10-15 February 2007
Siem Reap was originally made up of a cluster of villages. Now, it’s one of Cambodia’s important cities and probably, the second largest city after Phnom Penh (er…because they have an international airport). That is my assumption, not necessarily shared by others. The city is located on the northwestern region of Cambodia, near to the Thai border. Oh, just to give you an idea on what they think about the Thais, the city’s name Siem Reap means “Siam defeated”. So, there you go. But they’ve been at each other’s throats since seven centuries ago….or maybe even before then. Some parts of Thailand were even once upon a time colonized by Cambodia, especially during the great Angkor periods. Of course, the Thais are reluctant to admit this nor do they are willing to admit that ‘Thai kickboxing’ (muay tai) actually originated from Cambodia.
That rivalry aside, Siem Reap is now a major harbor for tourists whose main objective is to visit the ruins of Angkor. Siem Reap has all kinds of tourists: group package tourists (for the rich and sometimes, famous), backpacking tourists (for the not so rich and not famous) and even child sex tourists! (for those sick in the mind) The latter is illegal. Some tourists tend evolve into expatriates.
Anyways, I am not going to write a ‘touristy’ description of this cute city, so you can just click here or here or here for more objective and probably accurate information on Siem Reap. On the other hand, I will present Siem Reap the way I experienced it, of course, with a little bit of twist here and there. After all, personal experiences are often fictional, aren’t they?
In 2003, I was in Phnom Penh to ‘eat the wind’. Immediately upon my arrival, I fell in love with the city! It’s one of those cities where I’ve to say “I can live here!”. But then again, I’ve only been to a few cities beyond this country’s border. If you regard Balai Karangan in Kalimantan Barat as a city, then that makes three cities in total…I think.
Anyways, on this bogus journey I had expected Siem Reap to share Phnom Penh’s characteristics i.e. cheap food and accommodation, children begging for ‘one dallar’ everywhere, rundown French-colonial buildings, land-mine victims with one leg on makeshift crutches, and of course, its infamous chaotic traffic. To my slight surprise, Siem Reap was “same same but different” as Phnom Penh. Since this is a booming tourist town, the food and accommodation can be expensive compared to the ones you find in Phnom Penh.
Price of food: one has to note that there exist the local menu and the ‘easily-ripped-off’ tourist menu. Of course, no one would blatantly say it out. But if you wish to play safe about the cost of the food, do your meals at your guesthouse, which would cost between US$1.50 – US$4.50 per meal. But where’s the fun in that? It’s worth your while trying out the local food outside your guesthouse even if they charge you the tourist price. For me, it wasn’t much of a problem because I looked like Khmer to them. So, I usually get the local price for food as long as I don’t open my mouth to say something. Just point at the food. And if you have to, say “same same” by pointing at other people’s food…you’d probably blow your cover but it’s worth the try.
Refer to the Siem Reap Angkor: Visitors Guide (CANBY publications) for the prices of accommodation in Siem Reap. There are many guesthouses and hotels in the city, and it’s mushrooming! You want five-star, three-star and no-star hotels, they’re all there! But then again, since most people visit Siem Reap to see the Angkor temples, no one really needs to stay in the guesthouse for the whole day. So, if you can find a guesthouse that costs between US$4 – US$8 per night, that’s good enough. Anything more will be up for negotiation. Either way, you’d most probably be greeted by the tuk tuk or moto drivers at the airport who’d say “I recommend to you good guesthouse!” That’s when you unleash your bargaining skills.
Unlike Phnom Penh, Siem Reap does not seem to have kids running around on the street asking for ‘one dallar’ (US$1). Instead, many of them would swarm around unsuspecting tourists with their wares such as guidebooks, handicrafts, clothes and other type of things that I am not aware of its function. Trading is the order of the day. Seeing 5-7 children surrounding one or two tourists while coercing persuading the them to buy their stuff is a common sight in Siem Reap. At times, these amazing kids come out victorious and the smile on their faces says it all! Everyone ekes out to survive here.
Also, there are almost no beggars in Siem Reap. Either that or I’m just blind to the fact. Once, I saw a landmine amputee ‘riding’ a modified rickshaw with a huge sign on its side saying “We are not asking for your charity. We are just looking for some opportunities to do business with you!” This is not begging. Like I said, everyone has to eke out a living in this city and somehow, Siem Reap makes it less…er…dramatic and yet, produce an art out of it. Yes, same same but different.
The traffic isn’t as chaotic as Phnom Penh’s. Well, at least not yet. Siem Reap is growing really fast but they do abide by the universal traffic rules i.e. the red light means stop and green means go. In Phonm Penh, red, orange and green lights would all mean GO!, but you’d be amazed to see how everyone’s treading their moto, cars, tuk tuk and bicycles in a organized chaotic manner. You can always try walking into the traffic but come out unscathed. The corrupted police at the each junction corner might arrest you though. ‘Ten dallar’?
