The Markets of Phnom Penh - A Traveller’s Guide
Markets are one of our favourite parts of exploring Cambodia. Every market is different and Phnom Penh is full of lots to visit! Follow us as we take you around all the best markets the Cambodian capital has to offer; from the historic Old and Central Markets through to the iconic Russian Market and the Riverside Night Market.
In South East Asia markets form the beating heart of the city. Even as skyscrapers crowd the horizon, markets still remain the soul and centre of the community.
The markets of Cambodia’s bustling capital of Phnom Penh are no exception to the rule. The city, especially compared to the rest of the country, seems to have been hit with modernity in full force glass and steel skyscrapers are rising up next to the old temples and palaces. The markets of Phnom Penh still, endure, the engines powering the heart of communities. From hairdressers to bamboo shoots, watches to pork bones, Phnom Penhians still rely on the good old fashioned market.
Phnom Penh's markets are a whirlwind of color smell and sound.
As long term travelling backpackers we love exploring markets. From the grand to the local neighbourhood, the tourist trap to off the beaten path, you will always find something unique and interesting in a market.
This is our guide to some of our favourite markets in Phnom Penh.
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
The Old Market
A short walk from the riverfront and bar district is the ‘Old Market’ or Phsar Chas. Set in the Old French Quarter this is a proper working market. Clustered into a rough square building the Old Market sells everything from jewellery and artwork to watch repair and hairdressing. There is a wet market as well as fruit and vegetable sellers.
When we visited we started by orbiting around the stalls and shops on the outer rim of the market. On the river facing sides the market was dominated by colourful fruit stalls, their tasty wares displayed in pyramids and piles. On the main road edge of the market was a mix of stalls selling Chinese temple offerings alongside grilled fish and clothing. The back of the market had some food stalls set up and a car park (not amazingly interesting we know).
We visited mid morning on a random weekday and most of the food stalls were yet to open, but they looked interesting and like they would have some very tasty treats later in the day. The final side of the market (the opposite side to the main road), was the main wet market, with stalls and stalls of vegetables on the outside and meat and fish shops on the inside.
We love wet markets in Asia, they are something we simply don’t have anymore back in the UK. We are so used to our meat being over sanitised, appearing in a cling film wrapped box as if it never was part of a living thing. Even our butchers and fishmongers have been cleaned up and hide the grisly stuff. Asian markets are the opposite, an assault on the senses with live chickens, fish and hanging slabs of meat. You certainly know where your food is coming from in an Asian market.
As a quick aside from the above - if you are squemish or do not want to see dead animals (or sometimes the death of poultry), then the markets may not be for you. They are full on and just part of life for people but if you are easily upset or have sensitive young kids with you, consider this a warning
You cannot argue its freshness - most of these fish will have been taken live from a tank next to the stall and bludgeoned before being offered for sale.
The Old Market has a small food court with noodles, lort cha (more about this later), soups and curries for sale. Just go through the wet market towards the centre and you cannot miss it.
Where is the Old Market?
The Old Market can be found here. The old market is a short walk from the Phnom Penh riverfront, Night Market, Palace or National Museum. It is just outside of the bar district and near to a lot of accommodation.
Old Market Opening times:
The Old Market’s opening times can vary but are listed as between 6:00am and 17:00pm every day.
Phnom Penh Central Market
The most iconic of Phnom Penh’s many markets Phsar Thmei - Central Market is housed in a fantastic art deco building. Its famous yellow and white cross building spikes out around the massive central dome. Built under the rule of the colonial French it was, once, the largest market in Asia!
The Central Market (sometimes called the New Market), is much more “touristy” than some of Phnom Penh’s other offerings but don't let this put you off. It is busy for a reason!
The central dome is an Aladdin's cave of gold and jewellery. The huge dome overhead and the dim lighting adding to the vibe of a treasure trove. Sparkling light is reflected off cabinets full of watches, necklaces, rings and bracelets. Now we over here at Jellie are very much budget backpackers and know next to nothing about jewellery and precious metals so we cannot comment on the value or legitimacy of any of these shops. What we can say however, is that it was very pretty!
The dome in the middle of Central Market holds its iconic clocktower and dozens of jewellery stalls.
The Central Market has four straight ‘spokes’ radiating out from the central dome, each with a slightly different focus. There are electronics on one spoke - the laser pens and gadgets proving very distracting to the children of various holidaying families.
Another spoke contained the standard tourist market clothing and tat displays. Do you want elephant print trousers and a novelty candle? If you do, you have found the right place! Of course there are several hundred of these exact same stalls throughout Phnom Penh but hey it wouldn't be a market without them!
The other ‘spokes’ have beauty products, toys and clothes (that actual non-tourist people may wear). Between the spokes is where we enjoyed ourselves the most. A proper wet market sprawls out between the walls of the official Central Market. Fish of every description and meats of all shapes and cuts were everywhere. One of our favourite market stalls we stumbled upon was a man selling huge bricks of ice. From what we could tell you could either buy the huge clear blocks whole, or you could ask him to hack it up and put it through a massive grinder.
There is also a fantastic food court full of Cambodian treats to try. You can feast on roasted birds or grilled snakes (we can report - too many bones!), chow down on kuy teav (read more about that and other Cambodian breakfast dishes here) or order a plate of rice porridge. We ate there and enjoyed a great bowl of pork noodle soup and a delicious bowl of pork porridge (do not knock it until you have tried it, we are now obsessed with borbor).
Borbor is literally comfort in a bowl
Pork noodles with all the trimmings!
The whole market is great to just wander around and look at. The setting and architecture are amazing and definitely worth a visit.
Where is the Central Market?
You can find the Central Market here. It is a short walk into the centre of town from the riverside. Nearby you can find lots of restaurants, some of the higher end accommodation as well as the famous Wat Phnom Daun Penh.
Opening times:
The Central Market is open from 6:30am until 17:30pm every day, however many of the stalls on the outside will stay open longer.
The Russian Market
The Russian Market of Phnom Penh sits a little further out to the south of the river. The Russian Market - also called Toul Tom Poung Market got its name in the 1980’s in the Cold War. The market became an outlet for Russian designed goods and Soviet made items, this along with the sizable Russian population that lived around the market led to the nickname. The nickname stuck and now everyone from tourists to taxi drivers calls it the Russian Market.
Nowadays, the Soviet era products are gone, replaced by artists, souvenir shops and ceramic and stone carvers. Towards the back of the market there is a whole section dedicated to machine and scooter parts with huge jumbles of brake discs, lights, electronics and metal cogs piled high.
How do they find anything?
The market now is sort of a mix between the Old Market and the Central Market. There is a large “proper” market with vegetables and meat sellers as well as a big section devoted to tourists and tour groups. There were lots of bangles, elephant trousers and paintings of questionable originality for sale.
The Russian Market is included in many tours and cooking classes as a good “safe” market to walk around. This doesn’t mean the other markets are “unsafe” at all! Just that the Russian Market can be relied upon to be colourful and pretty with well maintained stalls and plenty of things tourists may want to buy or photograph.
The chaos of markets are..
Very photogenic!
We did enjoy getting lost in the rabbit warren of shops selling art supplies and stone statues. It is, like the Central Market, touristy but, also like the Central Market, fun!
There is a food court in the middle of the market that seemed to cater exclusively to tourists - this is no bad thing! If you are looking to dip your feet in Cambodian cuisine this would be a nice easy way to start. If you are a backpacker however, literally any stall or restaurant outside the market will be significantly cheaper. We, for example, had a delicious fried rice from a stall opposite the market.
Where is the Russian Market?
The Russian Market can be found here. Many travellers visit the Russian Market either before or after visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The museum is only a fifteen minute walk or six minute drive away.
Opening times:
The Russian Market opens between 7:00am and 17:00pm every day, but you will find some of the tourist stalls open quite a bit later on into the evening.
The Riverside Night Market
We love a night market, we have been to dozens now and they are always good fun and interesting to nose around. The Phnom Penh Riverside Night Market is set a short distance from the bar streets and just off of the riverfront.
Inside the market is a large ‘U’ shape with stalls all down the sides. These side stalls sell clothing and souvenirs. It is not as ‘cheesy’ as some of the souvenir stands we have already passed by in the markets of Phnom Penh and may even have some things you would want to buy!
We were visiting in the depths of the wet season and it was starting to rain pretty hard when we arrived at the market. In the high season (November - April), with the better weather and more tourists, the centre of the market (between the straights of the ‘U’) would be buzzing with activity and stalls. On the days we visited however, the rain had driven everyone away from the open areas. Luckily, the whole of the main market (the U) was covered from the rain.
At the back of the market (the bottom of the ‘U’) is the reason most people come to the Riverside Night Market - the food court. There are stalls on all sides selling every kind of hot-pot, stir fry, noodle or soup you can think of. From spring rolls and fried rice to instant Korean ramens and grilled meats, there was a stall for everyone. We had a great couple of plates of lort cha.
Lort cha is a dish of stir fired short pin noodles and we had fallen in love with it in Siem Reap (read all about that here). The noodles came out sizzling and charred from the wok with a crispy but runny fried egg perched on top. Just what we needed on a rainy evening.
Smokey, sweet and delicious - you cannot go wrong with lort cha!
The Riverside Night Market is definitely worth a stop on your Phnom Penh itinerary. It is friendly, fun, the food is tasty and (for a touristy place) well priced. We are suckers for night markets, there is just something fun about dining under a creaking canvas eating quick fried delicious food.
The Riverside Night Market Food Court looked great even in the rain.
Where is the Riverside Night Market?
