Siem Reap—pronounced seem rrip—is a capital city located in the province of Siem Reap in the northwestern Kingdom of Cambodia. Its name is derived from the words Siam Defeated, which points to a period in its history where it defeated the people of Siam—present day Thailand.

It is the gateway to the Angkor Archeological Site, a series of 9th to 15th century Khmer temple architecture that’s inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, including the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

The area is a favorite backpacking destination for tourists around the world due to its number of historic temples and thriving night life. The fact that a stay in the area is inexpensive is a bonus.

This Siem Reap travel guide is for both new and returning travelers to the city. The area has so much to offer, that unless one is staying for weeks on end, you probably won’t be able to cover all the temples in the province. A travel itinerary is also provided for on the last part, flexible for both short and long stays.

Angkor Wat, the name evokes a combination of Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, and books. I have read and heard about this temple during my History of Architecture classes way back in college, have memorized its name for exams. And now finally, years after, I’m gonna see it with my own two eyes and feel its rough stone columns with my own bare hands.

MORNING AT ANGKOR WAT

The first time I laid my eyes on Angkor Wat was on a late Sunday morning. It was during the early month of February, it was a holiday. Instead of stopping and walking along its 190-meter long sandstone bridge and crossing over its mighty moat, I instructed our tuk-tuk driver to speed on and proceed to our next temple. There were just too many people. Hordes and hordes of visitors making some sort of pilgrimage to a tourist Mecca.

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A man carrying a twisted wooden staff and wearing a shiny golden dress emerged from one of the stone towers of Prasat Bayon. I doubled back, are we on a movie set?

We were on our last leg of our Angkor Thom tour. Having previously visited three out of its eight major sites, we were dead tired. That weariness, however, quickly wore off as we emerged on the upper deck of the Bayon temple where massive, serene stone faces greeted us.

LOK LEK FOR LUNCH AT ANGKOR THOM

The sun was at its brightest as we went out from the makeshift eateries near the Leper King Terrace inside Angkor Thom’s enormous complex. We’ve had our fix of lok lek for lunch and were rarin’ to do the daunting Angkor Thom tour. The complex covers an area of 145.8 hectares; it was simply impossible to do this on just one afternoon.

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It was our third straight day of temple hopping and to be honest, we were quite templed out. We’ve really had enough of temples dedicated to Shiva and the millions of Hindu gods out there. But this was a special day. Today we get to visit Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Two temples I’ve read with wonder on my History of Architecture book back in college. Today we get to see them in real life.

TA PROHM TEMPLE, AMAZINGLY DEVOID OF TOURISTS

Together with our ever reliable tuk-tuk driver from Happy Guesthouse, Nga, we again zipped through the forest roads of Siem Reap. Our target, five temples—Angkor Wat, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm. and Angkor Thom’s Phimeanakas, Baphuon and Bayon temples. Our tour is actually a combination of two tours, the Angkor and Little Circuit Tour. We left out some of the temples on the Small Circuit tour—Prasat Kravan, Srah Srang, and Ta Keo—to accommodate the massive Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom temples of the Angkor Tour.

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The salt water pool at Sokha Angkor Resort was heaven. It almost made us forget the Little Circuit Temple Tour that we’re supposed to be doing that day—spending too much time swimming and goofing around the hotel’s huge pool after breakfast. It was our second time in Siem Reap and this time, we decided to splurge a bit.

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SOKHA ANGKOR RESORT GRAND LOBBY

Coming from an overnight bus ride from Thailand, we arrived at Siem Reap at quarter past nine. We hailed a tuk-tuk and were dropped off at the Sokha Angkor Resort’s driveway in a few minutes. We knew, as we entered its expansive lobby, that we’re gonna be in for a treat.

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The music pumped. No more temples. They danced. No more temples. I drank my beer. No more temples. We don’t want any more temples! What we wanted was beer. More beer. More beer. And the city has just the place for us—the ubiquitously named Siem Reap Pub Street.