The only thing that is relatively cheap in Siem Reap are the beers. Local beers. Yes, the beers are cheap! One thing though, if you can help it, don’t buy beers at the Angkor sites. The beers there are expensive: US$1.50 – US$2 for local beers. Thai’s Chang beer is US$1, so that’s cheap. In Siem Reap itself, you can get the local Angkor beer for US$1 and it’s a damn good beer (in cans)! There’s also the Anchor beer (extinct in Malaysia), which — if pronounced wrongly — is sometimes mistaken for Angkor beer. Either way, they’re both good. To drink Tiger beers, which is expensive, would defeat the whole purpose of visiting Siem Reap.
For a small city, Siem Reap has lots of bars! The bars are scattered all over the place but there is one place where a row of bars are on both sides of the street. This street is nicknamed ‘Pub street’. Although I usually prefer chill-out bars, and they have lots of it in Siem Reap, it is the bar’s atmosphere that matters most for me. So, I didn’t like the bars in ‘Pub street’. In the day time, it’s like any other streets i.e. full of tuk tuk, moto zig-zagging through the city, and locals asking “Where you going, sir? You ride my tuk tuk?” At night, ‘Pub street’ takes another face. The whole street is blocked as chairs, stools and tables spill out into the pavements. This is where the tourists hang out and at that moment, I felt like I was in Europe. I couldn’t see or meet any locals at the bars along ‘Pub street’. And for myself, a brown-skin Khmer-looking individual, as I entered any of the bars I attracted all kinds of inquisitive expressions from the customers. Even the bartenders aren’t that…er…accommodating in their services. But it’s worth a try. ‘Angkor What?’ is one such bar.
After the first evening of spending my ‘US dallar’ in the three ‘Pub street’ bars, I decided to return to my guesthouse. The next evening, I went to another bar located slightly outside the boundaries of ‘Pub street’. The bar is called ‘Ivy’ and it has a nice, comfortable ambiance to it. The food served at ‘Ivy’ is great! What they call a ‘bar snack’ felt like a whole meal for me. ‘Ivy’ is also a guesthouse.
Most of the bars like Ivy shuts down at around midnight. But there’s another chill-out bar that closes at 4am (or maybe even later?) and it’s called ‘The Warehouse’. This bar is interesting as it also has an upper floor that occasionally hosts art gallery and ‘theatrical’ performances. The upper floor is known as the ‘The Art House’. I liked ‘The Warehouse’ and the bartenders — Sony and a guy from Phnom Penh — were very friendly. We had long chats on the social life in Siem Reap and somehow, the perceptions of a particular place change when conversing with the locals. Especially when they have the kampung great sense of humor.
Apparently, many of the bars in Siem Reap are owned/managed by expatriates. ‘The Warehouse’, for instance, is owned by an American, who just nodded towards me every time he sees me at the bar. Doesn’t really talk to brown-skinned tourists, I guess. At ‘Ivy’, the bar owner/manager is a British. Like the American, he also nodded at me every time I sit and drink at his bar. I’ve to get used to expatriates who nods a lot.
Another main attraction in Siem Reap is the Psar Chaa or Old Market. Now, this is the heartbeat of Siem Reap during the day. They literally have all kind of things i.e. wet market, vegetables, clothings, books, souvenirs, furnitures, eating stalls, etc. This is also a good place where you can horn your bargaining skills. In the food sector, you’d also get to see all kinds of tiny creatures to be eaten. I bought and ate two fried black spiders. Very nice.
Most of the day time is spent at the ruined temples of Angkor and it takes at least three days to browse through the temples and ruins at Angkor. There’s so much to see and to like. After each visit to Angkor each day, coming back to Siem Reap was exhausting. I’d go straight for the cold beers! My only issue being in Siem Reap is the overwhelming number of tourists roaming the streets. Maybe it’s not yet up to the tourist level in Bali (as I’ve been carefully informed…) but it can only increase in the years to come. Unlike Bali, Siem Reap was ‘opened’ to tourists in the 19th century. So, there you go. Anyways, being a tourist and surrounded by thousands of other tourists, I got tired. The best retreat is just to walk across the Siem Reap river and after 15 minutes, it’s another different world altogether. Well, not entirely but something like that lah. Same same but different, y’know. Otherwise, you can always tread through the back alleys, which was quite relaxing…for me, that is.
Siem Reap is small so you can practically walk all around the city without exhausting your energy. As you walk, there will always be someone who’s interested to talk to you. “Want massage, sir? I give you good price” or “Where you from, sir? You look thirsty. You buy my water?”
Tuk tuk and moto are easily accessible in town but you don’t really need them. Another best way to get around Siem Reap (and even to some parts of Angkor) is by bicycle and many guesthouses rent them out for US$2 a day! After the first two days of riding the moto visiting Angkor, I decided to rent a bicycle on the third day. The only problem on the third day was that I went to Banteay Srei, which is about 35km from Siem Reap! I wasn’t too sure then if I was either stupid or…stupid but I learned my lesson. Next time, bicycle first then moto for the long journey.
…otherwise, there is always a tuk tuk that is willing to take you for a happy hour!
