Siem Reap (Siem Reap). Siem Reap: main attractions and interesting places Attractions of Siem Reap Cambodia

is a provincial town with a population of 140 thousand people, located in the north-west of Cambodia and especially loved by tourists in recent years. The interest is associated with the close location of the Angkor temple complex, a famous Khmer landmark. The name of the town literally translates as “Siam is defeated.” Previously, Siam was called Thailand, with which Cambodia has a border of 803 km.

Video: Siem Reap

In the footsteps of the Holy City of Angkor

The history of Siem Reap province is closely intertwined with the Khmer Empire. In ancient times, several of its capitals were located on the territory of the town. In the 10th-12th centuries, Angkor was considered a large settlement, but in the 15th century it was captured and destroyed. The city began to be overgrown with trees, and the jungle hid it from people. But in the middle of the 19th century, European explorers discovered the remains of the buildings.

Angkor is the main reason people go to Siem Reap. From the city to the complex – 8 km. Today Angkor covers an area of ​​200 square meters. km and combines temples, palaces, reservoirs and diversion canals. You can ride an elephant along the roads of the complex - from the South Gate of Angkor Thom to the Bayon Temple. Another way to view the buildings is through a hot air balloon ride. Helicopter rides are also available. The flight lasts 20 minutes, and during this time tourists have time to see all the local attractions from above. There are only two helicopters in Siem Reap, which are based at the local airport. Everyone knows about them, and any taxi driver will take you to your destination.

Introduction to Khmer culture

It is curious that until the 20th century, Siem Reap was only a small village. When French masters began restoring the temples of Angkor in 1908, the first travelers came here. Since the 90s, a new development took place when the renovated Angkor Wat invited tourists from different countries.

Museums will introduce you to local culture; there are three of them in the city. The main one is the Angkor National Museum, which stores archaeological artifacts. Entrance ticket is $12, additional fees apply for photography and videography. Another one is the Military Museum, where various weapons are stored. It was used at the end of the 20th century in Cambodia, during the wars. Among the exhibits are a T-34 tank and a Kalashnikov assault rifle. The entrance fee is cheaper - $5.

The Anti-Personnel Mine Museum is also connected to the war. It was founded by a former Khmer Rouge soldier who later became a sapper. The exhibition is definitely dark, but educational. Visitors are shown a collection of mines and bombs and photographs of victims. This museum is free and relies on voluntary donations.

A visit to the Khmer circus will also be interesting. It exists without clowns and trained dogs. The work of circus performers is united around the main goal - to show guests Khmer myths and legends, scenes from the life of ordinary people. Performances take place daily at 7:30 p.m. Acrobats, jugglers and other circus artists perform for the audience. It is also worth checking out the Puppet Theater. Every evening the actors show their skills in the city's restaurants - La Noria and Bayonne. After the performance, viewers are offered to purchase the dolls that were used in the show.

Colorful centerpiece

The tourist center of Siem Reap is the Old Market (Psa Chaa) area and the night bazaar, Pub Street. This part is small, but there are bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and massage parlors here. Internet cafes, shopping centers, and spas are open. There is also a corner of the oasis in the center - Royal Park. This is a cozy place near the river. In the green zone there are huge and strange trees, and flying foxes live. There is a Buddhist temple in the Royal Park. Near it they sell flowers and also sell birds, which are usually released immediately into the wild.

Walks around the area

In the vicinity of Siem Reap there are also many interesting places: a ceramics center, a silk farm, a floating village and a 30-meter waterfall. The town is located on two banks of the river of the same name, and just a few kilometers away is the freshwater lake Toplesap, one of the largest in the world. The floating village of Kampong Pluk is located here. All objects are located on the water - markets, cafes, and shops. The only stone building is a Buddhist temple. Another nearby attraction is the 30-meter Phnom Kulen waterfall.

There is also a silk farm near Siem Reap (15 km from the city). Factory tours are free. Guests are shown the entire process of making the most delicate fabric - from raising silkworms to the work of craftswomen. There is a ceramics center in the village, where they will reveal the secrets of creating masterpieces from clay. Master classes are held for visitors, but for a fee – for $15.

Shopping: from grasshoppers to handmade goods

The town's night market is an attraction in itself. It is located in the center, near Pub Street. Until six in the evening the market is “sleeping”, and by 7-8 in the evening there is already a lively trade here. Colorful lights are lit throughout the market. Tourists are offered clothing, food, souvenirs, paintings, jewelry and trinkets. There are massage parlors and live music on site.

