July 26, 2017

Colourful Siem Reap

Chiara Di ASIA, TRAVEL Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Siem Reap, Sofitel, Travel, Wanderlust 0 Comments

Last month I was lucky enough to join my godfather on a trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia for an annual conference he attends.

I was quite surprised by Siem Reap. It was a lot smaller than I expected and had a lot of culture and history to offer. The main currency of use is US dollar which I found to be convenient.

Besides social events in the evening I had a lot of free time and with that comes a lot of wandering. I must admit I did have a fair bit of poolside time as well which was nice for me as I’m not much of a relaxer.

We stayed at the Sofitel Angkor Prokeethra which was an amazing five star resort surrounded by beautiful gardens and water features. The resort had restaurants, a lobby lounge, swim up bar, day spa and temple like lobby.

Pub Street was a 5 minute tuk tuk ride away (US$2 one way or US$5 return) and is the main tourist area of Siem Reap. It’s lined with bars and restaurants and surrounded by market shopping and beauty parlours. There are also street vendors selling drinks, fresh juice and fried ice-cream.

By night Pub Street came alive with music, lights and crowds. The bars and clubs are open til the early morning and cocktails are so cheap! I enjoyed a few dances at The Angkor What? Bar and Temple Club.

I did the half day Siem Reap Countryside Cooking Class (US$24) which was run by Mr Ben and is a not-for-profit organisation. I was picked up at 7.45am and we headed for the countryside which felt like it was just down the road from the Sofitel.

Our first stop was the Pork Market, a local fresh food market selling fruit, vegetables, chicken, meat, fish, spices, cane sugar, fermented fish and more.

The cooking class was in a local village where the kitchen was outside and the stove was old school coal fire. The property is also home to more than 70 orphans who were at school when we were there.

We made banana blossom salad, chicken amok and pumpkin custard together as a group. We prepared the pumpkin custard first as it had to steam for an hour, then the banana blossom salad which we ate straight away and then the chicken amok which we ate with the pumpkin custard dessert.

I did a half day floating villages tour with Tara Boat Tours (US$38) which took us to one of the villages of Kompong Phluk. We drove approximately 50 minutes to the village and took a boat tour of the floating village on Tonle Sap Lake. The wet season had only just started so the stilt houses were still on dry land and not under water when we visited but it was interesting to see the house designs and we got to walk through one part of the village and see families and kids playing. We enjoyed complimentary fruit at the floating restaurant at the end of the floating village and walked along the treetop of the floating forrest.

One of the main attractions in Siem Reap is Angkor Wat, which means city temple. The conference delegates did a walk/run to Angkor Wat from the Sofitel but I met them there. We explored the 12th century temple through the walls and on the different levels enjoying the beautiful sculpting and amazing views. It was nice skipping the lines and having VIP treatment.

Another popular temple is Angkor Thom which has amazing facial sculpting and the famous tree sculpture from the Tomb Raider movie but I didn’t make it there. I’m not a big temple person so one was enough for me.

I really enjoyed my five nights wandering Siem Reap and the new friends I made from all over the world. Who knows I may even attend next year’s conference in Delhi!

Next week I will be sharing my crazy 24 hours in Melbourne.

LWL xxx