The Riverside Night Market can be found here The Riverside Night Market is right next to the bar district and loads of accommodation. Our hostel was less than five minutes walk away - a definite bonus in the rain!
Opening Times:
The Riverside Night Market opens around 17:00pm and will keep serving food until around 23:00pm with some stalls shutting earlier. The market should be open every day.
Other Markets of Phnom Penh
We had limited time in the Cambodian capital and missed out on several markets we would have loved to explore. If you get to go around any of these let us know in the comments how it was!
Orussey Market
Shockingly, we didn't visit what may be the largest of Phnom Penh’s markets. Selling everything from clothes and food, to tailoring supplies and vintage electronics if you need an obscure item, we have heard it is probably in Orussey Market. You can find Orussey market on a map here.
Riverside Flower Market
We did stumble across the riverside flower market but far too late in the day to see it at its best. Go down the river, in front of the palace early on in the morning to see all the flower vendors in full bloom. You can find the market here.
Konda Market
Another half-visit from us saw us trying to take a shortcut back to our hostel through the sprawling stalls of the Konda Market. Definitely not a tourist market we would have loved to properly explore its produce and food stalls. You can find the street market portion of Konda Market here.
Market Tours and Guided Experiences
If you want to explore the markets and get some real local insight at the same time, or you want to have an expert show you the best food the markets have to offer, then consider going on a guided tour. You can be shown around the markets and walked through the food courts by a local who knows exactly what is good and how much it should cost.
Have a look at Get Your Guide. They offer lots of market experiences as well as loads of tours and trips in Phnom Penh.
Another option for prebooking a tour is Viatour, they offer a more premium selection for a slightly higher price. Have a look at what they are offering here.
Where to Stay in Phnom Penh
Being the capital city of Cambodia there are plenty of accommodation choices in Phnom Penh. The question is what is right for your budget?
We are long term travellers, backpackers with a budget to match. We would recommend Onederz Hostel as a great place to stay. Set on the riverbank next to the bar district and the Old and Night markets and only a short walk from the Central Market, Royal Palace and National Museum, Onederz is perfectly situated. Staying there meant we could pack a lot into a short while and minimise taxi travel. The Onederz Hostel offers private rooms, dorms as well as having a cafe and even a rooftop pool. You can book a stay here.
If hostels are not or no longer your thing then Phnom Penh has a room for every budget. Check out our handy hotel map below.
The map is focused on the central market - zoom out for other areas and more choices.
Getting Around in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is an easy city to get around. We were centrally located at our hostel and could walk to the vast majority of the markets.
Phnom Penh used to have a reputation as being one of the more dangerous cities in South East Asia and one you needed to be very careful in. We are not sure if it has just dramatically improved since our last visit or that we are just blind to the danger but it felt safe and welcoming when we walked around. Do make sure you're not stuck somewhere unfamiliar after dark and be cautious of your belongings, but don’t panic and write off walking anywhere!
Out of all the locations we have talked about in this blog we only needed a taxi to get us to the Russian Market. Speaking of taxis…
Taxi’s Remorques and Tuk Tuk’s in Phnom Penh
For any venture further afield in through Phnom Penh or if you want to spare yourself a walk, you will need a set of wheels.
If you have mobile data then we would recommend downloading the PassApp and Grab apps. Grab can be linked to your credit or debit card and lets you summon a taxi to take you anywhere. PassApp works similarly but you may not be able to link your card and have to pay in cash. The advantage of these apps is that the price is non negotiable, agreed in advance and set by the program - so no ridiculous fares for being a tourist! They also allow you to track your route so you can be sure you are going where you wanted to!
Phnom Penh’s taxi’s come in three main types: the traditional car - the most expensive option but has air conditioning. The tuk-tuk - the fun, familiar three wheeler popular all across Asia, this is usually the cheapest option but you may struggle to get four adults in one! Finally there is the Cambodian special - The remorque. Think chariot or stagecoach but pulled by motorbike rather than a horse, that is pretty much what a remorque is. They can comfortably fit four people and are in the middle when it comes to price.
In the wet season it pays to have alternate methods of travel to walking!
You can hail any of the above on the street. Remorques especially are very common in the bar area and outside tourist hotspots. Just remember to agree on a price in advance and be firm about where you want to go.
Phnom Penh is a buzzing, changing city with one foot in its tumultuous past and the other striding out into modernity. It has a unique charm and character all of its own. It is very different from Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City and, despite sharing many cultural and culinary genes with both, is very much its own beast. The markets are perfect examples of this, they sell lots of the same goods you will find across Asia but in a distinctly Cambodian style. Phnom Penh is changing at a rate of knots, but the markets still remain the same. From dawn until dusk, the markets are the foundations of the city. If you’re visiting Phnom Penh don’t miss out and make sure you include at least one market (if not all of them). It’s a true insight to Cambodia and you’ll never know what you’re going to come across!
We loved our stay in the Cambodia capital, the short time we had there has whetted our appetite for more and we can’t wait to go back and discover more of its markets.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#Adventuresofjellie
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A Day Out in the Mists - Bokor Hill Station and National Park
Bokor Hill Station and National Park are a mysterious and beautiful destination in Cambodia. Come with us as we drive past troupes of monkeys, up a winding mountain road to visit the mist-clad ruins and abandoned church. Our complete guide has all the must know information for visiting Bokor Hill Station and National Park.
Nearby to the backpacker favourite town of Kampot is Bokor Hill Station. A relic of the French colonial era and part of Bokor National Park (the full name is Preah Monivong Bokor National Park), the mysterious and beautiful mist clad ruins lie at the top of Bokor Hill. To get to the ruins you will have to take the winding road up the mountain, passing relics of the past, ruins of the present as well as thick forests and troupes of watching monkeys.
We rented a scooter in Kampot town and set off for a day of riding, what we got was far more than we bargained for in the mists of Bokor...
To skip to the practical information click here for the full story read on:
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
Our day at Bokor Hill Station
We were staying at the amazing hostel, Karma Traders. From the hostel roof you could, on clear days, see the towering mountain of Bokor Hill National Park. Containing the ruins of old resorts, an abandoned church, countless monkeys and a restored colonial French hotel, we knew we had to go.
We fueled up on a hearty Cambodian breakfast - sweet grilled pork over rice -and hopped on our bike. We were traveling in the middle of the wet season but had a break in the weather for the day, or so we thought. We didn’t (still don’t) entirely trust weather forecasts, so stashed our wet coats in the bike’s seat. Water bottles, anoraks and snacks stowed, we revved up and left the Karma Traders hostel.
The initial ride to the entrance of the national park takes about fifteen to twenty minutes. We drove through Kampot town, dodging the crazy traffic and questionably driven trucks, before taking the bridge across the river and following the main road south out of town.
After a short drive on the main road we turned off, passing under a large archway welcoming us to the national park. On the side of the road were lines of fruit and snack sellers, we would learn later that these snacks were not just for human consumption! From the archway we crossed a train line, passed an entrance booth (no ticket is required for the national park) and entered the park. From here on out it was up all the way.
You can find the entrance road we took here on Google Maps:
The road started to switchback up and up the side of the mountain. Initially we had long gentle curves arching their way around the hillside but as we climbed higher and higher the hairpin bends got more frequent. On either side of us was thick forest with a short wall on the cliff-side edge of the road. As the forest deepened the wall started to fill up with spectators to our ride.
You know its going to be a fun ride with a sign like that!
Huge troupes of macaques lounged, sprawled and bounced along the road and the wall next to the cliff. They seemed entirely indifferent to the traffic that passed them by, barely looking up at our approach. In some places we saw cars slow and roll a window down. One of the larger monkeys would then approach, hop up on its hind legs (macaques are surprisingly tall on two legs) and be passed some fruit or treats from the car window. The stalls at the entrance, it turned out, were supplying visitors with macaque lunchboxes! We cannot imagine this is the most environmentally friendly way of sustaining the macaques and, judging by the ripped plastic and rubbish in the banks of the road, it also may not be the healthiest of diets.
The macaques were amazing nonetheless. The massive troupes (we saw a few groups each with easily over sixty monkeys apiece) were full of bulky posturing alpha’s, tiny babies clinging to their mothers as well as precocious young monkeys zooming around and screaming at each other. The troupes lounged, picked fleas off of each other or just lolloped along the road.
It was great to see the monkeys in a (semi) natural environment but they did pose a bit of a road hazard. On more than one occasion emergency braking had to be used as a teenage monkey decided to run out in front of our bike!
Bokor National Park is full of amazing wildlife. There are apparently wild populations of bears, gibbons, slow loris, civet, hornbills and even clouded leopards! Unfortunately the recent construction boom - more on this later - has placed a lot of the biodiversity under threat. It is rare to see more than macaques from the road, but we did see some hornbills flying overhead. If you want to see more of the wild life in the national park, consider hiring a trekking guide to take you deeper into the forest (more on this later).
With trees on both sides of the winding road, we didn’t really get a sense of how high up we were until we came to a view point. At these viewpoints the trees would fall away and the landscape unravel in front of us. We hadn’t realised how fast we had climbed or how tall Bokor Hill was. The views under a grey wet season sky were fantastic. You can find one of the viewpoints here but there were quite a few more, just keep an eye for the roadside signs. These viewpoints are usually just a large verge to pull your bike or car over and a small path leading to a gap in the trees overlooking the landscape below.
Our first built up view came from the Lok Yeay Mao monument (location). The monument is huge ; a serene, expressionless white Buddha sits on a tiered blue dais. This huge statue sits at the tip of one of the hills' many crests and can be seen from miles around on a clear day. When we visited, the base of the Buddha was busy with people meditating and leaving offerings. Traditional Cambodian music filled the air from a small band and devotees were praying towards the statue. With the music playing in the background, the view took on an otherworldly air. Looking down across the plains towards the sea, with the clouds forming a low ceiling over the world, it was spectacular.