The markets also offer local delicacies. Fried and boiled snails, beetles, cockroaches and even grasshoppers - only a gourmet would dare try this! This product is sold in cups, like our sunflower seeds. The assortment also includes exotic fruits and handicrafts.

The "delicious" side of Siem Reap

Do you want to have a snack after your walk? Not a problem, because Siem Reap has restaurants, pizzerias, and street cafes. The dishes are not very spicy, but sweet due to the use of various sauces. Many establishments provide a cultural program, usually national dances. You can try yourself as a cook - almost every reputable cafe offers master classes on creating Khmer cuisine. Signs on the doors say so.

To try exotic fruits, you don’t even need to go to restaurants. Along the roads, traders with carts beckon to tourists. They offer different fruits - from the usual bananas to strange durians. The latter have a specific smell and are prohibited from being brought into hotels.

Tourist information

Siem Reap is good to visit at any time of the year. But it is most comfortable to travel during the dry season – from the beginning of winter to March. There are no direct flights from Moscow, so you first need to get to Thailand, Singapore or Seoul, and then fly to Siem Reap. The city is easily accessible by bus from Vietnam or Thailand. A speedboat runs from the capital of Cambodia to the village.

You can get around the streets of Siem Reap by taxi, tuk-tuk or rented bicycle. Renting motorcycles is prohibited by local law. But you can hail a motorcycle taxi - they are popular in Asia. Bicycles for rent (from $2) are offered in hotels, and in some they are even provided for free.

In cafes and hotels you can pick up a guide to the area. It is free and information is updated twice a year. Using it, you can easily create a route or choose accommodation. However, there will be no difficulties with accommodation - there are both budget guesthouses and first-class hotels. Most of the hotels are located in the outskirts of the city, and even from the most distant ones it is easy to get to the center in 20 minutes. When pre-booking, find out whether the accommodation includes transfer from the airport. Most hotels offer this service free of charge.

The local currency is the riel, but almost all transactions here are carried out in dollars. In riel, they mostly give change for small purchases. Visitors note that the town resembles a large village. Siem Reap is quiet, without tourist tinsel. But most residents speak French fluently, which especially amazes tourists.

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Siem Reap, Siem Reap or Siem Reap is perhaps the most popular city in Cambodia. And all because just a few kilometers from the city there is a grandiose temple complex of the ancient city of Angkor. Siem Reap serves as a small addition to the Angkor tour. We spent three days in this city and got to know it well. Despite the fact that there is no sea here, I would happily live a little and travel around the districts. Perhaps I will implement this idea again.

Let's take a walk around the city together and I'll introduce it to you a little.

In the 19th century, Siem Reap was known as an ordinary village. With the arrival of French explorers who rediscovered Angkor, Siem Reap began to grow and develop as a tourist destination. In 1975, the population of Siem Reap (as well as other cities in Cambodia) was evicted by the Khmer Rouge to the countryside. Due to the long civil war, the city was in decline and began to slowly recover as a tourist center only in the mid-1990s.

Today, Siem Reap is a fast-growing city in Cambodia, which, thanks to Angkor, has become a bustling tourist destination. The flow of tourists is huge and this undoubtedly creates a certain international influence. Residents of Siem Reap speak excellent English and French. However strong the influence, the people of Siem Reap have retained much of the city's traditional character and culture.

Houses in the city center, as in the center of Phnom Penh, are low, which creates an atmosphere of comfort and genuine Asian flavor.

As befits a tourist city, Siem Reap has many comfortable hotels and budget guesthouses, travel agencies offering a variety of excursions, shops and supermarkets, and spa salons. In the evening you can relax in cafes or restaurants on Pub Street. Pub Street is a mini version of Khao San Street in Bangkok or the main streets in Nha Trang.

During the day, tourists have a cultural program around Angkor, and in the evening you can relax and unwind in the city.

Almost all hotels in Siem Reap have stands with tourist information, where you can get free useful guides to the temples of Angkor, Siem Reap Angkor Visitors Guide, and Siem Reap Pocket Guide.

Although there is a local currency in Cambodia, payments are made in dollars everywhere. You will receive Cambodian riel in change; we did not change money anywhere on purpose. Even when withdrawing from an ATM, you have a choice: dollar or riel.

We spent every evening outside with Pub Street bars. There is a cafe here for every taste. I really liked Khmer cuisine. My favorite is chicken amok. The chicken is cooked in curry sauce, served with rice, of course. The cost of the dish is somewhere around $3.5-5.

