Khmer Kitchen, Siem Reap, Cambodia

We did so love the food in Cambodia...

In Siem Reap, there is a little alleyway near the market lined with inexpensive restaurants that cater to foreigners. We selected one, the Khmer Kitchen, on our first evening in town. The food was so delicious that we returned again the next night, and the next. We were never disappointed.

Our favorites included the vegetable dumplings, the amok, and the "Khmer curry" (similar to a southern Thai yellow curry). We also enjoyed a couple of the potato dishes. The Angkor beer was pleasantly cheap, and the mango smoothies were refreshing.

At the end of a hot day of sightseeing, Khmer Kitchen was the perfect place to relax and enjoy the evening.

Bayon

There are many smaller temples scattered around the area of Angkor Wat. You could easily spend a week visiting them all – if you could stand the heat – but we only had three days, so we tried to choose carefully.

One popular favorite which we were sure not to miss is Bayon, the “faces” temple. More than one hundred giant faces have been counted carved into the stone around this temple, with a variety of different emotional expressions.

You enter Bayon by crossing a bridge lined with demons on one side and “good” gods on the other. They are having a tug-of-war.













Then you have to pass through a huge gate. Can you see the faces?


















Much of the temple is filled with extensive, detailed carvings, showing scenes ranging from fantastic battles to ordinary, daily life.













You can see some places where the temple has definitely turned to ruins.













Happy? Or something else?

One piece of info: at Bayon, and at a few other temples, we found that if we wandered away from the large groups of tourists to less crowded areas, often at the back of the temple, we would encounter local youth who spoke very good English and tried to get us to give them money. They would usually say they were raising it for their English school. Sometimes they would start giving us a “tour” of the temple, and then would expect us to give them money in return. We had no idea if they were legit or not, and didn’t want to be pulling out our wallets in the woods with no one else around, so we didn’t give any money, but it was often difficult to walk away, as they would continue to follow us, talking. I doubt we were actually in any danger, but it did make us uncomfortable, and after the first couple of times we opted to just stay near other tourists.

Angkor Wat

So much has been written about the temples of Angkor Wat that I’m not going to go into too much detail about everything we did. Instead, I’ll focus on some of our highlights and favorites.

To start, a summary: the temples around Siem Riap in Cambodia were constructed during the reigns of several kings approximately 800-1200 years ago. They are remarkably well-preserved, for the most part, and attract hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world every year. We spent two full days plus an extra evening visiting the temples, which is certainly not enough time to see them all, but plenty of time for a heat-sensitive person like me to spend wandering around in 100-degree-plus temperatures!

Our first evening, we headed out to the main temple, Angkor Wat, to see the sunset. [Three-day passes are available for $40, but if you purchase your pass after 5pm, you can add an extra evening. Having your own passport photo will speed the process.] We spent a couple of hours roaming the walkways and climbing the steep stairs, admiring carvings and bas-relief. Here are some of our favorite photos:
We did this steep climb, too! It’s pretty scary, but worth it to see what’s up there.
We made it. Great views of the treetops! That is definitely southeast Asia.
I love stone pillars.
Sunset is a great time to see the temples. Some people don’t like the crowds, but I enjoy hearing the different languages and watching people have their temple-viewing experiences.
These bas relief went on for what felt like miles...
Robert enjoyed studying them and using the guidebook to understand the stories.
I preferred sitting in shady windows to read about Cambodian history when it got too hot to walk around!
The moon was bigger in real life than it is in the photo, but I still like the photo.

Bou Savy Guest House Review

We traveled in Cambodia and Malaysia for a total of 17 days, staying at 8 different guest houses. One of these was by far and away our favorite, and we want to highly recommend it to any travelers to the Siem Riap area.

Bou Savy Guest House is a fairly new guest house, run by a very friendly family. We found it online by searching the Siem Riap and Angkor Hotels Directory website, and selected it because it was given high marks for caring for the customer and caring for the destination. We were able to reserve our room online without having to give credit card information – an important criteria for me as I wanted the security of having a room in advance without having to worry about identity theft or fraud.

Upon our arrival at the guest house, we had to wait a little while as they looked for our reservation, but that was no problem because we had time to enjoy our “welcome drinks” – tasty banana shakes – while sitting in the shady patio area. Finally, we were led up to our lovely, air-conditioned, 3rd floor, $15-per-night room.