The worshipers really give a sense of how big this was - you could see Lok Yeay Mao from hilltops all around.
From the Lok Yeay Mao monument we could see the road clinging to the crest of the hill and snaking away. We still had a good way to go so, with the sky getting lower and lower and the clouds threatening us with a soaking, we continued on.
It was around this time that the journey became a little bizarre. We had so far, climbed through forests on quiet roads full of monkeys. Now we entered a concrete wasteland. Huge construction projects stood idle or abandoned. Whole towns worth of housing stood half completed and empty, staircases and rooms exposed like rib-cages. Below we could see what looked like a dam under construction. The only completed building seemed to be a hospital busy with workers and people. It was strange, up there in the clouds, to come out of the peaceful nature and be surrounded by the half finished hulks of mega industry.
As we soon found out, it was not all half finished. We rounded a corner and came face to face with the enormous monstrosity of the Thansur Sokha Hotel and Casino. If the previous landscapes had been bizarre then this was ridiculous. The casino hotel is huge and sat like a beached yellow whale on the crest of the mountain, dwarfing all around it. Ugly outbuildings crowded around its bulk and the car-park could rival a theme park’s in scale.
The casino hotel was apparently built as part of a multi-million dollar tourist redevelopment to attract Chinese visitors. It boggles the mind that someone saw a national park, an area of amazing beauty and biodiversity, and thought “You know what would improve this? A mega casino and the ugliest hotel you can imagine”. The place has (mostly) good reviews on Google but all say the massive building was nearly entirely empty when they visited it. It really seems like a shame. If incongruous ugly developments are your thing you can stay in the hotel, just read the reviews first!
Seriously, who thought this was a good look?
Putting the squatting horror of the yellow hotel behind us, we started to near our original destinations. In a line along the road are: ruined resorts, a famous abandoned catholic church and, what was once, the most famous abandoned French colonial building in the country, the Bokor Hill Station.
We decided that, as our route was not circular and we would have to come back the way we came, we would start with the destination furthest away and work backwards. We scooted on to the end of the road.
From a small car-park next to a holiday rental building (located here), we could see the crumbling concrete remains of the Domnak Preah Bath Monivong. A few walls and pillars are all that remains of the 1920’s retreat of King Monivong. This is the king who’s name the national park takes: Preah Monivong Bokor National Park. The path down to the remains of the old retreat was very treacherous in the wet season so we did not explore closer, just looked on from the road.
Opposite the holiday cottage that we had parked at, was the shell of another building. Brutal grey stones and graffiti covered concrete squatted on the roadside. Across the grey surface of its ruined frontage, an orange fungus or lichen was spreading. Apparently this was another relic of the Bokor Hill Station Resort. It may have been the grey skies and clouds, but it looked very ominous, we cannot imagine it is a great neighbor for the renovated colonial style holiday cottage next door!
If walls could talk … The ruins of Bokor Hill Station have seen a lot, from the Colonial period all through the turbulent times of the Khmer Rouge.
A short way back along the road and we came to, what was once, Cambodia’s most famous colonial ruin. The Bokor Hill Station Resort (location).
Built in the 1920’s to give the French rulers a break from the Cambodian heat, the Bokor Hill Station was a hotel and resort for the colonial rulers alone. It cost 900 lives to build (it was an incredibly remote and inaccessible location back then) and the hill station spanned across several buildings and structures. The most famous building was the central hotel, The Bokor Palace hotel. Completed in 1925 and then abandoned in 1940 during the First Indochina War, the Palace hotel had sat decaying for decades on the misty hilltop. Bokor Hill was inaccessible to most people until the recent past; it had remained a Khmer Rouge stronghold up until the early 1990s.
You can park your scooter in the hotel car park
The ruins of the Bokor Palace Hotel were iconic, we remember seeing pictures of this grand palatial hotel on our first visit to Cambodia ten years ago. So imagine our surprise to learn that it is no longer a ruin. It is, once again a hotel! Now called Le Bokor Palace (everything sounds better in French) the iconic colonial building has been refurbished and is taking customers once again. You can book a room here! It is, like a lot of Bokor, bizarre. The old walls have modern plastic looking white windows and shutters but the stonework is still stained and faded. It wasn’t until we parked up and saw the modern swimming pool out the back that we were sure the hotel was back in business!
We parked our bike in the hotels car park and had a nose about. The grounds behind the hotel have been extensively renovated and would have incredible views on a clear day. The hotel sits just above where a layer of cloud comes to rest, so you could sit outside looking over a sea of clouds below you. On this grey and overcast day it gave off more of a sort of “The Overlook” vibe…
Le Bokor Palace has apparently been fully refurbished on the inside and is now a luxury hotel!
Opposite the hotel's car-park, down a short overgrown path, is one of the original “concrete mushrooms” from the 1920’s. You can see a few of these all over the Bokor Hill Station, dotted on promontories and viewpoints. These concrete mushrooms originally provided shade for the resort's clientele to sit and take in the views. Nowadays they are just another strange wreck of what once was. All over the view you could see a mix of ongoing development, half finished (possibly abandoned) construction and 1920’s concrete ruin. It was, with the mists and clouds rolling in, like something from Fallout or Silent Hill. It was like being in a world after some huge disaster had taken place, with only the shells of buildings left.
This was the view from the concrete ‘mushroom’. It was eerie seeing all the ghosts of buildings in the national park.
The clouds were now seriously threatening, rising on all sides over the crest of the hill. We had a longish drive to get back to town so hurried on to our last stop of the hill station, the abandoned Church of Mount Bokor.
The abandoned Catholic church wasn’t doing anything to dispel the creepy atmosphere.
Set on a rise just before the hotel (location), the Catholic church once was part of the French resort complex. Abandoned with the rest of the hotel in the 1940’s the church has stood empty since. It is now an icon of the area. It is also the second oldest standing Catholic church in Cambodia. Any search for Bokor or Kampot will yield a picture of this church standing forlorn and empty on the edge of the hill.
On a clear day the church commands beautiful views down towards Kampot and the sea. If you climb the small hill behind it, there is another view all the way down the other side of Bokor Hill. We emphatically did not have a clear day, the clouds were now surrounding us heavily pregnant with rain. We sped up our exploration and headed inside.
On the walls of the chapel faithful worshipers have continued to leave flowers, Jesus and Mary statues, pictures and messages. The altar still stands in the middle of the concrete room. It was, like any abandoned church, an eerie but calm space - both at the same time. It was as strange and forlorn as other abandoned buildings but still oddly welcoming. It was odd to think of a building that clearly meant so much to people, being left to the elements.
The inside of the church is clearly still venerated. It was kept spotless and the flowers were fresh.
The church was one of the last bastions of the Khmer Rouge on Bokor hill, they used it as a form of barracks until they were driven out in 1993. The church clearly hadn’t been forgotten about though: in 2017 ownership was officially returned to the Catholic church and, as of 2021 (according to Wikipedia), there are efforts to raise money to restore the church.
We came out of the church and into a swirling cauldron of mist and rain. We had gambled with the weather and lost. Arms above our heads we had to run back to the bike and hastily unpack our wet coats. We now had plastic wet coats on top of soggy, wet clothes, wonderful! The rain got heavier and heavier hammering down and seeping into our coats, until suddenly, it just stopped. As quickly as it had begun, the rain swept away from the crest of the hill and down the sides of the hill below.
The rain had finished but the mist had only just begun. Above us the church, only fifty metres away, disappeared into the swirling white mists.
The mist grew so thick that we couldn’t see more than a couple of metres in front of us, there was no way we were driving through it. We decided to wait it the mists out. We turned all our bikes lights on, hunkered down on the side of the road and hoped the wind would clear the mists away. Every so often a car would crawl past at a few miles an hour, only visible by its headlights.
The whole day had been bizarre and eerie but now we were at the top of a hill next to an abandoned church in the middle of the thickest mist we had ever encountered, eerie had graduated to full on creepy. The mists thickened and thinned but never to more than a few feet of visibility. There was a road sign in front of us the appeared and disappeared through the swirling white mist. It was if the mountain was breathing in and out.
We waited for twenty minutes but the mist did not clear. We didn’t want to drive back in a rainstorm or the dark so we made the decision to, very very slowly, drive back down. We were in the middle of a cloud, so if we could drop down a little we should come out of the worst of the mist. Teeth clenched and hands on the break we inched back down the road.
Within two minutes we felt a little silly. We had, apparently, been sitting in a very small, very localized, soup bowl of mist. Within seconds of setting off the mist, which had been unmoving for twenty minutes, dissipated nearly entirely and we could see perfectly...Well better safe than sorry we suppose!
The National Park is stunning. Even in the wet season!
We revved back up to a more normal speed and retraced our steps down the mountain. We flew past modern and colonial ghosts, through the monkey tribes, out the national park and back towards Kampot and a well deserved hot shower.
It had been a real adventure of a day.
The practical stuff - how to explore Bokor Hill
Getting to Bokor Hill and getting around:
Scooter
We rented a scooter from our hostel (the excellent Karma Traders - more on them later) at $5.00 a day for our adventure around Bokor Hill. It is the least restrictive and cheapest way to get to the sights and around the national park. We wouldn’t recommend renting a scooter unless you are a confident rider, you need to travel along main roads full of lorries and cars to get to the national park and, once there, you will need to navigate winding roads up the mountain. Also, as we found out, you have to be willing and able to deal with sudden monkeys and the weather!