I'm a market lover and we couldn't pass by the Old Market. It's right next to Pub Street. You can buy any souvenir. This is where I made the deal of the century! I really liked one silver bracelet, but I wasn't ready to pay $25 for it. Gleb even joined in my bargaining with the Khmer girl (he doesn’t like to bargain at all). We discussed the price for about 10 minutes, in the end I got the bracelet for $5. Now I have doubts - is it silver?! But it has not yet oxidized in water and has not changed color.

If you want a more relaxing holiday, I recommend checking out the nearby Passage street. Enter the name on Google maps, it will quickly show you. This street was recommended to us at the hotel. Prices there are a little lower and there is less noise.

I didn’t notice much dirt and garbage in the center of Siem Reap. Perhaps I have been living in Asia for a long time and this picture has become familiar to me))) Although I can say that “garbage reform” is needed in Cambodia. Compared to Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia seemed dirtier to me. Although the garbage is removed here, no one washes away the dirt with water, which remains and in some parts of the city there is a very pungent smell. But all this is erased by the beauty seen! Only in Sihanoukville this was most clearly visible, but more on that in the next article.

If you have one free day, I advise you to just walk around the city. Our hotel was a $2 drive from Pub Street, I think about 1-2 km. Since we were in Siem Reap for 3 days, 2 of which we spent in Angkor, we were very interested in learning a little about the city.

During the break from Angkor we explored the city. We hired a tuk-tuker near the hotel to take us to the center, and then we went for a walk.

We walked a little away from Pub Street and saw a very beautiful street. It felt like we were somewhere in Europe, and not in Cambodia. Everything is clean and tidy, the lawns are mowed, frangipani trees and palm trees are planted everywhere.

Leaving the temple we found ourselves on the embankment. Someone wrote that there wasn’t much of a smell, but I didn’t feel it at all (we were there in January). There is a small path and benches along the embankment.

It will take 2-3 hours to get around the center, everything is very close. The last time I had such a feeling was in the historical center of Valencia. Everything is on the palm of your hand: a step to the right, a step to the left and you’ve already walked around everything. I love cities like this.

On Google maps we found a store with Duty Free goods. I wouldn’t be me if we hadn’t gotten there))) This is a three-story building 15-20 walk from Pub Street. Everything is here for the Chinese! Signs, announcements in Chinese and a ton of Chinese who sweep away everything.

The only thing is that we didn’t have time to go to the Angkor Miniature Museum. It is located near Duty Free. I liked that we walked around the whole city without haste or running around, took a bunch of photos and returned to the hotel satisfied.

If time permits, check out Koulen Restaurant and Live Performance. At 18:00 in the evening the buffet begins there, and at 19:30 the Apsara show begins - national Khmer dances. We miscalculated the time a little and didn't make it to the show. Admission is $12 per person. I also read reviews that the food there is not very good, many complain about the lack of seafood and poor choice of meat. Therefore, it is better to tune in to the show rather than the opportunity to eat

We have very warm and tender memories from Siem Reap! In the next article I’ll tell you how we went to Tonle Sap Lake, but didn’t get to the floating village, but instead discovered the suburbs of Siem Reap and found some amazing places!

Siem Reap is one of the most visited cities in Cambodia. Although the local population is small, only 200 thousand people, this popularity is due to the fact that not far from it there is a popular tourist place - Angkor Wat.

Siem Reap city on the map of Cambodia:

The name of the city was not chosen by chance. Translated from Khmer, “Siem Reap” literally means “Siem is defeated.” The city, founded in 802, was given this name after the troops of the Khmer Empire expelled the Thais from here in the 16th century. Before this event, the city was simply called "Siem".

Sights and excursions of Siem Reap

The city is not the most interesting, and if you try, you can find interesting places. For example:

• Elephant Terrace, which was rebuilt by order of King Jayavarman VII of the Khmer Empire. In this way he honored his powerful elephant army, which was feared by the king's enemies. There is a huge number of sculptural reliefs and statues of these amazing animals.
• Independence Monument- an exact copy of a similar monument erected in the capital of Cambodia in honor of liberation from French colonization.
• Tonle Sap Lake is the largest body of water in all of Cambodia, although its size is variable and depends on the rainy season. In times of drought, the area of ​​this wonderful place is approximately 3 thousand m2. When it rains, it increases to 16 thousand m2. The fauna presented in the reservoir and its surroundings is impressive: about 850 species of fish, birds, snakes, turtles, etc.
• Mine Museum- one of the most unusual museums in the world. Completely dedicated to mines and the effects of this terrible type of weapon. By the way, 40% of the entrance ticket price goes to charity: one half to sponsor the work of sappers, the other half to help those affected by explosions.

