. The journey was supposed to take only 8 hours max. But not for unlucky us!
We were picked up at our hotel by someone from the tour agency at 7.45am and the van went around picking up other customers, before we all went on a bigger coach. (there were even some hiccups and we thought we didn't have seats on the coach!) All of us on that coach were given a sticker for the in-charge on the bus (who followed us all the way and over the Thai borders) to identify us.
Took us 3 hours to reach Poipet Tourist Passenger International Terminal, a rest stop for 30 minutes, where you can go for toilet breaks and have a quick bite. It took us another 30 minutes to reach the Cambodian customs. A pretty quick process by the Cambodian side, and before we know it, we were on the little road/ border in between Thailand and Cambodia.
After Cambodian customs
The worst and longest part was at Thai customs! We waited for 1.5 hours to go through (because the queue was very long and I don't know if it was the Thais or Cambodians kept cutting our queue!) And if you think that's all of our waiting, it doesn't stop here. We waited for another 2 hours because the tour agency screwed up! The in-charge was all stressed up because all of us were impatient waiting under the hot sun - what made us all angry was because the in-charge kept promising the vans were on their way. Worst still, some of the travellers who were on the same coach as us in Cambodia, already boarded their vans.
The reason for the wait: the vans were still at their office and not out on the roads yet!
Took us another 4-5 hours to reach Bangkok. This was how a supposed-8-hour journey became a 12-hour one. What an experience! I don't think there was any way to avoid this or for me to give any tips, and though this option of going to Bangkok from Siem Reap was definitely a cost-friendly one, do remember to factor in all the wait that might happen (
touch wood, I wish you luck).
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Can't believe this post took me 7 months to complete. Major procrastinator sitting right here. Hope all this info helps!