The roads in the national park are actually very good. One of the few upsides of the ugly development on top of Bokor hill is that the roads leading from Kampot are well maintained and smooth for the most part. The hair pin corners are steep but the road is usually wide enough to not make it an issue. Just look out for other cars and suicidal monkeys!
Tour or private driver
If you are not confident riding a scooter, do not worry you can still have an awesome day out amongst the peaks and mist! Every guest-house, hostel and hotel in Kampot will be able to arrange a trip up to the ruins, church and old hotel at the top.
Our hostel, Karma Traders, was fantastic (so fantastic we wrote a whole article about it here), every day groups of newly formed dorm friends would head out to the national park in the back of a tuk tuk or remorque. The reception could book a driver and the price would be for the whole vehicle, so the more of you there is, the cheaper it will be.
You can either hire a private driver at your accommodation, in town or in advance by booking a tour on Get Your Guide. Have a look what is on offer here
Cost of entry and opening times for Bokor National Park.
Cost of Entry: None, nothing, nada, zilch! There is a small booth marking the entrance to the park but we were just waived through. The new development has meant that the road is in constant use outside of those just looking to appreciate the nature so it doesn’t cost anything to explore the park!
Nothing we did that day cost anything, the viewpoints, monuments and ruins were all free and open to the public. There was no parking charges or anyone hustling for cash at any of the places we went that day. All we paid was for the bike hire, petrol, snacks and drinks - it was a perfect backpacker day.
Opening Times: Technically the park never closes. As the normal way to view it is via the road, this doesn’t ever shut. However we would not recommend getting caught after dark there. The road is wide but the drops are very steep. Plan ahead and make sure you give yourself enough time to get back!
Our route around Bokor Hill Station
We did a straight forward back and forth route to Bokor Hill with our start at our hostel and the end / turnaround point being the end of the road after Bokor Palace Hotel. You can see our route on the Google Map below
How long did it take to visit Bokor Hill
We took it slow (at least until the weather turned) and didn’t race about on the bike. We spent all morning and early afternoon exploring the park. The route to and from Bokor Hill would take two hours alone (in a car) according to Google. We think that it would actually take a lot longer. Plan at least four hours to see everything and not be rushed. If you have good weather and want to add in some things we missed (see later) then allow a good deal longer.
When to visit Bokor Hill
This is very subjective. In the dry season you are much more likely to get the full sweeping views the hill can offer. You are also much less likely to be rained off like we were! However, in the dry season you will lose some of the misty vibes and have to share the hill with a lot more people. We cannot say for certain (as we only visited in the wet season) but what we saw, wreathed as it was in mist and looming mysteriously, may just look like ugly concrete in the light of the dry season sun.
It just looks right under iron skies!
We loved visiting in the wet season even with the rain and getting stuck in the mist. It really gave the ruins, both modern and colonial, an eerie yet beautiful feeling. Despite being briefly soaked we are glad we visited when we did. If you go in the dry season, let us know - leave a comment and tell us how you found it!
What else is there to do - What did we miss in Bokor Hill National Park?
Due to the weather and a lack of prior planning we actually missed a load in the national park when we had our little adventure.
There are fantastic waterfalls all dotted around the park. If you don’t mind a detour before you reach the national park check out Veal Pouch Waterfall. Located here. You will need to drive a little way on a dirt road and have a short, thirty minute, hike to reach the falls. We couldn’t do this waterfall as it had been raining heavily for several days and the roads would have been beyond our humble scooter skills. Inside the park and more accessible, is the Popokvil Waterfall. We are annoyed we missed this one as it is meant to be great in the rainy season. You can find it here a short detour off of our posted route. There is a small entrance fee of $0.50 - $1.00 (which includes a bottle of water) and a restaurant on site. Just be aware that both these waterfalls are affected by the season, Veal Pouch can even disappear entirely in the dry season.
Another victim of the weather was Wat Sampov Pram. Hidden behind the hideous yellow casino hotel, this beautiful temple is one of the highest in Cambodia. On rare clear days you can see all the way to Phú Quốc Island off of Vietnam. On most days however, the temple sits in a serene sea of mist. The nearby rock formations give the temple the name of the five ships pagoda due to their shape in the sea of clouds. We would have definitely come here if we hadn’t had to run from the weather, it looks stunning despite the ugliness of the new hotel behind it.
Hiking in Bokor Hill National Park
In less soggy months the park is a haven for nature lovers and hikers with trails and tours crisscrossing the hills and leading to secluded waterfalls and scenic views. Make sure you stick to the trails and take an experienced guide if you do go hiking, the area was a Khmer Rouge stronghold until 1993 so you do not want to know what is buried there!
If you are interested in a hike ask in town and you will easily find a guide. Obviously hiking would be better in the dry season - Leeches are a thing!
Staying in Kampot
If you are looking at exploring Bokor Hill you are almost definitely staying in Kampot. There are loads of choices for accommodation in this laid back town. We cannot recommend the Karma Traders Hostel enough. Comfy rooms, great atmosphere, a pool and a brilliant restaurant. We could go on and on, in fact we did! Check out our article on Karma Traders:
There are lots of other choices for staying in Kampot. For hostels in town there is Onederz Hostel and Monkey Republic. For people looking for pool parties and slides there is the famous Arcadia Waterpark and Backpackers a little drive to the north of Kampot.
If your hostel days are long behind you there are plenty of other choices in Kampot. You can have whatever level of luxury you want; from high end to budget guest house.
Have a look at the map below for all your accommodation options:
Zoom out for more accommodation choices.
Bokor Hill - Our final thoughts
Bokor Hill is an odd and fascinating place. The nature and National Park are gorgeous. Driving through the winding mountain roads, surrounded by trees and monkeys, knowing that somewhere in the greenery are clouded leopards, is simply amazing.
The buildings at the top of the hill are bizarre, it's like you have wandered on to a film set for a post apocalyptic movie, like you have woken up in a dystopian concrete world post disaster. The looming hulks of half finished apartment towns, the derelict building sites with semi-built monuments - it was interesting to say the least! If you share our aesthetic sensibilities it was amazing to see ruins and brutal architecture sitting amongst the clouds and mists.
Who allowed this in a national park?!
The new buildings going up and the massive casino / hotel on the other hand are not interestingly bizarre or amazing, they are just an eyesore. We do not want to meet the person who’s ‘aesthetic’ that yellow monstrosity is. There is something odd about Cambodian history and planning permission. Less than ten minutes down the road from where the French Colonial invaders killed 900 Cambodians building a resort for themselves, Cambodia decides to build a mega casino for China...
The main pull of this trip and the reason we set off on this day’s adventure was still amazing. The ruins of old 1920’s resorts, swathed in mist, the shell of old French buildings being reclaimed by the mountainside and, of course, the incredible abandoned church were worth the trip alone! We love ruins, we make sure we track them down everywhere - we - go, so this was an absolute treat for us. However, even if you are not as into ruins or brutal architecture as us, the ride up Bokor hill is worth your time, the views and vibes are amazing. It is eerie, otherworldly and beautiful.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
For more of our adventures around Kampot and Kep check out the articles below
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Kep - Crab Markets And A National Park, A Day Trip From Kampot
The town of Kep lies on the coast in Southern Cambodia. Famous for beaches and seafood, Kep is home to many resorts and hotels as well as a stunning national park and legendary seafood market. Join us for a day trip from Kampot where we explore all Kep has to offer and teach you how to order up the freshest, cheapest seafood feast ever at Kep’s legendary Crab Market.
Nearby to the Cambodian town of Kampot lies the province and beachfront town of Kep. In the 1920s, Kep was a favourite seaside retreat for the ruling powers of the colonial French. Nowadays, the French mansions stand abandoned, but the town has seen a resurgence in local tourism eager to explore its beaches, national parks and perhaps most importantly for us, its amazing seafood!
Kep is an easy day trip from the backpacking and travel hub of Kampot. Legendary for its seafood market and a local blue swimmer crab, visitors flock here to eat the delicious, affordable seafood. Kep has more than just tasty crustaceans to offer though, with beautiful national parks and, in the right season, swathes of white sand beaches.
We took a day trip out from Kampot to sample the best Kep has to offer - this is what we got up to:
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
In our guide to Kep:
Kep National Park - Where is it, opening times and ticket prices
Kep Crab Market - A quick guide to ordering. All you need to know
Where is Kep Crab Market?
When is Kep Crab Market open?
Buying seafood
Getting your seafood cooked
Side dishes and accompaniments
Where to eat your seafood feast in the Kep Crab Market?
Other dining options - Sit down restaurants.
Kep - A day out from Kampot
Our day started at our fantastic hostel in Kampot, Karma Traders (check out our article on why you should stay at Karma Traders here). Over breakfast we decided that today was the day to explore down the coast to Kep. After a rainy few days in the wet season, the clouds had parted and the sun was finally peaking through. We took this as our cue to get on our scooter and head out for a seafood feast.
Kep is legendary for its seafood, especially the local blue swimmer crabs. We have seen the crab market of Kep all over YouTube and being foodies, we knew we had to try it ourselves.
A basket of the famous ‘Blue Swimmer Crabs’ of Kep!
After breakfast, we jumped on our $5 a day scooter and headed out through Kampot’s hectic traffic. Quickly leaving town behind, we joined the main road between Kampot and Kep. The road was flanked on either side by rice paddies, traditional wooden houses and the occasional water buffalo. The road itself was busy with local traffic. Monks and children heading to schools and temples all jostling for space with trucks and tractors.