Also popular here are such activities as riding elephants or walking through a crocodile farm, visiting fishing villages and rice fields, and flying in a helicopter or hot air balloon around the outskirts of Siem Reap.

For those who cannot live without shopping, this is the best place for shopping in Cambodia. There are many shops and stalls throughout the city, and several markets. The most famous and largest are the Old Market, the Central Market and the Night Market.

Well, for lovers of nightlife, a whole street has been built - Pub Street. There are entertainment venues, restaurants, and nightclubs here.

City transport

The main form of transport in the city is the tuk-tuk, which is a bike with a carriage attached to it. Such transport carries from 2 to 4 people at a time, depending on the number of seats in it. The fare ranges from $2 to $5 per trip for all passengers.

Another possible option is a bike. It can be rented for independent travel for $15-20 per day. Or you can take a motorcycle taxi with a driver who will take you wherever you need to go for a nominal fee of $1 to $5.

If you want to drive the road yourself, but are afraid to get behind the wheel of a bike, then rent a bike. It will cost from $1 to $3 per day of rental.

There are no buses in the city as such, not even many cars. But it is possible to rent an old Toyota Camry with a driver to help you get to the temple area, lake or other cities. It will cost $6-$8.

Cheap hotels in Siem Reap

There are more than enough options for living in the city. Here are some of them:

• Lin Ratanak Angkor Hotel is one of the best options for a family holiday. The hotel itself is not located in the city center and is popular due to its service. The hotel belongs to the category of four-star hotels, but those who vacationed here rate the level and quality of service as full five stars. The hotel residential complex has 104 rooms, on site there is a restaurant with local, Asian and European cuisine, a grocery store, a fitness center with a spa and a swimming pool. The hotel complex provides guests with transfer from the airport and back free of charge.
• De Sonyn Boutique is located a ten-minute walk from the city's main entertainment street, Pub Street, and a fifteen-minute drive from the airport. The hotel is relatively young, built in 2012, but has already earned a place on the list of favorite hotels among tourists. In size it is a mini-hotel: there are 16 rooms, a garden, an outdoor swimming pool and a restaurant for guests.
• The Bayon Villa is another place to stay almost in the very center of the city. The journey from the airport takes 10 minutes. The hotel offers comfortable rooms with a TV and minibar, as well as free internet and barbecue facilities.
• Ring Boutique Hotel stands out among city buildings with its unusual architecture. There is an illuminated swimming pool, a restaurant, a bar. Transfer from and to the airport is provided.

Other hotels in Siem Reap with discounts from Booking:

Cafes and restaurants, local cuisine

Eating out in restaurants in Cambodia is more expensive than in Vietnam or Thailand. But Cambodian cuisine is quite tasty, although not very diverse. Tourists are also offered Chinese and Japanese, Italian, French, Thai and other cuisines.

The average check is no higher than $15, usually $6-$8 per person, which is also quite a lot.
Some interesting places include:

• Grill Wine Cafe- with incredibly delicious cuisine for meat lovers.
• Mango Cuisine- a small restaurant with a romantic atmosphere. Suitable for vegetarians.
• Spoons— a restaurant where you can taste Asian or local cuisine at reasonable prices.
• Happy Angkor Pizza— the best happy pizza in Siem Reap with the addition of ganja. The effect is achieved within an hour and can last for several hours - it is better not to drive.
• Angkor What? bar- the most famous bar in Siem Reap with inexpensive alcohol and an incendiary atmosphere. Their slogan reads: “Encouraging irresponsible drinking since 1998.”

The most common local dish is fish amok cooked in coconut milk. No less popular among tourists: pork with ginger or fried fish with sweet and sour vegetable sauce.

Here are some prices for food in cafes in Cambodia:

Useful information for visitors

• When packing your suitcases for a trip, take with you several pairs of waterproof shoes. The roads here are often flooded with rain, and they are rarely repaired.
• The local currency is , but don’t rush to exchange money for it. The usual dollars are easily accepted here.
• Don't forget to bargain in shops and markets, that’s how it is done here. It is quite possible to knock down the original price tag several times and walk away with the desired product, purchasing it at the right price.
• At the hotel get a free guide so as not to wander around the city looking for the right locations. Or download a set of required ones to your phone.
• And, of course, be polite and courteous with the staff of the hotel where you are staying and with the local population. And then your vacation will be comfortable and enjoyable.

