Average rating (a bunch):
All reviews
Notes
Sun 03/22/09 (day 1)
Arriving Siem Reap
Arrived around 7.30am, airport was efficient and fast, the visa application process is well organised if not too expensive - $25 per person.
Hotel de la Paix picked us on time and it's a 20 mins ride. It is pretty clear that this is a very poor country the minute we left the airport. But I was little prepared to see exactly how poor it is. Hotel itself is an oasis with lovely pools, very good smoothies, and amazing breakfast on the swings. Room is stylishly designed and we had welcome fruits and free wifi access. Room costs $150/night, including pick up, breakfasts, and one free dinner at the hotel restaurant - amazing food, highly recommended. (set menu dinner $31 per person). We also chose their recommended matching wines, $16, 3 glasses of wine. Very well chosen. Breakfast including fresh mango, papayas, dragon fruits and many other fresh cut fruits. The bread selection are super, and the a La Carte menu is very pleasant. Eating it on the large swing bed and sipping champagne is a very good experience. the sun is a bit too strong though.
We booked a Quad bike trip to watch the sunset. A French expat opened it 3 years ago, it is a little pricy: $30 for 2 ppl on the same quad bike for about 2 hours. http://www.quad-adventure-cambodia.com but we enjoyed the ride very much. going through the villages and watching children running around after you and waving hands and smiling is quite fun. However the sun was covered by the cloud, but the 360 view of sky in the rice filed itself is awesome. That's what i like about Cambodia, everywhere you look, the sky is 360, and the land looks so thin a line, never like in Singapore or London, between your and the sky, there are million things in between. Here it is simple - nothing in between.
Lots of restaurants near the bar street area in the town centre, all very cheap, about $1.5-2 for starters, and $3-4 for main. I heard that Cambodian teachers get paid around $42 per month, and police get something like $15 a month. Hence the corruption everywhere. Fake copies of lonely planet is on sale on the streets and even in book shops, you can get it as low as $1. which is upsetting as i paid S$40 for mine - what a rip off of the Singapore book stores!
Hotel de la Paix picked us on time and it's a 20 mins ride. It is pretty clear that this is a very poor country the minute we left the airport. But I was little prepared to see exactly how poor it is. Hotel itself is an oasis with lovely pools, very good smoothies, and amazing breakfast on the swings. Room is stylishly designed and we had welcome fruits and free wifi access. Room costs $150/night, including pick up, breakfasts, and one free dinner at the hotel restaurant - amazing food, highly recommended. (set menu dinner $31 per person). We also chose their recommended matching wines, $16, 3 glasses of wine. Very well chosen. Breakfast including fresh mango, papayas, dragon fruits and many other fresh cut fruits. The bread selection are super, and the a La Carte menu is very pleasant. Eating it on the large swing bed and sipping champagne is a very good experience. the sun is a bit too strong though.
We booked a Quad bike trip to watch the sunset. A French expat opened it 3 years ago, it is a little pricy: $30 for 2 ppl on the same quad bike for about 2 hours. http://www.quad-adventure-cambodia.com but we enjoyed the ride very much. going through the villages and watching children running around after you and waving hands and smiling is quite fun. However the sun was covered by the cloud, but the 360 view of sky in the rice filed itself is awesome. That's what i like about Cambodia, everywhere you look, the sky is 360, and the land looks so thin a line, never like in Singapore or London, between your and the sky, there are million things in between. Here it is simple - nothing in between.
Lots of restaurants near the bar street area in the town centre, all very cheap, about $1.5-2 for starters, and $3-4 for main. I heard that Cambodian teachers get paid around $42 per month, and police get something like $15 a month. Hence the corruption everywhere. Fake copies of lonely planet is on sale on the streets and even in book shops, you can get it as low as $1. which is upsetting as i paid S$40 for mine - what a rip off of the Singapore book stores!