The ride to Kep took just over half an hour. We turned off the main road and looped past the famous crab market. As we passed, we couldn’t help but feel a bit apprehensive, it looked so busy! Cars and scooters were crammed and jammed together and you could barely see the stalls through the throng of people. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet. We chose to be positive - this many locals couldn’t be wrong - it had to be good!
Kep Beach and Seafront
We continued to round the headland and pulled up at our first stop, Kep Beach. Despite the overcast day the beach was full of locals playing in the sand and dipping their toes in the water. We were travelling at the height of the wet season, so we were definitely not seeing the beach at its best, but this didn’t put a dampener on the families and Cambodian youth enjoying the surf. All along the beachfront stretched market stalls offering hammocks and picnic areas.
The main strip of Kep Beach has a large car park behind it and plenty of beachside shops, restaurants and cafes. This is also where the majority of the hotels and resorts are. The eastern end of the beach has the famous Kep ‘White Lady’ statue staring out to sea. The story of the statue is that it is of the loyal wife of a fisherman who refused to eat and sleep until her husband came back from the sea…. The husband sadly never returned.
After our walk along the beach we couldn’t help but think about the last time we were here. Nine years previously, a fresh faced Jellie first set foot in southeast Asia. Cambodia was the first southeast Asian country we explored.
Kep back then was a very sleepy beach town. The road along the beach was single lane and the beach was shielded by massive trees. When we visited back then in the peak of the high season, the beach was quiet with barely a soul to be seen. Fast forward nine years and we’re back at the main beach and it couldn’t be more different. Throngs of parasols and deckchairs spread out across the sands filled with Cambodian families. The quiet road now busy with cars and the tall trees replaced by short palms with large scale development behind them.
Kep Beach has changed a lot!
You always know coming back to a place after such a long time that it will change, but Kep has certainly grown up and expanded as a holiday resort.
We were seeing the beach on an overcast day, with a high tide on a weekend in the wet season. We can imagine it is a bit more picturesque in the dry season, although it may be even busier!
Back on the scooter, we drove away from the beach and down the coast. Our destination was Kep National Park but not before a quick stop at what might be Kep’s most famous statue. Standing in the waves, its pincers raised up, is the famous ‘Blue Swimmer Crab Statue of Kep’. It’s only fitting for Kep to pay tribute to its most famous crustacean. Blue Swimmer Crab meat is legendary for its sweet rich flavour. One we would definitely be sampling later in the day. Photos snapped, it was time to head inland towards the National Park.
The famous ‘Blue Swimmer Crab Statue’ of Kep!
Kep National Park and the abandoned mansions
As the road wound away from the sea, we started to pass abandoned mansions, houses and hotels. This is Kep’s other less glorious claim to fame. During the colonial days in the 1920s, the Kep seafront was a popular retreat for the ruling French. The mansions here were abandoned in the 1940s and some destroyed by the Khmer Rouge as symbols of the elite. Today, you’ll see their crumbling remains peeking out from the trees or huddled behind their old gated walls. These ruins used to be a haven for urban explorers but recently they seem to have been bought off and locked away. Several of the ruins looked like they had been, at least partially, restored.
There were also more modern ruins to see on our drive inland. All through the Kep hillsides are half finished new builds and abandoned construction sites, presumably, these were pre-COVID tourism investments that never got to see the light of day.
Arriving at the entrance to Kep National Park (location) we pulled over at the ticket booth and bought our entrance tickets ($1 each). The friendly guards at the entrance told us it was an 8km walk or we could just drive our scooter through it. We’re not saying we’re lazy but…
Back on our scooter we slowly made our way into the park. The path was busy with pedestrians but only for the first hundred metres where they all turned off for the amazing views at the Led Zep Cafe and Viewpoint. Not needing caffeine just yet we continued on.
The concrete road reminded us of the ones you find on the southern Thai islands, narrow but not so much you couldn’t pass other bikers going the other way. The road snaked through lush jungle, surrounding us on all sides with thick green foliage. Every so often there would be a break in the trees and we would be treated to sweeping views down over Kep and the surrounding countryside. We continued on up until we found the previous incarnation of the Led Zep Café, it had amazing views but the rotting wooden floorboards had definitely seen better days.
Further on up the winding road, we saw signs for a lookout tower, so we pulled over and went to investigate. A short walk up a jungle track and we were greeted by a green metal tower. The view from the top was fantastic. On one side you could see all over Kep town and its beach and the other side commanded views all the way to Kampot.
After the viewing tower we cruised through more amazing jungle, stopping for some silly selfies and even catching a glimpse of some hornbills flying overhead.
For $1 each the national park was brilliant. Driving around on our scooter on a jungle road past spectacular viewpoints, it was well worth the entrance fee.
After the park it was finally time. Our appetites had been recharged, so we set off to Kep’s crab market.
Follow us as we explore Kep National Park by scooter!
Kep’s famous crab market - How to order a feast?
The Kep Crab Market was very busy, but there was no issue finding a space for our scooter. Parking sorted, we headed under the canvas for Kep’s famous crab market. Ducking our heads into the huge covered area, we could straightaway see why the market was famous.
Rows and rows of stalls selling seafood, condiments, side dishes, drinks and snacks stretched away in an impossible series of dining choices. We knew we wanted crab so that’s where we started. With the light streaming through the colourful umbrellas and plastic awnings above, we made our way down the fresh seafood aisle.
On either side of us bubbling buckets of live seafood lined the narrow path. From giant prawns to blood clams, lobster to squid. If it swam or scuttled in the sea it was up for sale. Everywhere, being sold from every stall, were the famous blue swimmer crabs. The market was a complete assault on the senses, with vendors shouting, wok and charcoal smoke filling the air and the sizzles and smell of frying fish everywhere.
A meal in the market works like this. You head down the narrow aisles until you find the seafood protein of your choice. You buy the live ingredient from the vendor and then take it to be cooked. This can be from the same stall you’ve bought it from, or another stall elsewhere. Each stall will have different cooking options to choose from.
Our protein of choice was half a kilo of plump, juicy prawns and half a kilo of Kep’s famous blue swimmer crabs. Seafood secured, we needed our haul cooked.
The region of Kampot grows what is known as the ‘champagne of peppercorns’. Kampot pepper is used throughout Cambodia and sought out all over the world for fine dining restaurants and discerning home cooks. Kampot pepper has a richer, more complex taste than the standard pepper found on every dinner table. The pepper has floral, herbaceous notes with a slight hint of citrus. These special peppercorns go into making the perfect sauce to pair with crab, the Kampot pepper sauce.
We had bought a kilogram of seafood for the frankly ridiculous price of $8 USD! The stall where we had bought the seafood wasn’t cooking with pepper sauce that day, so we simply walked down the aisle and asked at stalls until we found someone to cook us our seafood peppercorn feast.
If you bring your own produce, having your food cooked in the market is seriously cheap. We handed over our prawns and crabs along with $2.50 and five minutes of roaring wok work later, we were presented with our steaming pile of delicious seafood.
With all the seafood you can opt to have it cooked in different ways and with different sauces / toppings. If you want your crustacea boiled, steamed or fried it can be done. Just ask each stall what sauce they make and pick the one that sounds best. For barbeque cooking, head into the market and choose any of the countless number of barbecue stalls. These stalls cook everything from whole fish, squid, octopus and prawns over hot charcoal.
The next stage of eating in Kep market is side dishes and finding somewhere to eat your seafood feast. With a kilogram of food between two people we didn’t exactly require anything else! But if you’re after anything in addition there were stalls all around selling vegetables, salads and rice to round off your seafood extravaganza.
To gain a market side dining table, the process was simple. Just find a drinks vendor with spare tables, sit down and order drinks. We found a very friendly mother and daughter who waved us in enthusiastically to their stall. We ordered two drinks and set out our food.
The lovely lady at the stall came back with our cold drinks alongside a bowl of water for cleaning our hands and a healthy stack of napkins. It was time to get messy!
As soon as we opened up our feast, the sweet smell of seafood and pepper hit our noses. Even by the smell alone we knew we were in for a treat. Over the next half an hour we prised apart shells, cracked claws, sucked and twisted meat from our seafood bounty. Words cannot describe how good it was (but we are going to try)!
Our seafood feast in all its glory!
The crab was incredibly sweet. Firm yet yielding we found ourselves meticulously stripping each of our many crabs for every scrap of delicious white meat we could find. Kep is famous for these blue crabs and after eating half a kilogram of them we can certainly see why. Every part of the crab from their claws, legs and shell the meat was succulent and divine.
The prawns were huge. As you stripped the hard shell away you were left with a curled nugget of prawny goodness. They were perfectly cooked, juicy and probably the tastiest prawns we’ve ever had. We can say with absolute certainty that we’ve never eaten fresher prawns or crab. They were caught that very morning, unloaded to the market and we had bought them alive and kicking.
The pepper sauce was divine. Clinging to every sea-foody surface, it permeated every bite with a spicy yet delicate taste. The cooking juices from the prawns and crab mixed with the heady perfumed pepper and created the perfect sauce. A special treat of this Kep seafood feast was taking the prawn heads, dredging them through the sauce and sucking all the flavour out of them.
We’ve said before, there is no graceful way to eat crab. The addition of pepper sauce and prawns to peel made our Kep feast a gloriously messy affair. We were very glad of the finger bowl by the end. The whole experience of the market, buying the fresh produce and having it cooked in front of us and of-course the delicious taste made this one of our favourite meals in Cambodia and maybe of our whole adventure as well!
Stomachs full and our bikes suspension running a little lower, we headed back to Kampot.