How to get from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville?

Sihanoukville is the main resort city of Cambodia, where people most often travel from Siem Reap. There are several ways to get there:

• By bus at night— Travel time is 11 hours, from 8 pm to 6 am. The cost of the trip is $20 dollars if you buy a ticket from the hotel receptionist. If you choose this option, be sure to take warm clothes with you to stay warm on the bus at night.

Cabins on a hotel bus from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville

• By taxi— order a car from the hotel. This option is convenient because you don’t have to adjust to the schedule of other passengers, but it is significantly more expensive – starting from $200.
• By plane- the fastest option for those who value their time. Travel time is only 50 minutes. Buy tickets at aviasales.ru, cost from $178. Get to the airport using a tuk-tuk or transfer from the hotel where you stayed in Siem Reap.

We are looking for cheap flights here:

Siem Reap the most touristic, most visited city in Cambodia. This is where tourists stop when they come to see the famous one, which is located a few kilometers from the city.

Map of the location of Siem Reap and the Ankor temple complex

The city was founded in 802, and was named so only in the 16th century, in honor of the liberation of the lands from. Siem Reap translated means " Victory over Siam", and neighboring Thailand is called Siam.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Siem Reap remained just a small village and began to develop only when, in 1908, French restorers began work on restoring the temples of Angkor. Then the first tourists arrived in Siem Reap, hotels and restaurants began to open in the village, and a tourist infrastructure was created. During the time of Pol Pot, during the Khmer Rouge regime, the city again fell into decline. A new round of development in Siem Reap began in the 90s of the last century, when Angkor Wat again hospitably opened its gates for tourists from around the world.

Now Siem Reap is a city with a population of about 200 thousand people, most of whom are employed in the tourism sector. The city has all the conditions for tourists: there are many comfortable hotels and cheap guesthouses, shops, markets, tour desks, spa salons and even a whole block with bars, restaurants and the famous Pub Street. In Siem Reap, all conditions have been created so that tourists can explore the famous temples in the morning and afternoon, relax in the pools or spa treatments during the day, and enjoy shopping and gatherings or dancing to live music in bars in the evening.

Important: We are tourists, not backpackers, we do not set a goal to save as much as possible, we love comfort. All information in the article for average tourist

How to get to Siem Reap

1. By plane

7 km from Siem Reap there is an international airport where flights arrive from Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and other cities. Siem Reap airport is small and can no longer cope with the load, so they are planning to soon build a new airport, 60 km from the city, for international flights, and leave this one for domestic flights. In this case, a taxi from Siem Reap airport to the city will not cost 5-8 dollars as it does now, but much more. By the way, if you book a hotel for a minimum of 2 nights, transfer from the airport to the hotel is usually free.

If you are traveling to Siem Reap from Bangkok, you can either buy a direct bus ticket from an agency or take the bus yourself to the border, cross it, and then take a taxi to Siem Reap. If you are on the island, you can buy an organized transfer to Siem Reap, or you can independently take a ferry to the mainland, get to Trat, and from there go to the border between Thailand and Cambodia.

If for some reason you haven’t booked a hotel in advance, no problem. Contact any tuk-tuk driver in the city, indicate your preferences (price, quality, availability of a pool, location) and for 2-3 dollars he will take you around the hotels and you will find a suitable option!

Do you need a swimming pool at a hotel in Siem Reap? I think that yes, after long walks in the heat of the temples, it’s so nice to take a swim in the pool! Swimming after a long walk is also good for your back.

In which area of ​​Siem Reap should I choose a hotel? I prefer to live closer to the city center, within walking distance of Pub Street, but not in the very epicenter of the fun. By the way, proximity to the temples (the entrance to Angkor Wat) is not important for the hotel; anyway, you will go to the temples by tuk-tuk or taxi; it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the entrance to Ankor Wat from anywhere in the city.

For a long term in Siem Reap you can find an apartment for 300 dollars a month.

Popular and rated hotels in Siem Reap

Hotel deals in Siem Reap

Siem Reap city

The city of Siem Reap stands on the banks of the Siem Reap River of the same name, along which there is a small embankment. In the evening it is beautifully lit, people go for a walk, sit on benches or relax on the grass, drink fruit shakes or coconuts.

There are no skyscrapers in the city, and in general you will hardly see buildings higher than 3-4 floors here. The streets are mostly filled with colonial houses - the breath of France is felt.

