Reliving the past

My friends Mark, Bruce, and Pat are planning a trip through Southeast Asia for this March. Mark currently works for Citibank in New York, Bruce is teaching in Korea (his blog can be found here), and Pat... probably has sex for money. I've been emailing back and forth with Mark and Bruce and they want to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Since I've been there and I have something to share, I thought I'd put it out there for everyone.

The town that you'll stay in while seeing the temples at Angkor Wat is Siam Reap. It's a 5 or 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh because the roads in Cambodia (and especially between Siam Reap and the Thai border) are terrible. To call roads in Cambodia 'terrible' is as generous as I can be.

Downtown Siam Reap is only 6km from the main temple of Angkor Wat. Hotels there are more expensive than elsewhere in Cambodia, but still very reasonable compared to hotels in Europe or the US. We were able to find a place with a pool and a room with three beds for maybe $8 each. If my journal is correct, that was the Ancient Angkor Guesthouse but I DO NOT recommend going there (I'll elaborate later). That was the only hotel I stayed in while traveling that had a pool so I felt like a billionaire at the time. That was actually the first hotel we stayed at in Siam Reap. The second hotel we stayed at was $6 a night, but lacked the pool and accommodations.

When we arrived from Phnom Penh we had to take a taxi from the bus station into downtown Siem Reap. Our driver may have scammed us, but we can't be sure. We asked him to take us to a hotel that was recommended in our Lonely Planet guide, but when we got there he told us it was full and we had to try somewhere else. He recommended a different place and they had rooms available. As the taxi drivers get paid by certain hotels to turn up with tourists, it's in the drivers interest to get you to "his" or "her" hotel. So we found our first hotel because the driver recommended it. As I said, it was about $8 a night (I'm 40% sure of that).

Starr set the alarm on her phone for 5:15am the next morning. The plan was to rent bikes ($1 a day at our hotel) and ride out to Angkor Wat for sunrise. I would highly recommend doing this. You can take one of the many buses going into the temple area but then you'll need to stay on your tour (tours suck), hire a moto taxi for the day, or be prepared to walk for miles. And even in March, Cambodia gets hot. Having the bikes was key. Sunblock too.


We got to the temple area by sunrise and the entrance fee for a single day at Angkor Wat was $20. It gets cheaper per day if you buy a larger package (for example three or seven days) but I don't think most people would need more than one day there. Starr and Raquel went back to our hotel around noon to go swimming in the pool but I stayed until 4pm if I remember correctly. I'll leave it up to everyone headed there to pick your own path around the temple area.

The last thing worth mentioning ruined this part of the trip for Starr. Now, to everyone headed to Siam Reap: avoid the ANCIENT ANGKOR GUESTHOUSE. A number of things COULD have happened and we're still not entirely sure about the chain of events, but Starr was definitely robbed. When Raquel and Starr got back to the hotel, they changed in the room (where Starr left her camera) and went to the pool. The guy at the front desk kept watching them in the pool and it creeped them out a little bit. Not in a 'hey that creep is leering at us' kind of way, but a 'something is up' kind of way. When they got out of the pool and got back to the room, Starr's $500 camera was gone. As is usual, you're required to keep your key at the front desk when you're not in the room, so the only person who had access to our room then was the guy at the front desk. We think he had someone go up to our room, steal her camera and maybe rifle through a few of our things while the guy at the front desk kept watch. When it came down to it, there was nothing we could do about it. Starr got upset and we bolted without paying the bill, but they called the cops and they found us at the next hotel. We paid the bill and they left us alone. Starr was still out here camera though, and every video and picture she had taken since Japan.