More photographs of Kep Crab Market
A practical guide for visiting Kep and the crab market
Where is Kep and how to get there ?
Kep is located on the coast of southern Cambodia. Set half an hour away from the tourist hub of Kampot and around three and half to four hours away from the capital of Phnom Penh.
Kep is also the name of the province (sometimes spelt Krong Kaep) surrounding the town.
You can find Kep province here and the main beach here.
The easiest way to reach Kep is by road from Kampot. You can either drive yourself on your rented scooter, hire a taxi, get a private driver or catch a bus.
There are regular bus services running to Kep from the tourist hubs of Kampot and Phnom Penh.
When to visit Kep? Kep in the rainy season
Kep is a seaside town and its beaches benefit greatly from blue skies and good weather. The dry season in Kep runs from October to May and during this time you will have many more days of sunny skies making it the optimal beach time.
During the wet season, (June - September), it will rain for a portion of most days and when it's not raining you’re more than likely to have overcast skies. Even in the height of the wet season you will still get the occasional spell of good weather but it is less reliable. When we visited Kep, during the rainy season, it wasn’t ideal beach weather for us but it didn’t stop any of the locals. The sea will be rougher during the wet season and with less clear waters.
All the negativity now out the way, we really enjoyed visiting Kep in the wet season. The paddy fields on the drive down were verdant green, the air was cooler and the heat less oppressive. The national park was blooming and gorgeous and the famous Kep Crab Market, busy as it was, was much less crowded than it would have been in the height of the high season.
If you are looking for a beach break then the dry season is the obvious choice, but if you’re in Cambodia during the wet months, don’t write off Kep, it is still gorgeous.
Kep National Park - where is it, opening times and ticket prices
Location: Kep National Park rises up across the hills behind the seaside town. Set in amongst the hills that surround the peninsula, Kep National Park has two entrances / exits. To get into the park you will have to enter here, this is where the ticket booth and car park are. You can either exit the same way you came in, by doubling back along the same path or come out via this backroad here.
Ticket prices: It costs $1 entry each for foreigners to enter the park. It is free for Cambodian nationals.
Opening times: The park is open from 8.00am until 18.00pm everyday.
When we visited the National Park there was nothing to stop you coming in from the back entrance, there was a small booth but (at least in the wet season) it was unattended. However, we wouldn’t recommend trying to dodge the ticket price. Go in the proper way and support the park!
Parking in Kep
If you’re driving yourself by scooter, parking is abundant and easy in Kep. All along the seafront there are places to pull over and park up. Just beware that some of the seafront parking spaces (usually close to stalls with chairs) will require you to buy something from them.
Kep National Park has plenty of spaces to park if you want to explore on foot, just outside of the main ticket booth is a large car park.
At the Kep Crab Market, it may look chaotic but if you’re on a bike it's not too hard to find a parking space. In the main car park, to the right of the market if you are facing the sea, there is a dedicated motorbike park with attendant. It cost us $0.50 to park here and have the bike looked after whilst we had our seafood feast.
For those driving by car, parking is more limited but still possible. There are car parks at the market, the beach and the national park. Just be warned they can get very busy, especially on weekends and public holidays.
Kep Crab Market - A quick guide to ordering. All you need to know!
Where is the Kep Crab Market?
Kep’s famous crab market is located 1.6km west of the main beach and hub of Kep, just around the peninsula. It is an easy day trip from the traveller hub of Kampot which is 27km away (about 30 - 40 minutes drive).
You can find Kep Crab Market on a map here.
When is the Kep Crab Market open?
The Kep Crab Market is open every day from 5am until 5:30pm with some of the more ‘formal’ restaurants being open later.
The market opens when the overnight fishermen come in and deliver their haul. For those very experienced in haggling you can actually buy the catch straight off of the boat!
Buying seafood
On the ocean facing side of the market you will find all of the “raw ingredients” for your meal - the seafood sellers. Explore these aisles and negotiate prices for what you want to buy. Do not take the first offer!
We spent $8 in total for half a kilogram of crab and half a kilogram of large prawns. We were quoted a range of prices before settling on the $8 per kilo / $4 per half figure, our first shop was offering more than double that price! We’re sure you can haggle better than us, let us know in the comments.
Getting your seafood cooked
Now you have your seafood it's time to get it cooked. The stall you bought it from will almost certainly be able to cook it for you, just check what sauce you want and know that it's not rude or a problem to take your seafood elsewhere.
Our stall didn’t offer Kampot pepper sauce so we went a couple of stalls down until we found one that did. If you’ve bought your seafood already, the cost of having it cooked should be very low. We paid $2.50 for all our seafood to be prepared, fried and cooked with a pepper sauce.
Another option at Kep Crab Market - sweet, spicy, chilli sauce prawns!
Also note that you can choose how your food is cooked along with what sauce you want. You can have the seafood boiled, steamed or fried.
For grilled foods, head into the market where there are dozens of barbecue stalls that will either grill something you bring them or sell you something fresh off the barbecue.
Kep market is a fresh seafood market and so the food you buy should still be alive. Be aware of this if you are squeamish.
Some stalls on the market were unloading frozen produce. If you’ve come all this way to eat fresh seafood, make sure you’re buying it fresh! You can see the difference in the stalls, the fresh are served either live or over ice. The frozen are unloaded in blocks of ice.
Side dishes and accompaniments
Now you’ve got your steaming box of seafood, make your way deeper into the market. Here you’ll find stalls selling all sorts of grilled food, along with cooked rice, vegetable merchants and sauces shops. Just haggle your way through, picking up anything you may need.
Where to eat your seafood feast in the Kep Crab Market?
Head down to any of the drinks vendors and you’ll see they have tables set up ready for you to use. Just buy drinks or desserts from them and they will sort you out for napkins, and in our case, finger bowls to clean yourself up with.
Voila, a seafood feast like no other! Do not miss out on this in Kep, you may never eat better for such a little amount of money.
Other dining options - Nearby restaurants
Lining the coast and stretching nearly all the way to Kep beach are more formal restaurants. If you are looking for a more refined setting to enjoy a seafood banquet (maybe even involving air conditioning!) then there are loads of sit-down restaurants to choose from.
You will be paying a premium for eating at one of these sea-side eateries and wont be picking your produce fresh from the market, but if you want a little more refinement they would be a good choice.
Guided tours of Kep
You can easily arrange a guided tour of Kep from your accommodation in Kampot, just speak with the staff at reception.
If you would like to book an experience in advance, have a look at Get Your Guide who offer top rated tours in the area. check out the widget below for what they offer:
Accommodation - Where to stay in Kep?
As a holiday seaside resort there are plenty of places to stay if you want a longer stay or have a beach break in Kep.
Check out our handy map below to see all the accommodation on offer:
Staying near Kep - The traveller town of Kampot
Just up the road from Kep is the backpacker and travel hub of Kampot. It is a much larger town and an easy drive from Kep. Kampot is full of cafes, bars hotels and hostels as well as loads of great restaurants and things to do.
Check out our articles on Kampot for more of the highlights:
We stayed at the fantastic Karma Traders hostel in Kampot and can highly recommend you do the same. To have a look or book your stay, click here.
Is Kep worth visiting?
Absolutely! If you’re already travelling around southern Cambodia you should not miss Kep. Even if it's not the season for beaches, the seafood alone and natural beauty make it worth the visit. We loved our time in Kep!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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Karma Traders - The Best Hostel in Kampot
Hostels can be a backpacker's best friend or worst enemy. A great hostel is a hub for travellers exploring and making the most of a new place. Karma Traders of Kampot is a perfect example of an amazing hostel. Social and fun whilst being relaxed and unforced, read our article to find out why a four day stay turned into a weeklong love affair!
Let us tell you about Karma Traders Hostel of Kampot - A good hostel is a valuable thing, it is your base, hub and homeroom for your travels. A hostel can make or break a trip, so choosing the best hostel is important. For us budget backpackers it can be a hard choice picking between hostels, hotels and guesthouses, especially if you are a little past your three-am clubbing days! You want social and fun but no vomit in the corridors, you want comfy beds but at a good price, most of all you want a great launch pad into an area. Karma Traders of Kampot was all of the above and more.
Our oasis in Kampot - Karma Traders
The town of Kampot is a magnet for backpackers, digital nomads, expats and travellers from all over world. With gorgeous national parks, the beaches and seafood of Kep close by, and loads of things to do and see, it is a natural hub for southern Cambodia. There are plenty of places to stay in Kampot but we loved our time at Karma Traders. We were not bribed or asked to write this article, we just think you should know about what may be, the best hostel in Cambodia!
Karma Traders is the hostel other hostels want to be when they grow up. Neat comfortable dorms, excellent private rooms, a swimming pool and rooftop bar and restaurant. Every aspect of hostel life has been thought about and honed.
We checked in for four days and wound up staying for eight - Read on to find out why!
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links. Please note that we have not been asked to, incentivised or otherwise given anything to write this article, we just had an amazing time at Karma Traders and wanted to share it with you!
Where is Kampot and the Karma Traders Hostel?
Kampot town or Krong Kampot is right down in the south of Cambodia. The capital of Phnom Penh is three hours to the north of Kampot and the historic city of Siem Reap (check out our guide to the town here and the amazing ruins of Angkor here) is thirteen hours away by bus. Set a little way inland along the Preaek Tuek Chhu river, Kampot is a relaxed, small city popular with backpackers, nomads and expats alike.
Overflowing with chilled out vibes, dining choices and nearby attractions, Kampot is a common stop on most Cambodian travel itineraries. Located only a short 40 minute drive from the seaside resort town of Kep with other beaches nearby as well as national parks and Bokor hill, Kampot is a great hub for exploring an interesting corner of Cambodia.