There are several interesting modern temples in Siem Reap (but after visiting Angkor Wat we no longer wanted any temples!), the National Museum, a nice royal park with a fountain and lion statues, and an arts center.

There is a post office in the city where you can send postcards to family and friends. Tip: buy postcards in advance in a store or on the street; at the post office they cost 2 times more!

There are many ATMs and banks in the center. They even found an exchanger. But exchanging dollars for local currency (riels) does not make sense. Prices are indicated everywhere in dollars. As of February 2015 it was considered 1 dollar = 4000 riel.

All tourist life is concentrated in a triangle near Old Market Old Market in the south of Siem Reap, near the river.

There are so many interesting things sold at the market: fruits, souvenirs, and spices. But what interested us most were the curtains of fish and loaves of sausage. They were afraid to buy it, who knows how they store it all in such heat!

Nearby is the famous bar street - Pub street(street number 8 on Google map - many streets in Siem Reap are numbered). After 7 pm, traffic is blocked on it, and it becomes pedestrian. But motorbikers and tuk-tukers still drive there.

Pub Street has bars and cafes for every taste! You can sit on the first floor, or you can go up to the second floor to the balcony.

There are so many cute places, you just want to hang out somewhere until the morning. Eh, where are my girls? 🙂 We would have a ball here, especially considering such low prices for alcohol (but more on that later).

But we liked more not the noisy street of bars, but the street nearby, which is marked on the tourist map as The Passage. There are also plenty of places to dine. And the prices are a little lower.

What was surprising in Siem Reap: all the cafes and restaurants are filled with tourists, in many you simply can’t find a seat! Where are all these people from? And why is it that cafes in Thailand are almost always empty?

Watch the video - feel the atmosphere of the bar street in Siem Reap :)

What else can I say about the city? After Thailand, Siem Reap seemed very dirty to us, but then, having arrived in Siunoukville, we realized that Siem Reap was clean :) Still, they at least somehow keep order, remove garbage, sweep the roads. Siem Reap is quite safe, there are a lot of police officers there, and there is also a tourist police, yet the city is visited by millions of tourists from around the world, so the Cambodians are trying to at least restore order here (and about what’s going on in the seaside resort of Sihanoukville, I will definitely I’ll tell you in one of the following articles).

Entertainment in Siem Reap

How can you have fun in Siem Reap? If you still have energy after visiting the temples of Ankor, you can come up with a rich program for the evening :)

First we go to massage. Let's visit a spa treatment or have your feet peeled with fish - just stick your feet into the aquarium and the fish will gnaw off your old, unnecessary skin (somehow I haven't tried this pleasure... they say it's ticklish). From 2 dollars.

Then we'll have a fruit shake. 1 dollar.

Now let's go to shopping. There are a lot of shops selling crocodile leather products in Siem Reap. And small crocodiles nearby. Maybe someone wants something like this to take home? Expensive.

Or we’ll go to one of the markets for souvenirs and clothes. Cheap.

Let's visit national dances with dinner . 12 dollars.

Well, now it's time to move on bar street! We choose the most comfortable/beautiful/noisiest (underline as appropriate) bar and have fun until we have enough strength. Or you can go to a disco or a casino. There are plenty of them here in the city!

Food and cafes in Siem Reap. Prices for food and alcohol in Siem Reap

Well, now let's talk about the most pleasant thing, about food :) When we were traveling from Thailand to Cambodia, we thought that the food here was tasteless, that we would starve, but it turned out to be the opposite. How delicious they can cook in Cambodia!

As I already said, we went to Passage (between 8th and 9th streets) for dinner.

First thing we tried amok, a national Khmer dish - fish, chicken or shrimp are stewed with onions in coconut milk with egg and spices, served in palm leaves. It turned out to be very tasty!

Pot with curry in Cambodian I liked it too. Unlike curries in other countries, here the vegetables are well stewed (otherwise in Thailand they like to undercook vegetables, well, yes, there are a lot of raw foodists there :) and there are potatoes. Tasty too.

Lok Lak– pieces of meat (most often beef), baked with onions and sauce. Served with cucumbers, rice, egg and mustard sauce.

Here are the averages food prices in Siem Reap cafes in the Pub Street area (I post a photo of the menu):

In addition to the main menu, usually in each cafe we ​​were given a special menu. That's where we ordered our dishes. Our dinner with beer cost us 7-10 dollars for two.

