# Siem Reap (Cambodia)

_Angkor Wat_

> Temples. Temples temples temples temples and more temples. That was our weekend, the first two days in Seam Reap.

Published 2018-03-15 by Patrick Heneise.
Canonical page: https://patrickheneise.com/blog/siem-reap-cambodia/

The flight here was quite stressful; we stayed near the Bali airport as it was a
7am flight. AirAsia has a carry-on limit of 7kg and they’re very strict about it
on their website, so the night before we had to go through our backpacks again
and throw things out to get close enough to 7kg which was a very hard exercise.
We got rid of most redundancies: multiple chargers for the same devices etc. and
some clothes we didn’t use since we arrived in Asia. And after all that, no-one
even looked at our backpacks neither at Bali airport nor in Kuala Lumpur. After
long delays, we arrived in Siem Reap around 4pm (-1 hour from Bali).

Saturday and Sunday was tourism time. Angkor Wat and the Angkor Archeological
Park in 2 days, 2 tours, total of ~10 temples (I lost track). The architecture
and massive size of the temples is stunning, but somehow I didn’t really feel
the “magic” of the place. The biggest mistake that weekend was to get persuaded
by the first tour guide who came along, he made promises of giving a great and
exciting tour compared to other guides and it was the most boring experience I
had in my life; an answering machine is more exciting than this guide. And we
spend
$17 for that. Lesson learned: we should have asked the driver, he told us
afterwards that he forgot to ask if we had a guide. He could have recommended
someone who would have accompanied us the whole day for $20.
If you go to Angkor Wat, speak to the hotel and driver about the guide! It’s
boring if you don’t have someone explaining you what this is all about, because
it’s just so overwhelming.

![temple at Angkor Wat](/images/1*EOUTUPquxPB_9E-193X_aw.jpeg)

The rest of the week we spent at [AngkorHUB](https://twitter.com/AngkorHUB), a
nice little co-working space. The owner
[Jeff Laflamme](https://twitter.com/jflaflamme) is involved in local, social
businesses and fights for eco-friendly solutions here in Siem Reap (for example
convincing Bars not to use plastic straws). AngkorHub isn’t the “fancy hipster
place at the beach” but a very down-to earth office to “get things done”.
150mbit/s internet, backup power and coffee supply keep you working all day
(mostly 8am–6pm for me this week, so much for the romantic idea of the légère
“digital nomad chilling on the beach”).

We stayed at
[Residence Indochine D’angkor](http://www.booking.com/hotel/kh/boutique-indochine.html&room1=A%2CA).
The hotel was nice and clean, hotel staff very helpful and they had a really
nice driver for the Angkor Wat tours. It is a 15–20 minute walk to the centre
though (or 5 min Tuk Tuk for \$1, always waiting right outside the hotel).

![temple wall](/images/1*l_6L1bSZbC3Ji6lNnwFmzw.jpeg)

### Costs & Expenses

- Accommodation: ~\$30/night without breakfast
- Meals: $1–3 per person, alcohol is tax free, beer is usually .50ct or $1
- Angkor Wat 3 day pass: $63/person, 1 day pass $37
- Angkor Wat Tuk Tuk per day: \$18
- AngkorHub co-working: \$25/week