Visiting Cambodia: Siem Reap

I can be a more than a little neurotic when planning trips, and I was definitely worried about a few things when we started planning our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. Was it insane to go at the hottest time of year? Would we get food poisoning? Would the crowds be unbearable? Would we constantly be hassled to buy things? Raku and I did extensive research beforehand, and to be honest a lot of the reviews and blogs I read made me more nervous than excited, at some points I started to question the entire trip. How wrong I was! Like all trips, there were things that went wrong, but in spite everything I'm so glad we did it.

Siem Reap is the town just outside of Angkor Wat Archeological Park where we stayed for the first three nights of our trip. Siem Reap is a really cute small town with a friendly, tourist sort of atmosphere. English is widely usable - there were always English menus and it was never a problem to speak to tuku-tuk drivers, shop keepers, or restaurant servers in English. (In fact, it was sort of a shock to come back to Tokyo afterwards.) Most people in Siem Reap are either travelers or work in the tourism industry, so it's easy to strike up conversations or make friends if you'd like to.

As I mentioned before, I had worried about food poisoning because of a bad experience on a trip several years ago. But I'm happy to report we had no such incidents, and that Cambodia food is delicious! There are lots of curries and noodle dishes that are similar to Thai food, though less spicy, and one of our favorites was a dish called Lok Lak which is sauteed beef with peppercorns. I never even knew you could eat peppercorns whole, but they were crunch and delicious. Another thing I fell in love with was the freshly squeezed juices in all the restaurants. The first time I saw it on a menu, I wondered who would order lemon juice, but then I realized it was a huge glass of lemonade. I got lemon or lime everyday, but I'm sure all the juices are fantastic. Below the photos I've listed the restaurants and bars we enjoyed and made notes of anything we especially liked.

In Siem Reap you can find guest houses for as little as $6 per night, but there is a pretty big range in the accommodations available. We ended up staying at the Sarai Hotel, which is a five star hotel that had only opened a couple months before, because we found an unbeatable deal for our rooms. Because they were so new they were working really hard to get good reviews online, and while I sometimes admired that forthrightness it also became tiresome. That said, I imagine this is not an ongoing issue. The staff was extremely helpful and friendly, assisting us with everything from making dinner reservations to helping when an ATM card was taken by a machine. The rooms were very comfortable, and the pool was the best part. The high walls around the pool guaranteed plenty of warm but shady areas, allowing us to hang out at the pool all afternoon without needing to apply sunscreen or getting sweaty (quite a relief after our intense morning excursions). They serve cocktails poolside with the most amazing mixed nuts seasoned with salt, sugar, and kaffir lime leaves. (I seriously can't stop thinking about them!) Breakfast is included everyday, and was quite generous with fresh juice, coffee or tea, a selection of breads followed by a main meal, and then fresh fruit and yogurt. We ate dinner there one night, but didn't find it to be anything special. If you don't mind spending the money (admittedly you can find comfortable accommodations for much less) it was really nice and much less than you'd pay for a similar hotel in another country.

Interestingly, in Siem Reap US dollars are the currency that everyone uses. The ATMs all dispense USD and you even have to pay for your visa in USD. Coming from Japan this meant that we had to change some yen in Narita airport because we weren't sure if there would be an ATM in the Siem Reap airport (there was, but it was out of order.) The Cambodian Riel is really only used for amounts less than one dollar. At roughly 4000 to the dollar a 1000 Riel bill is basically a quarter, so you might buy something and get change back in two different currencies. While this might sound strange it actually didn't turn out to be complicated at all, and no one ever tried to trick us or cheat us.

If you're even considering going to Angkor Wat, I can't recommend it enough. The park is incredible, and the town is so friendly and fun.

Breakfast at the Sarai Hotel

Refreshment and souvenir shops in Angkor Wat

Downtown Siem Reap

Afternoon drinks at the Red Piano

Tuk-tuks are everywhere, it's so convenient!

Relaxing at the Sarai Hotel Pool - these mixed nuts are soooo good!

Isn't the pool gorgeous?

