Since tourism in Cambodia has skyrocketed in the past few decades, particularly where the Angkor Temples are located, Siem Reap has been transformed from a sleepy town to a tourist Mecca. In addition to visiting Angkor Wat, we spent a few days relaxing in Siem Reap. We stayed at the Villa Siem Reap, which (in addition to being a great place to stay), was outside of the main tourist area, but an easy 10 minute walk from the city centre. The guesthouse is a quirky purple hotel run by Australians, complete with Thai style show racks outside the hotel and Aussie BBQ nights. They also gave us each a free Khmer massage when we had a minor issue with our room, and were really friendly and helpful. While there isn’t a ton to do in the city in and of itself, we were able to relax, and enjoy Siem Reap outside of Angkor for a few reasons.
- Pub Street
This strip is blatantly and unabashedly touristy, with restaurants, pubs, bars, food stalls, and fish massage stalls (literally putting your feet in a fish tank and letting them eat grime off of you). But it was a great place to eat, get drinks and people-watch at night. We spent a lot of time here drinking Angkor, the Cambodian staple beer.
- The Night Market
This little village of market stalls was easy to get lost in, and mostly sold clothes, shoes, and jewelry, just outside the city centre. It was worth walking through, especially since unlike other markets we’ve come across (like Ben Thanh Market in Saigon), you can just look around instead of every store clerk saying, “You Buy? Why Not?”
- Backstreets
Fortunately, we stayed in a guesthouse outside of the craziness of Pub Street in a residential neighbourhood. Despite the mass tourism that Siem Reap receives, in many ways it is still a small Cambodian town where people are living their everyday lives. It was nice to see that despite the centre of Siem Reap being so built up; there are still some quiet corners that haven’t (yet) been marred by tourism.
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