Airport

Located on the west of the city, Siem Reap Airport is about 20 minutes by car.

With the booming tourist trade at the Angkor temples, the airport is undergoing expansion. It is a modern if basic facility and relatively trouble-free.

There are taxis and motodops (motorcycle taxis) to take you from Siem Reap airport to your hotel for a small fee. Bargain if the price seems excessive, but not too aggressively — these guys aren’t making a lot of money.

Transportation

Two Wheels
As with Phnom Penh, you really need experience to drive here. Better to hire someone to drive you (about $7-10/day). However, there are rental agencies everywhere in Siem Reap.
Four Wheels
Cars and drivers are available for hire at ATT, but you are better off hiring a taxi driver to take you around, or a minibus through a hotel travel agent.

ATT Contact Number

Phnom Penh: 166 Norodom Blvd, tel: 016-909-090
Siem Reap: on the road to Angkor, tel: 016-636-363
Poi pet: on the main road, tel: 016-545-454

Touring the Temples

The Angkor temples are one of the few tourist attractions in the world that cannot possibly be overrated. They are spectacular and well worth traveling the distance to visit. You are pretty free to explore and clamber around (be careful though, since you are responsible for your own safety), but don’t climb up onto any religious icons or the local people will be very angry with you. These places are a national treasure and should be treated as such.

Watch your head for bat droppings and low stone doorways.

Dining

The town centre offers a number of pleasant eating opportunities for Asian and especially foreign (French!) food at very reasonable prices. Just walk around until you find something that appeals to you.

Way to go

You can fly in from Bangkok or Phnom Penh, or if you’re feeling adventurous, take a boat from Phnom Penh for about $25 — a six hour ride down the river and through the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest lake.

Where to stay

Hotels vary from $3 guesthouses and everything in between up to a couple of hundred bucks for a top room at Grand Hotel d’ Angkor or the Sofitel. The place is packed with accommodation as everybody gears up one step ahead of the tourist boom.

Nightlife

Siem Reap is a very small town, with a goodly handful of friendly little bars (and one seedy disco) concentrated in the town centre. Great place for a pub crawl, though you really don’t want to be hung over while touring the temples.

Siem Reap map

Transportation

Two Wheels
Unless you have experience driving in Southeast Asia, hiring a motorbike is not really recommended. In Phnom Penh they frequently get stolen (and you are liable, even if it was the owner who stole it back with a spare key!!), so keep it in your guesthouse at night. A better option is to hire a motodop (motorcycle taxi). They know their way around, usually speak a bit of English and are inexpensive.

But if you must: Lucky! Lucky! and New! New! are two rental agencies renting out 250cc and smaller 110cc bikes. 250s cost from $6 to $10 a day depending on the condition of the bike.

Four Wheels
You can hire cars from ATT car rental, though it is better to hire a taxi or arrange a minibus through a hotel travel agent.

ATT Contact Number

Phnom Penh: 166 Norodom Blvd, tel: 016-909-090
Siem Reap: on the road to Angkor, tel: 016-636-363
Poi pet: on the main road, tel: 016-545-454

Dining

The riverside promenade is teeming with restaurants with fantastic foreign (and Asian) food at surprisingly low prices. Great steaks and pasta and pizza can be had for the cost of an aperitif at a restaurant back home. Most have chalkboards outside advertising their fare and prices.

Way to go

You can fly in from Bangkok, Saigon, etc, or almost any major town in the country. If you are hankering after a bit of adventure, and are coming from Siem Reap, consider taking the six-hour scenic boat ride (about $25) through the Tonle Sap Lake.

Where to stay

Phnom Penh has a big range of accommodation from about $5 for a dingy guesthouse with shared toilet to modern luxury for up $200 or so, and everything in between.

Nightlife

The restaurants along the river make a nice spot for an evening drink, but much of the rest is pretty seedy stuff, where people indulge in sins of all descriptions — especially the discos.
One of the more respectable pubs is misnamed “The Cathouse”, with a friendly staff, comfy decor and low prices.

Phnom Penh map

Phnom Penh – A City of Occupations

Phnom Penh, founded alongside the Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers, has been the capital of Cambodia since the mid15th century, after Angkor was abandoned.

Most of modern day Phnom Penh was built while under the colonial control of the French, (who occupied it in 1864 as an extension of their interests in Vietnam). In its heyday, the city was considered one of the most picturesque in Southeast Asia.

Since gaining independence from France in 1953, decades of political turmoil have constantly transformed Phnom Penh. A domineering monarchy was deposed in 1970 by the military as the country was dragged kicking and screaming into the Vietnam War.

Reign of Terror

Under the direction of Henry Kissinger, the countryside was carpet-bombed to “root out” Vietnamese communists. This insane military strategy drove the rural population into the capital, creating an overpopulated metropolis of hungry people, and paving the way for the eventual Khmer Rouge takeover under Pol Pot.

In April 1975, (two weeks before the fall of Saigon) the U.S. forces abandoned the city as the Khmer Rouge moved in. Initially welcomed, the KR soon instituted harsh policies (somewhat similar to China’s cultural revolution), including forcing almost the entire population back into the countryside to produce rice. The city was transformed into a ghost town, and the site of countless political tortures and murders. Tuol Saleng, a high school that was converted by the KR into an interrogation/torture centre has been preserved as the Museum of Genocide – a chilling reminder of a truly horrible period.