Miss Wong's Cocktail Bar

The Night Market

Fresh juice and shakes are available all day and even late at night

Read About The Rest of Our Trip:
Visiting Cambodia: Angkor Wat
Visiting Hanoi: The City
Visiting Hanoi: The Food
Visiting Hanoi: The Sofitel Metropole
Afternoon Tea at The Metropole

Places We Enjoyed:
The Blue Pumpkin
One of the few places with air conditioning! Great lemon juice (lemonade), yellow curry, bakery items and ice cream.
Hours: 6:00 am - 11:00 pm
Phone: 063-963-575
Location: Sivatha Road, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Map

Genevieve's
Good for lunch or dinner. The best Lok Lak we had in Siem Reap.
Hours: 12:00-2:00, 5:30-9:30, Closed Sunday
Phone: 081-410-783
Location: Sok San Road, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Map

Haven Restaurant
If you can't get reservations for dinner it's easy to walk in for lunch.
Hours: 11:30-3:00, last order 2:30, 5:30-10:00, last order 9:30, Closed: Wed lunch, all day Sunday
Phone: 078-342-404
Location: Sok San Street, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Map

The Red Piano
Beautiful outdoor seating.
Hours: 7:30 am - 12:30 am
Phone: 092-477-730
Location: Street 8, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Map

Miss Wong's Cocktail Bar
Really creative and tasty cocktails made with interesting local ingredients.
Hours: 6:00 pm - 1:00 am
Phone: 092-428-332
Location: Miss Wong, The Lane, Siem Reap Cambodia
Map

The Sarai Hotel
Phone: +855 (0) 65-962-200

Visiting Cambodia: Angkor Wat

At the end of May and beginning of June John and I took a week long trip with our friends, split between Cambodia (Angkor Wat) and Vietnam (Hanoi). It was an absolutely magical experience, and I'm so glad we went!

If you've never heard of it before, Angkor Wat is a huge temple complex (more than 400 sq kilometers!) in Cambodia that was built by the Khmer Empire in the 12th Century. Angkor Wat is technically the name of the main temple, but the entire archaeological park is also known by the same name. The nearby town where we stayed is named Siem Reap.

If you're just here for the pictures please feel free to skip the rest and enjoy the photos - it was so hard to narrow it down to even this many, and I've still dumped a ton. But if you're planning a trip yourself, or you like reading intricate travel details I've tried to include all the information I would have found the most useful.

We spent three nights in Siem Reap, with two days dedicated to Angkor Wat and a final day spent in Siem Reap before an evening flight to Hanoi. June is the beginning of rainy season in Cambodia while March through May are the hottest months of the year. We were lucky to not see any rain, but wow was it hot! The benefit though, was that we were traveling during the low season so prices were lower, reservations were easier to get, and everything was much less crowded. If you're thinking about going at this time of year but worried about the heat, I  highly recommend it. It's definitely hot, and you'll be sweating most of the day, but the temples are so amazing you'll be distracted a lot of the time. I think I'm a wimp when it comes to heat: I start sweating pretty quickly, get grumpy about it, and I definitely had the fairest skin among our group, but honestly, it was pretty manageable. With hats and a couple sunscreen applications a day none of us burned - in fact I didn't even get the slightest tan. We also tried stay hydrated, luckily our driver always had bottles of water in the car, and it's easily purchased just about everywhere.

The best advice I have for Angkor Wat is to hire a car to drive you around. We found that a car would cost $34-$45 per day while a tuk-tuk (basically a covered cart attached to a motorcycle) would cost $12 per day. With four people it was especially practical because we figured we could all fit in one car or we could pay for two tuk-tuks. And you better believe it was worth the extra money to be in an enclosed air conditioned space to catch our breathes between temples. Besides the air conditioning, Angkor Wat is a pretty dusty place - at least during the dry season, and I can imagine it would be a lot less pleasant to be breathing in all that dust. Additionally, if you're interested in going to any of the more remote temples this will save you tons of time. We went to Beng Mealea, which took about 45 minutes in the car while our driver said it would take closer to two hours in a tuk-tuk!

When we hired our driver (I did this about three weeks in advance) he offered us two of his most popular routes, though he was very flexible and open to any other ideas we had. We chose one of his itineraries which included a first day seeing most of the "must do" sights in Angkor Wat and then the second day spent going to three outlying temples. In hindsight I think this was the better option for several reasons, first of all the outlying temples are absolutely stunning and far less crowded - Beng Mealea in particular was everyone's favorite. Second of all, we simply didn't have the stamina on the second day to do as much as we did on the first. By going to fewer sights further out on the second day we had more time resting in an air conditioned car, putting all of us in a better mood. 

