backpacking | Fridge Magnet Tales

The Kingdom of Cambodia is situated west of Vietnam in the Indochina peninsula of South-east Asia.

Our trip was a short and sweet one – we spent two days in the historical area of Siem Reap, home to the biggest temple complex in the world – Angkor Wat.

Getting There

You can fly into Siem Reap or come in by road from Phnom Penh. We took the Cambodia Angkor Air flight from HCMC, Vietnam (check out our Vietnam blogs here) – the airport was one-part resort, one-part temple and zero-parts airport.

Siem Reap International Airport — Cambodia Angkor Air

Our tuk-tuk was waiting outside (the hotel had arranged a complimentary transfer for us as part of the stay).

Our plan was to spend the first day exploring the town and head out to the ancient city early morning on day 2.

Where to Stay

Cambodia is quite inexpensive, and you can easily find very good hotels for reasonable prices. With some bit of checking out websites and using coupon codes, you can get 5-star hotels for as low as US$ 85 per night. What this also means is that for US$ 35-50, you can get really good hotels as well. We stayed at Chheng Residence – it had nice rooms and was quite close to the Old French Quarter. Make sure you stay close enough to the Old Quarter so that it is easy to walk around and explore.

Weather

There are 2 broad seasons in Cambodia – dry (Oct-Apr) and wet (May-Sep). Oct-Dec is considered the best time to visit as the temperatures are moderate as compared to other times in the year. The moderate was not what we expected. After checking into our hotel, we stepped out to get some brunch. It was hot! After pleasant weather in Vietnam throughout, it felt like we had been dropped into a hot oven.

Most places were closed as it was past breakfast time and before lunch started. We found a cozy little place called Fresh Fruit Factory where we had smoothies and pancakes (a bit on the expensive side but very fresh and tasty stuff!). We also didn’t see many people around – this was the time of the day to enjoy the hotel and the pools and bathtubs. That’s exactly what we did – we headed back to the room and waited for the sun to go down.

Currency

Cambodian Riel is the local currency, but you can easily get by with USD. You will see price tags in supermarkets and menus in restaurants have USD mentioned and that’s what they prefer.

What to do in Siem Reap

The number one thing to do here is visit Angkor. But we’ll take that up in another post as it deserves one of its own. After sunset, we walked and explored the town. Here are some recommendations:

Walk/Jog along the bank of the Siem Reap river

Decorations on a bridge across the Siem Reap river near the palace

Visit the night market (on the other side of the river – close to the Hard Rock Café) – really good place to pick up some souvenirs

Visit Pub Street – the place has a crazy party vibe

Get a massage – you could probably get one at your hotel too

Sample some Khmer cuisine – we ate at the Khmer Grill – the food was really good!

The insect eating frenzy is quite overhyped – try it out if you really want to, but not recommended.

Siem Reap is in many ways a signature “touristy” place and one day is enough to explore the city. You can make this a base location for a few day trips – the Angkor complex, Tonle Sap Lake and the Phnom Kulen National Park.

Check out our Angkor itinerary here.

If you have any questions on how to plan your trip, feel free to leave a comment! You can subscribe to our blog for all the updates and travel tips. For a lot more pics and stories about our latest travels, follow us on Instagram @fridgemagnet.tales

The Plan

The summer of 2017 – Nam and I were planning our first long vacation together. We were looking at 13 days in the first half of June. After working out multiple itineraries, we settled on Eastern Europe. We wanted to experience the best of what each place had to offer. This meant staying with the locals, having the best of the local cuisine, exploring the small lanes by foot and travelling light by public transport across cities – in other words, backpacking! The way I see it, there are two types of backpackers – ones who go where the roads take them and others who research and plan well ahead. It is difficult to be the first type when you are a working Indian and have less than 15 days of vacation (sigh!). Also, I prefer to be second type – it ensures that you do not miss out on the top experiences. In fact, I enjoy planning trips almost as much as the travelling. Continue reading How to Make an Itinerary →