The town of Kampot itself has loads to offer. From museums and famous statues to markets, bars and brunch spots there is plenty to see, do, eat and drink. Kampot’s French colonial history is on display everywhere, from the distinctive architecture of the buildings to the French restaurants scattered throughout town.
For our complete guide to the town make sure you read our article:
As we said above, Kampot has long been popular with digital nomads, backpackers and expats. This has disadvantages: it is hardly an undiscovered gem, Kampot is firmly “on the beaten path” and some of the downtown bars are decidedly seedy. However, there are advantages: wherever there are backpackers and digital nomads there will also be coffee and brunch. Kampot has loads of gorgeous cafe’s, restaurants and eateries and is a great place to treat yourself and take a break from Cambodian cuisine.
The stylish and excellent Cafe Espresso Roastery in Kampot - Their bagels are amazing!
Karma Traders is a little way out of town, but still within walking distance of the shops, cafes and bars of Kampot. The hostel is a five minute drive or 15-20 minute walk from the downtown area, close enough that it is no effort to walk in for a breakfast whilst being secluded enough to still feel like an oasis. You can find the hostel here on a map.
Staying at Karma Traders - The Rooms
Despite being very budget conscious long term backpackers, we usually go for private rooms wherever we go. This apparent splurge is for many reasons, the most basic being, surprisingly, economy. Two beds in a dorm is usually around the same price or sometimes even more expensive than one private double bed. Also, if we have a private place to retreat to we will generally spend less time and money in cafes and bars! Another reason for private rooms is that, no matter how we sometimes act, we are not 18 any more! We love people and chatting with fellow travellers but do not love forced sharing of personal space or not being able to detach at the end of a day. We like company but love being able to go back to our own space at the end of the night. Given all of that, it should come as no surprise that we opted for a private room.
Private Rooms at Karma Traders
The private rooms at Karma traders were fantastic. Large rooms with comfy double beds, plenty of pillows with a powerful air-conditioning unit and a separate remote controlled fan. We had a kettle for emergency pot noodles, a dresser for admiring ourselves, a large hanger for our clothes and, probably most importantly, a private bathroom.
The bathroom was your standard South East Asian wet room with a western toilet and a power shower. It was not one of those boiler showers you have to turn on and wait fifteen minutes for it to charge up, you just switched the power on and showered away. This is especially important when there are two of you - John has had to have many a cold shower in the past after princess had taken all the hot water. Another small bonus of the private rooms is that you get towels included in the price.
The private room we stayed in was in one of the out buildings surrounding the pool. It was quiet and really well insulated - we hardly ever needed to use the aircon, even in the muggy heat of the wet season. Other private rooms are set in converted shipping containers around the pool area.
Our quiet outbuilding and comfy private room at Karma Traders
We visited in the low season and the private rooms were very well priced at $14.00 a night for the “deluxe double”. You could have got a slightly smaller double room about $1.00 a night cheaper. The price will vary in other seasons.
To book a room at Karma Traders click here
Dorm Rooms at Karma Traders
First things first, as should be obvious from the above - We did not stay in the dorms! However, we did have a look them and spoke with some fellow travellers. The beds (bunk beds) were large and comfy and came with personal fans and plug sockets. Each dorm has air-conditioning as well as the personal fans. There are lockers all around to secure your personal property and there are always staff around.
The shared bathrooms can get busy and suffer from some of the traditional problems of hostel bathrooms (lack of privacy and getting a little worse for wear after busy nights in the bar) but were regularly cleaned. If you stay in a dorm you either need to use your own towel or rent one from reception with a $5 deposit.
The major upside of the dorm’s according to those we spoke to, was the social conviviality they gave. Most of the groups in the bar upstairs, or leaving on trips from the lobby, had been formed in the dorms.
The beds come in two forms, there are the traditional bunk beds with a curtain and more self contained “pods”. The pods offer more privacy than the bunks but cost a little bit more. The traditional dorm beds are housed in one of the outer buildings converted out of shipping containers.
As we have said we cannot really give you a proper review of the dorms as we didn’t sleep a night in them and we are usually biased towards private rooms. If you have a group of buddies you are travelling with or are a solo traveller looking to make some friends, a dorm makes a lot of sense. If you do stay in the Karma Traders dorms let us know how it went in the comments!
Dorms at Karma Traders cost around $3.5 - $5.00 depending on dorm size, season and bed / pod.
You can book your bed in a dorm room here
Facilities at Karma Traders - What is at the hostel?
Karma Traders had loads to keep us occupied whilst we were based in Kampot. There is a large pool and funky pool bar outside. This got less use from us than it deserved as we were visiting in the heart of the wet season and were getting drenched enough without even entering the swimming pool. We would love to go back in the dry season as the pool and pool bar would be great for lounging around in the sun. There are small lawns and other chill out areas outside and even a slack-line, for those with better balance than us!
The pool and outside bar would be brilliant in the drier months!
On the middle floor of the main building is the first “common room” with comfy chairs , board games, a balcony and an ever popular ping-pong table. On this and the ground floor are some of the hostel’s dorm rooms.
Above the first common room was the rooftop, which served as bar, restaurant and hub for the whole hostel. Open on all sides with views towards the mountains and the town, the rooftop has chairs and benches scattered around. This was where we spent most of our evenings. The rooftop was the hostels heart and soul, it was where everyone met, mingled and munched.
We often came up to the roof just to relax or catch up on a bit of writing.
The rooftop restaurant was one of the best bits of the hostel and we spoiled ourselves with their food on multiple occasions. Kampot has excellent food options throughout the town. There are plenty of traditional cheap Cambodian offerings as well as a wealth of great western food in Kampot. It was encouraging therefore, for us to see that the Karma Trader’s restaurant was at least as popular for take-away and deliveries as it was for dine in!
The restaurant is open all day serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. They serve a mix of Cambodian, Asian and Western dishes. They are all reasonably priced and everything we ate there was delicious. We feel bad for recommending it when there are so many great Cambodian dishes, but their carbonara was excellent! Their breakfast dishes were also stand out and are served all day for those rising late. The Cambodian sweet grilled pork and rice made for a great, filling and cheap start to the day.
The food at Karma Traders was fantastic - Just look at those mozzerlla sticks!
The restaurant / bar on the roof top holds events throughout the week. As we stayed in Karma Traders for a full week we got to join in with all of them. We had a great open mic night, involving some fantastic Radiohead covers. There was a cocktail and live music night, a pub quiz and, best of all, there was ‘Taco Tuesdays’. Again, we feel bad that, in a country with as great a cuisine as Cambodia, in a town with the culinary reputation of Kampot, we are recommending Tex-Mex... Just believe us that they are so good that we couldn’t let you miss out. Also there is only so much lok-lac, borbor and kuy teav, we could enjoy without having a little Western break.
All set up and ready for open mic night. We did not volunteer our voices…
The bar also has a sundowner happy hour. Where draft beer drops to $0.75 and there are discounts on the cocktails. Cambodia is very cheap for beer even without the happy hour but it did give that extra reason to come up and enjoy the rooftop sunset views!
Beer and tactics at happy hour
The vibe in the bar was, like the rest of Karma Traders, social without being forced. People were there to hang out, chill, drink, eat or all of the above. It never felt like “forced fun”. We are not the most outgoing people in the world and we still found ourselves falling into conversation and drinks with strangers. It was our ideal level of sociability, chilled but fun, relaxed and inclusive without being intrusive.
The bar at Karma Traders was always one of the busiest in Kampot.
Services and Rentals at Karma Traders
Tours and Trips
Karma Traders can arrange any kind of tour or trip you may want in the Kampot and Kep areas. From the national park to the beach, the pepper fields to the salt farms they can organise drivers and tours to get you about.
There is loads to do in and around Kampot. We would highly recommend a trip to the Kep crab market for an amazing lunch. You also shouldn’t miss out on the eerie beauty of the abandoned catholic church on top of Bokor Hill in the nearby monkey-filled national park.
Make sure you read our guides to both of these days out :
You can organise a driver for this with the hostel or just rent a scooter and do it all yourselves. Speaking of which…
Scooter Rental from Karma Traders
You can rent a scooter at Karma Traders for $5.00 a day. We shopped around and couldn't get a better price than this from the nearby rental places (it almost seemed like it was the standard price). You will have to leave your passport with reception as a deposit and top up the petrol yourselves.
We had an absolute blast riding around Kampot, Kep and the national parks on our little scooter. However, we would say take them for a test drive before setting off for a day out. We had 2x scooters before finally getting one without issues. The first scooter we rented had issues with the front brake (the one you don’t need right up until you really do!) and the second scooter’s engine cut out if you accelerated too hard, which was a delight when trying to get across an intersection! Our third scooter however was perfect, we called it Goldilocks.
This scooter was not Goldilocks….
We have said it before and will say it again, if you can learn to ride a scooter confidently you should. The backpacking experience is completely different and massively better if you can ride a scooter. You are not reliant on tour guides, taxi apps or chauffeurs and tuk-tuks, everything is your decision and you can literally go anywhere.
All praise for scootering aside, don’t be an idiot. Do not ride, especially in Cambodia, if you are not confident. You are a danger to yourself and others. Make sure you have a helmet that fits and don't give in to peer pressure if you are not confident on the roads. Even if your whole dorm is renting scooters, you can always tag along with a rented driver!
Remember in Cambodia, if it is bigger than you or louder than you, then it has right of way!