We enjoyed three nights of cool, quiet sleep at the Bou Savy. I also took advantage of the book trade and the 3rd floor porch. We had laundry done twice, both times for an affordable price. Perhaps best of all was the excellent breakfast – included as part of our room rate – of eggs, baguettes, fresh fruit, and juice, tea, or coffee.


The atmosphere at Bou Savy was completely relaxed and friendly. I felt very safe there and was sorry to leave. On our last morning, before we left for the airport, we asked one of the staff if we could purchase a couple of extra baguettes for snacking on our flight to Malaysia. When the manager found out we wanted to pay for the bread, he refused, and insisted that we take it for free. We were touched. I hope that more travelers stay at the Bou Savy so that such excellent service and staff can be rewarded!

On the Road in Cambodia

We made two bus trips in Cambodia: one from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham, and one from Kampong Cham to Siem Riap. On the whole, I would say that bus travel in Cambodia is relatively easy, somewhat comfortable, and extremely cheap.

Our first bus was late, slow, crowded, and hot. Aside from feeling stuck to the seat, however, it was not an unpleasant ride. The scenery was interesting, and the comedy show playing on the TV was not obnoxious. (See Brian's blog for a funny description of some of the obnoxious bus entertainment in Thailand!) The second bus was spacious, cool, and quick. I think it just depends on luck. I’d advise travelers to have morning departure times when possible. Nighttime bus travel isn’t safe in Cambodia.


Many of the locals can’t afford the air-conditioned buses, of course, or they might not live near a route. They might instead ride something like this:Or this:

Watching vehicles go by on the highway was better than a movie!

Tuk-Tuks in Cambodia

Two of our favorite people that we met in Cambodia were our tuk-tuk drivers in Phnom Penh and Siem Riap. Riding tuk-tuks in Cambodia was surprisingly enjoyable, and I’d recommend it for all visitors.

First, the vehicles: tuk-tuks in Cambodia are rather like carriages pulled by motorcycles. The seats are very well cushioned (even poofy) and there is a good view out each side. I never enjoyed riding them in Thailand, partly because of the recklessness of most drivers, and partly because they are completely open to the traffic exhaust and pollution. In Cambodia, there isn’t so much air pollution, so the breeze always felt wonderful as we rode along.

When we arrived at the airport in Phnom Penh, Nin was waiting there to meet us. Our guest house had arranged for him to pick us up. I was immediately impressed by his careful, slow driving through the morning traffic. I was even more impressed when, as I handed him the $7 I had been told was the price for a car pickup from the airport, he returned $1 to me, explaining that the price for tuk-tuks was only $6.

The next morning, as we deliberated over breakfast about the best way to get to and from the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum, Nin appeared out on the street. We quickly hired him for the day, and continued to enjoy his safe driving and friendly manner. In Thailand I often felt I had to play defense with drivers – tuk-tuks and taxis alike – in order to not get ripped off. Not so with Nin.
Two days after leaving Phnom Penh, we arrived in Siem Riap – the site of the Angkor Wat temples. Our original plan was to save money by riding bicycles around the temples each day. After a few days in Cambodia’s extreme heat, however, we knew that this would not be an option for us! It was an easy decision to try to hire tuk-tuks again. They are all over in Siem Riap, so finding one is not difficult.

Naht had just dropped off another couple at our guest house late in the afternoon of our arrival in Siem Riap, and we were headed out in hopes of catching the sunset at Angkor Wat. He offered to take us out for $4, which seemed reasonable to us, so we agreed. At the end of the evening – yet again impressed by excellent, safe driving and friendly, helpful manners, we hired him for the following day ($12). Pleased again, we added a second full day, and on our final morning in Cambodia, it was Naht who took us to the airport.

Over the course of almost three days, we got to learn a little about Naht. Like most others in the Cambodian tourist industry, he spoke English excellently. He told us that he had learned it not in public school but by taking special courses at a private school that he paid for himself. He also gave classes to other tuk-tuk drivers and tourism industry employees. He wasn’t from the Siem Riap area, but had moved there because of the opportunities to make good money from tourism. He was married, with one daughter, and was hoping for a son. We were quite fond of Naht and have his email address for anyone who’d like to hire him in the future!
On the whole, I would say that riding tuk-tuks in Cambodia is a great way to relax in the heat, see the sights, and get to know some nice people.