Raiding Tombs in Siem Reap

Like most, I decided to go to Siem Reap because of the famed Angkor Wat. I remember there being a special excursion on Semester at Sea to this place and always thought it was cool. Plus there's that Tomb Raider movie I never saw with Angelina Jolie. Needless to say, I hadn't done any research about Siem Reap. It turned out to be a fun, but hot, few days.

1920 Hotel Siem Reap

Our hotel, 1920 Hotel, was situated right in the Old Market district in Siem Reap and within walking distance of Pub Street and all of the markets. The awesome thing about this hotel (and most likely other hotels too) was we were pretty much assigned a tuk tuk driver. His name was Mr. Bora and he greeted us at the airport for our complimentary transfer to the hotel. We would see the smiling face of Mr. Bora every time we exited another temple over our next few days.

But our time in Siem Reap was not just temples. We did a couple other things, especially during our one non-temple day, that were wonderful things to do in the area.

Temples "Small Tour"

Our tuk tuk was waiting for us on our first full day to do a "small tour" that included Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (which included several temples), Ta Keo and Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider). But first we stopped at the ticket booth to purchase our 3 day passes ($62). Oddly, the ticket booth isn't on the way to the temples. With tickets in hand, we headed to Angkor Wat. We spent the longest time here since it was our first temple of the trip/day. And boy was it hot. Any shade or breeze was extremely welcome as we explored and chatted with the monkeys. And after a brief stop for lunch and a beer, we were off again. This trip only cost $17 plus tip, supposedly a good gig for a tuk tuk driver in Cambodia.

Khmer Cocktail Class

After being dropped off from our small tour, we geared up for our 6pm Khmer Cocktail Class at Asana Bar. It's likely terrible for me to say, but I think this was my favorite thing in Siem Reap. We loved it so much we decided to do it again the next day, albeit with 3 new cocktails. Asana Bar is an old wooden house in the middle of the Old Market district. It's a relaxing and trendy place for some of the more expensive (is $4.50 expensive?!) cocktails in Siem Reap. Our instructor, Sambo, was marvelous and taught us some Khmer as we sampled the herbs, spices and rice wines. In our two classes we learned a total of 6 cocktails. The Little Sweet was my favorite, but they were all so different and flavorful than anything I normally drank. We mixed with lemongrass, several different types of ginger, tumeric and more.

Spa Package at Sokkhak Spa

Now, we never do this type of thing. But having just gotten an hour long Thai massage in Chiang Mai, my mom was wondering if we shouldn't just go ahead and "splurge" on a spa package. And at $66 for a 3 hour massage at a fancy spa, the decision was easy. We each got a 75 minute massage, 15 minute brushing of some random stuff, 30 minute body scrub stuff, and a 60 minute facial. It was relaxing and a wonderful way to spend the afternoon in 94 degree Siem Reap.

Temples" Long Tour"

We were back with our man, Mr. Bora, on our last day to experience the longer temples tour. It's longer in the sense that the route is farther, but not necessarily time wise. We aren't ones for lingering when it's so hot, so we took it in and were on to the next place. It took us around four hours to see Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, Eastern Mebon, Pre Rup, and Banteay Kdei. This was $21 plus tip.

Sunrise at Ankor Wat

Now, the thing to do is see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. But the issue is that there's so much smog due to pollution I'm not sure how great it ever is. We started at 5:30am and reached our post outside of the entrance by 6am. The sunrise was set for 6:20 but our morning was cloudy, which led to some pretty bad sunrising to be had. Although it was great to be there in the morning with the lack of overwhelming heat.

There were many other things we did to occupy our non-temple time. This included dinner at the Indian restaurant next to our hotel, where my mother drank the best Mango Lassi she's ever had. We also explored several day and night markets in the area. We walked around Pub Street and sipped on infused gin and tonics at Miss Wong.

At first we were afraid there wasn't much else to do other than see the temples, but we were pleasantly surprised with what we found. Siem Reap was a wonderful place to see for 3 days and I'm glad we snuck it into our packed Asia schedule. Next time around I'd love to get to Phnom Penh. If only Mr. Bora could go with us!