One evening we went to try frogs. I had already eaten frog legs in Kyiv, then Yola took me to some bar on Mikhailovskaya just to eat frog legs. But then they didn’t impress me at all; they stank of fish to me. Here, in Siem Reap, we purposefully looked for frogs in a cafe. We found it in one of the cafes near the Old Market. Ordered, cost 3.5 dollars for 3 pieces. We tried it. Tasty! Even very tasty :)

All dishes come with rice by default (it is included in the price of the dish).

Another “national dish” in Siem Reap is happy pizza. Happy pizza is a regular pizza that can be made “happy” at your request, i.e. add marijuana there. We didn't try it, we were afraid.

Speaking about food in Siem Reap, we must also say that in Cambodia very cheap alcohol . Draft beer in almost all bars costs $0.50 per mug and $2 per carafe. The beer is pretty good. It's certainly not my favorite dark Leff, but it's still much better than the Thai bottled one.

I must say that in Cambodia, drinking beer in a cafe is the cheapest: we don’t get drunk with water, a small can of cola or Sprite costs 1.5 dollars, it’s scary to buy tea and coffee (most often they brew it with tap water), so for now We are in this country and always drink beer at dinner. At first it was strange, because for 2 months we hardly drank alcohol at all, except maybe on New Year and Christmas and a couple of times beer with shrimp at home on the veranda, but now we’ve gotten used to it :) Yes, it’s definitely time to leave Cambodia :)

Cocktails and wine also cost pennies. How about a $1.75 majito?

In Siem Reap, we noticed this peculiarity: the prices for food in beautiful cafes in the center and the prices for food in street cafes (such as makashnits) are identical. Only once we ate in a street cafe for only 3 dollars - we just took the two cheapest dishes (noodle soup - 1.5 dollars and rice with meat - 1.5 dollars). Other dishes in this cafe cost the same 2-4 dollars as on Pub Street on a special offer.

You can buy a spring roll on the street for just $0.75. But I didn’t like it, it’s not the crispy rice flour pancake they make in Thailand, which we often bought near ours. So, the pancake in Siem Reap is made not from crispy dough, but from some kind of viscous dough. I couldn’t even eat it, I had to throw it away :)

Local residents eat all sorts of fried and boiled cockroaches, insects, and snakes. In Thailand, I thought that this was an attraction for tourists (even on Khao San Road in Bangkok, next to the fried insects, there is a sign informing that photos of all these delicacies cost 20 baht), but then it turned out that the locals were buying these animals. We didn’t dare try, although we’ve been planning for a long time.

Fruit prices in Siem Reap are as follows:

• Coconut, 1 piece – 1$
• Bunch of small bananas – $1
• Mango, 1 kg – 2$
• Large watermelon – $1.8
• Pineapple – $0.75

Don't forget that fruit prices are very dependent on the season. Cambodians are very proud that all their fruits are natural, unlike Thailand.

Prices for products in stores

But the prices for food in stores in Siem Reap were not encouraging. There are no large supermarkets like Tesco Lotus or Big C in Cambodia. There are several supermarkets in Siem Reap, for example, Angkor mini mart is very popular among tourists, but we liked the grocery store on the ground floor of the Laky Market shopping center more.

There are no 7-Eleven or Family Mart stores in Cambodia. In general, there are no such convenient shops where you can get coffee, a hot sandwich or other quick food. In Siem Reap there are a couple of “fake” Thai 7-elven shops

Some prices for products in Siem Reap shops

• Water, 1.5 l – from $0.5
• Ice cream cone – from $0.8
• Cookies – from $0.75
• Yogurt – $0.65

I was amazed by the prices for packaged juices and cola, so I had to drink beer. We didn’t find cheap wine (4-5 dollars, as many wrote), the average cost of a bottle of wine is $10. Strong alcoholic drinks are cheap, but I don’t remember the prices, we don’t drink them.

I also expected to find cheap cheese in Siem Reap shops. And it’s the same price there as in Thailand, or even more expensive! (I'm talking about blue cheeses). Sausages, cold cuts, meat, chicken - all this is also more expensive than in Thailand.

After visiting grocery stores in Siem Reap, we concluded that it is still cheaper to eat in a cafe. Fortunately, there are plenty of them there, and they’re delicious!

On this tasty note, I think I’ll end our tour of Siem Reap.