The Struggle for Peace

In 1979, fed up with overambitious border attacks by the KR, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, taking over Phnom Penh, driving the KR into hiding in the countryside and plunging the country into 16 years of civil war. A $3 billion UN peacekeeping initiative resulted in the election of current Prime Minister Hun Sen, who made a concerted attack on the Khmer Rouge through military means and dubious amnesties, effectively eliminating them.

A City on the Mend

With country now stabilized, Phnom Penh is steadily being restored to former glories as the Cambodian economy recovers. Despite ongoing high employment, the streets are lively during daylight hours, and there is an unmistakable optimism in the air.

Among its growing attractions are its laid back atmosphere, and lovely (and inexpensive) French food served in terraced restaurants along the Tonle Sap river. The National Museum and Grand Palace have also been restored and receive a growing number of international visitors.

Siem Reap – A City Carved in Stone

From the 9th to the 14th centuries, (at a time when Europe was still struggling out of the Dark Ages),
the Cambodian Empire of Angkor encompassed most of present-day Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

The heart of this empire during its peak in the 12th century was the ancient capital of Angkor Thom (near present day Siem Reap), the site of the world’s largest temple complexes that was only rediscovered in 1861, overgrown by jungle.

This spectacular city was built over 30 years under the reign of Suryavarman II (1113-1150). The whole area covers 400 square kilometers and is brimming with the finest examples of Khmer art and architecture.

Visitors are always amazed at the sheer scale of the place. Within the Angkor Wat compound alone, you will find more than 100 stone monuments and temple edifices, each of which contains countless statues, sculptures and bas reliefs that have weathered extremely well over the last 800 years. To see the whole thing can take several days, as you get delightfully lost in its labyrinthine corridors.

The most important temples to visit in the area are Angkor Wat – especially at sunrise and sunset; Angkor Thom, the remains of the capital; Ta Prohm, a palace overgrown by jungle; and Preah Khan, which is also overgrown and in the process of restoration.

SE Asia’s Great Lake

The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, covering 27,000 hectares in dry season (November to May) and 150,000 hectares during the rainy season (June to October). The Tonle Sap River reverses according to the season and the Tonle Sap acts as an overflow reservoir for the huge Mekong River. It is a beautiful and tranquil place to explore by boat and visitors to the area shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so.

The Tonle Sap is more than just a pretty face though. It is vital to Cambodia’s already tenuous survival.

It produces 100,000 tons of fish every year – an incredible 80% of the population’s protein intake. Unfortunately, huge dam projects in China along with others in Laos and Thailand are affecting the flow of water and threatening the ecosystem of this magnificent body of water.

Cambodia is Asia’s fastest growing tourist destination. After about 35 years of non-stop war, this beautiful country is finally re-emerging from the darkness.

Since the time of the Vietnam war in the sixties, Cambodia has had to suffer “secret” carpet bombings by the United States, followed by the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge, a Vietnamese takeover, and a further 20 years of civil war.

Following U.N. peacekeeping efforts, the somewhat dubious election of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the dismantling of the Khmer Rouge, the country is now enjoying a period of stability and new-found optimism. It’s many wonders are now open to visitors.

Phnom Penh: Asia Meets Europe

The capital city of Phnom Penh (pop. 1 million) is a lively place these days. Cars and motorcycles careen through charming streets lined with many French style buildings dating back to its days as a French colony in the first half of this century. The center of city life is the riverfront boulevard, featuring many bars and restaurants with a big emphasis on French-style food.

One attraction worth visiting (though not for the faint-hearted) is the Killing Field Museum (Tuol Sleng), a former school taken over in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge and converted into a torture chamber. The National Museum is less grisly, with an emphasis on Ancient Khmer history.

The Temples of Angkor

The biggest attraction for most visitors are the temple ruins at Angkor, just a few kilometers from the colonial city of Siem Reap. Well preserved stone temple ruins dating back about 1,000 years cover an area of 200 sq. kilometers. Visitors can easily spend several days exploring here, taking in the thousands of exquisite statues and bas relief carvings that adorn the walls of seemingly endless temple buildings and chedis. A cruise on the Tonle Sap — Asia’s largest freshwater lake — is also a memorable experience.

A Word of Warning: Though Cambodia is now more peaceful than at any time in the last 30 years, visitors should still exercise caution – particularly in the capital. Confine tourism activities to the daytime, since the dimly-lit streets can be dangerous at night. In the more rural areas, stick to well-established pathways (or better yet, travel with a qualified guide), since there are still countless landmines left over from the war years. Hazards aside though, a little prudence is all that’s required to enjoy a safe and happy holiday in this remarkable country.

Cambodia Travel Destinations

Siem Reap is a small colonial town just north of Southeast Asia’s largest lake, Tonle Sap.

Phnom Penh, founded alongside the Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers, has been the capital of Cambodia since the mid15th century, after Angkor was abandoned.