THE FLAMBOYANT PUB STREET IN SIEM REAP

Tucked on a not-so-quiet street in the Old Market Area of Siem Reap, far from the ancient Angkor temples, is Pub Street. It’s where tourists go after a whole day of temple hopping. It’s where the backpackers go after a day of biking. It’s where it’s happening.

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A face—eyes closed, chiseled on a rough stone, faded by time. A wall—carved with unreadable inscriptions, strange reliefs running hundreds of feet on both ends. A fig tree—sacred, towering several meters high, roots clinging like a spindly spider legs on a cracked ruin.

A KID PLAYING ALONG THE GROUNDS OF BANTEAY SREI

Siem Reap is like leaping into a real life Tomb Raider game, only we’re not sprinting ahead with Colt 45’s a blazin’, but with Canon and Nikons a clickin’—dodging no tigers nor thugs, but tourists clad in bright, colorful garbs

Welcome to Siem Reap. It was a good day for a run, a temple run.

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Our trip to Siem Reap wouldn’t have been as much fun if not for Happy Guesthouse, its owner Chhorpoan and our tuk-tuk driver, Nga. We really weren’t able to stay at their place, having previously booked at the Angkor Tropical Resort, but our tour and most of our meals were from this lodging.

WELCOME TO HAPPY GUESTHOUSE! ~ PHOTO BY NALYN ACASIO

Happy Guesthouse is located at the backpacking district of Wat Bo Village in Siem Reap. It’s on a little, unpaved side street right before the stately Siem Reap River and is walking distance away from the flamboyant Pub Street and the Old Market area. It’s a family run business, and we felt that right away as we entered its gates.

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Steadily, our canoe started to dock at a floating platform at Kompong Phluk’s Flooded Forest. We just finished a magical ride along the gnarled trees, flooded by the nearby Tonlé Sap Lake. And it was such a wonderful encounter that we absolutely didn’t mind paying a relatively hefty amount just to experience it.

BOAT RIDE THROUGH SIEM REAP’S FLOODED FOREST

My buddy jumped off the canoe on to the ledge, and as I was about to follow her when a motorboat suddenly roared across the other side of the river. Our canoe started to drift away from the platform exactly as my right foot planted itself on its wooden boards.

Everything started to play in slow motion as the distance between the boat I was on and the platform, where my other foot was now planted on, started to widen. I can’t freakin’ believe this is happening.

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The sun was hanging low over the ancient temple of Preah Ko as we alighted for the last time from our tuk-tuk. We have just visited two other temples at Roluos, a sleepy town about thirteen kilometers away from downtown Siem Reap, and we were discovering for the first time what Cambodia has to offer to tourists like us.

DETAILS OF A CARVING AT PREAH KO

Siem Reap Temple Pass

Earlier, we availed of Siem Reap’s temple pass at the APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap). One cannot simply saunter his way off to any Siem Reap temples without waving a pass to the guards in the area.

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There’s this really pretty lady right out at the Leu Market selling cheap breakfast fares, you should definitely eat there. That’s Dave, our host from Angkor Tropical Resort telling us where we can eat in Siem Reap right after arriving in Cambodia after our early morning flight from Kuala Lumpur.

SIEM REAP INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

It was my first time in Siem Reap. It was my first time in Cambodia.

I know how to pronounce Cambodia, but I have no idea how to enunciate Siem Reap. Sim Rrip, I heard a local say. Sim Rrip it is. A few said that it means Siam Defeated, while others say it is Siam Destroyer; both referring to the old clash between the Khmer (Cambodians) and the Siamese people (Thai).

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I’ve read all about the famous Angkor Wat during my time as an architecture student back in the day. I was amazed at how grand it was and how intricate its details were.

After more than a decade, here I was, getting lost along its beautiful corridors with sunlight filtering through its intricate arcade. It is beautiful and grand, I can give it that, but it’s not as super awesome as I pictured it on my mind.

So while everybody’s going crazy about Angkor Wat, we were going gaga over Angkor Thom.