Our exact itinerary was: Day 1: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom City (Bayon, Phimean Akas, Baphoun, Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the Leper King), Ta Prohm. (Note: we ended up getting a little off track in Angkor Thom and seeing more temples than we meant to. To compensate for time and energy we skipped Banteay Kdey and Sras Srong which our driver had initially planned to take us to.) Day 2: Preah Khan, Banteay Srey, Beng Mealea. 

It's hard to rank the places we saw, but Beng Mealea, Ta Prohm, and Preah Khan were my personal favorites because they were so wild feeling. Ta Prohm is the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed, and Beng Mealea is a completely unrestored temple in the jungle where local guides will help you pick your way through and over the crumbling stones. In terms of sheer size Angkor Wat and Bayon are absolutely stunning. It's amazing to imagine these enormous places being built by hand so long ago! And Banteay Srey is interesting because it was built separately two centuries earlier and with a red stone that looked different from any of the other temples. I didn't actually love it, but when my friend Sarah went it was her favorite.

Everyone recommends that you start your days early in Angkor Wat, and I completely agree. We headed out each morning at 8:00, which really helped with both the heat and the crowding. By starting so early we were finished by lunchtime, when we would have our driver drop us off in town. After eating lunch we'd take tuk-tuks back to the hotel, shower, and then lounge by the pool until the evening when it was cool enough to go back out for dinner and drinks.

A final note, Raku and I wondered about the bathroom situation in Angkor Wat before we went and couldn't find much online, so we made a point to go before leaving each morning, brought tissues with us and prepared for the worst. But on the first day we sweated so much that it wasn't even an issue. The second day we did ask our driver for a bathroom break, and it was not trouble at all. There was a bathroom less than five minutes away that was free to anyone with the Angkor Wat Pass to get into the park. The bathroom was a little rustic but clean, with sinks, western style toilets and toilet paper! 

First stop of the morning: Angkor Wat

Preah Khan

Resting in the shade at Angkor Wat

View from Angkor Wat

These intricate carvings are everywhere, they must have taken so long to do!

Chicken snacking on someone's coconut

The giant faces at Bayon

Temple Kitties

Strangle Fig Tree at Ta Prohm

Some of the roots are so heavy that supports have been installed at Ta Prohm

The red sandstone at Banteay Srey

A crumbling courtyard at Beng Mealea

Read About the Rest of Our Trip:
Visting Cambodia: Siem Reap
Visiting Hanoi: The City
Visiting Hanoi: The Food
Visiting Hanoi: The Sofitel Metropole
Afternoon Tea at The Metropole

Home from Cambodia and Vietnam

A couple of weeks ago I told you I was going on a trip to Angkor Wat and Hanoi, and then I never wrote anything else. I'm sorry I've been quiet for so long, the trip was totally wonderful and exhausting and overwhelming, and then almost as soon as we got back I came down with a cold and spent nearly a whole week lying around not doing anything.

Luckily I'm feeling a lot better now - just in time for John's sister Ellie to arrive. She'll be here for a full two weeks, and we'll be doing all sorts of great things, some of them old favorites for me and John, but some new things too, so hopefully I'll have some good experiences to share here. But before I get totally caught up in her visit I want to be sure and post all about our trip. Each segment deserves its own post, but for now I'll just share a few highlights.

This was my first time in Southeast Asia and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Living in Tokyo which is so clean and structured and formal I sort of expected Vietnam and Cambodia to be like the wild west, which was both exciting and intimidating. I shouldn't have worried though because everyone was so kind, the food was delicious, and while it was really different from Japan I never felt unsafe. 

In Cambodia our goal was to see the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat which were absolutely breathtaking, and in Vietnam we mainly wanted to eat a lot of delicious Vietnamese food and relax. We succeeded with both, despite an unfortunate bout of food poisoning, and I am so glad we finally made this trip a reality!

I'll leave you with a few photos and very soon I'll write more about the trip.

Banteay Srei Temple

Strangler Fig Trees grow over everything 

We stayed at a Moroccan Themed Hotel in Cambodia

Lots of women carry around baskets of things for sale in Hanoi 

There are scooters everywhere in Hanoi

It was surprising to see all the meat lying out to be butchered at the food stalls