Continuing the series of travel tips and lessons learned, here’s what we found in Siem Reap.
1. Bring passport photos and dollars for your visa on arrival. They need one photo and it’s $30 per person for the standard tourist visa.
2. Stay at Adan World Hostel. Such a great bargain here. We got a double fan room for $9 per night. It was clean enough and with fresh towels and two small waters in our room each day, plus free breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast!) which would cost about $2 each elsewhere it worked out great value. Its about a 20min walk from the centre of town but the tuk-tuks will run you down/back for $1.
3. Be prepared for the prices. As it’s basically one giant tour-hub for Angkor there is a lot of tourist mark-up on everything. A large bottle of water was $1.50 – about 5x what it was in Bangkok! The supermarkets seem to stock only imported goods with the premium price to match. You can find a good deal, but you’ll have to look quite hard for it!
4. Try and do the temples in the reverse route to most trips. This will help you to see them without quite so many people around. Bring drinks and snacks with you as they are a bit pricey around the Angkor site.
5. Be prepared to be seen as a walking cashpoint. The range of tourism here goes from backpacker basic up to 5 star resorts. To the man on the street you’re another rich westener (even if youre on a budget). Everyone will try to sell you something, but people are mostly polite and all it takes is a ‘no thanks’ to stop them.
6. DO NOT GO TO THE TONLE SAP FLOATING VILLAGE. $20 is very pricey for what you get. It’s interesting to see but, the whole thing is geared towards siphoning money out of visitors under the guise of ‘feeding orphans’. Guides can be aggressive and pushy and then completely disinterested in giving any information once they know you aren’t buying anything.
7. DO GO TO THE PHARE. As a complete contrast to the above, the Phare Cambodian Circus is well worth the $18 ticket price. It’s tremendous entertainment and the work this charity do throughout the country really does help many children and young people.
8. Eating: We’d highly recommend Sanctuary and Khmer Kitchen (both on the pedestrianised ‘The Passage’ near Pub Street). $3.50-4 mains with the Amok and Khmer curries the best thing we had. There is also The Butterfly Cafe which has locally caught butterflies flitting around whilst you enjoy the tranquil surroundings.
9. Drinking: There are plenty of good deals in the early evening. Happy hours last anywhere from 3-9pm and mean you can get a nice cocktail for about $2 each, or draught beers for $0.50. We’d recommend The Purple Mangosteen, The Sun Bar, YOLO (I know, but it is nice) and Soul Train.