Conclusions. Siem Reap is a good tourist town. At first we had a shock when we came here after Thailand, but then nothing, we got used to it :) And we even began to like the city, especially the street of bars. And when we arrived at the sea in Sihanoukville, we looked around and began to think that we should have stayed in Siem Reap. We liked it better there :)

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Let's be honest with each other and with Cambodia: if there were no such powerful attraction of Siem Reap as Angkor, no one would know about this town. But although one day is enough to explore the ancient capital, many tourists stay in Siem Reap for a longer period. And so that they would not die of boredom, the Khmers quickly invented new attractions in Siem Reap. Many of them are very worthy of attention.
What to do in Siem Reap: attractions and excursions

Yes, I was also very surprised when I found out that the attractions of Siem Reap exist))) Moreover, you can easily find what to do in Siem Reap if you have a day free from visiting Angkor. Or even two. And our article will help you with this.

Siem Reap attractions: what to see and do

The good thing about Siem Reap’s attractions is that you can get to them all quickly and for just $1. Well, or a maximum of two - this is the tariff of local taxi drivers. And in general, prices in Siem Reap are quite low.

The downside is that many of the attractions of Siem Reap are, so to speak, somewhat exaggerated and made in a hurry just to get your money. Therefore, out of all the options for what to do and see in Siem Reap, we have selected seven of the most interesting. But before moving on to their description, we advise you to read our other useful articles about Cambodia:

So, entertainment and attractions of Siem Reap: where to go in a city where there is nowhere to go?

1. Pottery master class

official website

If you don’t know what to do in Siem Reap, be sure to take a master class at the ceramics school! And you will take with you not only pleasant memories, but also pleasant crafts.

2. Khmer Circus

There are no clowns or trained dogs here. The circus in Siem Reap is more of a theater where acrobats, jugglers and other circus artists will show you scenes from Khmer myths and legends, as well as from the life of ordinary people. Performances start every day at 19:30, adult tickets start from $18, children's tickets start from $10.

• Khmer Circus in Siem Reap, official website

3. Cooking master class

Almost every reputable cafe in Siem Reap offers a master class on cooking Khmer cuisine, as is always stated on the sign on the gate. In our opinion, Khmer cuisine is even closer to Europeans than Thai: at least not a single Amok or Lok Lak forced us to order a double portion of juice or tea to quench the fire in our mouths. And in Thailand this happened often. The average price for a one-hour cooking class in Siem Reap is $20.

Here are the websites of several Siem Reap restaurants that offer cooking classes:

Khmer cuisine is no less tasty than Thai, and not as spicy. And the ingredients for many dishes - such as - can be found in Russia.

4. Khmer boxing

The official name of this martial art is Kun Khmer. In general, it is very similar to, but it has its own aspects. One of the best boxing stadiums in the country, CTN Angkor Arena, is located in Siem Reap. Fights with the participation of the country's best athletes take place twice a week: on Mondays (starts at 17:30) and Wednesdays (starts at 15:30). The start time of the show may change, check on the official website. Entrance ticket price starts from $15.

• CTN Angkor Arena, official website

5. Siem Reap Museums

If you are a history buff, including very recent history, then these Siem Reap attractions are at your service.

There are three museums in the city. The most important one is Angkor National Museum(Angkor National Museum), where you can see archaeological artifacts and learn the history of Angkor, including through a multimedia presentation. Admission is $12 plus $2 for photography and video.

Many of Siem Reap's attractions, including the Angkor National Museum, are located in the heart of the city.

Siem Reap Military Museum(War Museum) will show you the different types of weapons that were used during the wars in Cambodia at the end of the 20th century. Including (well, what would we do without them) a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a T-34 tank. Admission is $5.

Anti-Personnel Mine Museum(Cambodia Land Mine Museum) is an eerie place and at the same time a charitable organization, where you will see mines, bombs and other means of genocide of their own people - a favorite pastime of people who, until recently, were in power in this country.

• Angkor National Museum, official website
• Siem Reap Anti-Personnel Mine Museum, official website

6. Old Market

The market is like a market))) On the one hand, there is an opinion that prices there are too high. On the other hand, there is nowhere else to buy souvenirs from Siem Reap. Therefore, if you want to take a piece of Cambodia (made in China) with you, this is the place for you.

7. Pub Street

What to do on this short but pretty street is clear from its name))) Draft beer here is probably the cheapest in Siem Reap. But it’s worth coming here not even for a drink, but for a pleasant, peaceful atmosphere at the end of a hard day spent sightseeing in Siem Reap.

Siem Reap attractions: Pub Street is somewhat similar to Bangkok's Khao San. Only the backpackers here no longer have backpacks and are not yet trading. It’s also very hot there, so in the photo I’m actively cooling down. What did you think?)))