Siem Reap

Siem Reap is quite a pleasant riverside city and the place to arrange your visit to the Angkor ruins to the north. It's significantly less hectic than Phnom Penh and the locals are a little more friendly, the city isn't far from the Laos border and you may hear Lao being spoken in the markets by some locals rather than the native Khmer tongue. Pub Street is a street with some great bars (better than Phnom Penh) and nightclubs so after you are done with seeing the Angkor ruins in the daytime you can party here in the evening! There are plenty of great resturants serving everything from Mexican to khmer noodles (check out the food vendors ...  Read the complete review

I have been to Siem Reap twice now. Once was in 2004 and I also went in Dec 2008. The differences in the town since I last went were amazing. There has been a huge amount of big hotels being built. There is also a new shopping centre which includes an American ice cream parlour. The roads are of much better quality and the town is much cleaner (in general). Siem Reap is fairly small, it doesn't take very long at all to walk around and see the sights. The markets in particular are a must see as the food stalls are something special! But hold your nose... Although a lot of the souvenirs are pretty much the same on each stall, it is fun to walk around and haggle ...  Read the complete review

Siem Reap is the nearest town to the Angkor Wat complex. It is a long and detailed review but I hope it will be worth the read. Getting There and Away You can take a 1 hour flight into Siem Reap itself and when landing fly close to the complex itself or you can go overland – as I did, by public bus. The actual journey will be covered in a separate review. A Khao San Road / travel agent package is available but should be avoided at all costs, it can take up to 15 hours instead of 9. Usually an air ticket can be picked up for around 7500 Baht. The fixed taxi fare from the airport into town – unless you have organised a hotel with a ...  Read the complete review

In my slowly developing travelling scam series, I turn my attention now to Cambodia specifically the route you take from Siem Reap into Thailand ending in Bankgkok. I will not spend time now dealing with Siem Reap as a place but for those that have never heard of it, it is in north western Cambodia and is the tourist mecca for visits to one of the great wonders of the world called the Angkor temples. This is either the end or beginning point for most tourists in Cambodia. It was my last destination and so naturally I needed to get from Siem Reap back into Bangkok. Like most tourist mecca's Siem Reap offers a plethora of travel agencies ...  Read the complete review