If you want to see what kind of tours you can do in and around Kampot or want to book your activities in advance, check out GetYourGuide who offer the best tours in the area.
Transport to or from Kampot
Karma Traders was also really useful for booking our onward travel. For the same price we had seen online, they organised our bus transfer to Phnom Penh. This included a pickup from the hostel and transfer to the bus station which was very convenient!
One of Kampot’s glamorous bus services.
You can arrange bus transfers pretty much anywhere within Cambodia as well as internationally to Thailand, Laos or Vietnam, the lovely receptionists will help you get it sorted.
For those who want to get things booked in advance or are travelling at busy times and worried about buses booking up - We recommend 12Go . Using 12GO you can book from anywhere to anywhere so you can plan out your backpacking trip and have your transport sorted ahead of time.
Getting to Kampot:
Getting from Kampot, where to go next?
Kampot is well connected to the other major Cambodian cities and tourist hubs. Buses leave for Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap and many other places throughout the day. Just check with the reception or online at 12Go for exact timings.
Kampot is a great stop on any Cambodia backpacking adventure. For ideas on where to go next, make sure you check out our Cambodia itineraries here.
Other Services at Karma Traders
There is a laundry service at Karma traders. You can drop off your dirty clothes at reception and pick them up when they are sparkly and clean (ok maybe not sparkly unless your really into sequins). As with most hostels, laundry will cost a little more than doing it yourself or going to a laundrette. If you are in a dorm it may be that you have to use the service, but in a private room there was plenty of space to wash and dry our clothes. All the local shops sell little packets of laundry soap / detergent.
There is also a very useful mini shop next to the reception. If you need toothpaste, soap, pot noodles or paracetamol it has you covered at reasonable prices.
Finally, it is not a service but a bonus from staying at Karma Traders - The animals! Karma traders has some gorgeous hostel pets. Whilst we were there we made friends with a heavily pregnant cat (so there will be kittens soon!) and the lovely hostel dog, Peaches. Peaches was always around, either outside seeing people off on their days adventure or, in the evening, chilling with everyone in the bar. Peaches was lovely!
Hostel pups and pusses are always a great addition!
Our time at Karma Traders - thoughts from two long term backpackers
In short - we loved it.
In long - We really loved it..
Joking aside, we do not often write whole articles just about an individual accommodation. In fact (at time of writing) we have only done so once before - Roy’s amazing hostel in Sri Lanka. We have been backpacking a long time now and hostels as good as Karma Traders or Roys are rare.
We have not been asked to write this, or paid or anything. We didn't tell Karma Traders we were going to write this and the only time we mentioned that we were bloggers was after we had all had a few too many drinks. I don't think they would remember who we are! We have not been incentivised to write this at all. We just really loved it there.
You get a free t-shirt if you stay for seven days!
The staff at Karma traders were great, from the chilled out bartenders, who always had change for our awkwardly large notes, to the receptionist who helped sort our janky bikes out. The owners could frequently be found in the bar upstairs and were hilarious, full of amazing travel stories and tips for the local area.
The clientele of Karma Traders was a great mix. There were backpackers of all ages from fresh faced eighteen year olds on their gap years, to veteran travellers and couples in the midst of worldwide adventures. The various events in the rooftop bar drew in people from other hostels as well as expat residents of the town, Taco Tuesday really was legendary throughout Kampot!
We visited Cambodia and Kampot in the middle of a very wet rainy season.
Rainy season is appropriately named.
We had a couple of days of near constant storms and were so glad to have a lovely hostel to chill out in. The rooftop restaurant / bar / common area was a great place to hang out, eat some delicious meals and play some games. When the weather allowed we could just zoom off on our scooter and explore, knowing we had a comfy crash pad waiting for us back at the hostel. As a long term backpacking / travel couple it is so nice to have a good place to stay, it takes away a lot of the stress of permanent travelling and allows you just to enjoy where you are.
Karma Traders was the perfect blend of social and private, fun and practical. The hostel provided all the tools we needed to create our own adventure and have an amazing time in the surrounding area. Karma Traders was the perfect base to explore Kampot and gave us a comfy bed and cold beer to come back to at the end of the day.
We cannot recommend Karma Traders enough. Kampot has many accommodation choices and we cannot speak for other options, but when we return, we will be staying at Karma Traders.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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The Backpackers Guide To Kampot
Kampot is a favourite amongst backpackers. The town is full of cafes, great hostels and plenty of things to do including the famous pepper farms, the riverside waterparks, Bokor National Park and the beaches of Kep. Read our complete backpacking guide including where to stay, what to do, where to eat and drink. As well as how to get to Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville by bus.
The small Cambodian town of Kampot is a favourite amongst backpackers and travellers. Boasting fantastic hostels, plenty of things to do and lots of cute cafes to unwind in, Kampot has everything a backpacker could want.
Kampot is one of those towns that seem to be a vortex. The type of backpacker town where you'll plan to just stay a few days and see all the sights, but suddenly you look up and realise a week has gone by. Kampot is one of those places where time just disappears.
Located in the south of Cambodia, the town of Kampot is the perfect place to base yourself for some outdoor exploration. With the Praek Tuek Chhu river flowing right through the town, the green forests of Bokor National Park rising up above and the coastal town of Kep only a short drive away.
Read on to find out why Kampot should be added to any Cambodian backpackers itinerary!
In this backpackers travel guide:
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
How to get to Kampot
Kampot is very well connected with easy bus links to all of the main traveller hubs of Cambodia. There are direct buses to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang, Sihanoukville and lots more.
Click here to book your bus tickets via 12Go
Depending on the distance, how many travellers are booked to travel on that specific day and which company you choose, it can change what type of bus you’ll arrive on. Throughout Cambodia it can range from minivans all the way up to sleeper buses.
We took a very comfy overnight bus from Siem Reap and arrived in time for an early morning breakfast in Kampot. We travelled with Giant Ibis and had a very comfy, double bed seat, blanket and pillow.
If you are booking a sleeper bus ticket, be aware that the seats are sometimes double bed seats. If you don’t want to share a very snuggly double bed with a stranger, make sure you book a single seat or find a friend you’d be willing to cuddle up to.
We luckily didn’t have this problem, but be aware if you’re a solo traveller.
If you prefer to travel via train, there is currently only one train serving Kampot Train Station. Leaving at 7am everyday from the capital Phnom Penh and arriving around 10.40am into Kampot. To book tickets for this train, head to the railway station in Phnom Penh. Once you arrive at Kampot Train Station it's around a ten minute drive into the centre of town.
The nearest airport to Kampot is Phnom Penh International Airport. From there, you will need to arrange a taxi, bus or train transfer to Kampot itself. Check out 12Go for your options here.
Where to stay in Kampot?
There are plenty of hostels to choose from in Kampot, from town centre properties to hostels right on the river's edge.
Karma Traders Hostel
(location)
We stayed at the fantastic Karma Traders Hostel located just outside of town. The hostel was everything we could have hoped for, with a very comfy private room with double bed and en-suite, a rooftop restaurant and bar, friendly staff, lots of common areas to relax in and even a pool.
The atmosphere at Karma Traders was extremely relaxed, yet still sociable with the staff holding plenty of events throughout the week to bring everyone together.
Another big bonus of staying at Karma Traders was the hostel dog Peaches, who was utterly adorable and loved lots of cuddles. If the photo below of Peaches doesn’t sell you a stay here, we don’t know what will!
The incredibly cute Peaches the dog!
Book your stay at Karma Traders here!
We loved Karma Traders so much we’ve written a full blog on our stay, read more below.
Other Kampot hostels
Some other popular hostels in Kampot are the Onederz Hostel (location) located in the centre of town. This hostel offers a swimming pool, private and dorm rooms, a restaurant and working areas. Book your stay at Onederz Hostel here!
Another super popular stay amongst backpackers is the famous Arcadia Backpackers Hostel (location). Set on the banks of the Praek Tuek Chhu river, this social, party hostel offers dorms and private rooms, barbecues, hammocks and late night parties. The main draw to staying here though, is Arcadia’s riverside water park with rope swings, inflatables and a slide! Book your stay at the Arcadia Backpackers hostel here!
If you’re a dog lover, then don’t miss staying at the High Tide hostel (location). This hostel / dog rescue sanctuary offers dorms, a comfy common room area right on the banks of the river, an on-site restaurant and bar and as well as lots of dogs to cuddle! The dogs at the hostel have all been rescued from the streets in and around Kampot and now call the hostel their home. Book your stay at High Tide hostel here!
To take a look at all the hostels on offer in Kampot, use the hostelworld search form below:
If you’re travelling in high season make sure to book your accommodation well in advance of arriving as rooms and beds will sell out quickly.
Getting around in Kampot?
Kampot is easily walkable with the main tourist hub focused along the riverfront itself and the nearby streets. If you’re staying in a hostel in the centre of town, you can easily walk to the cafes, restaurants and riverfront from your accommodation.
If you need to get further afield, then you can easily hail a tuk tuk or remorque (bigger, traditional Cambodian tuk tuk that can easily seat four passengers) from the street. Just remember to negotiate and agree on your price before you set off.
To by-pass any negotiation and to have the price set in place before you set off, we’d recommend downloading and using Grab and PassApp. By using these apps, you can remove any hassle when negotiating for a good price, as well as following your route on your phone so that you know the driver is taking you to the correct place.
To use the Grab and Pass apps you will need a Cambodian SIM card.
You can either buy one in person in Cambodia itself, or to make things easier and have data as soon as you arrive, check out the eSIMS available from Airalo.
If you’re staying in one of the hostels outside of town such as High Tide or Arcadia Backpackers, you will need to hire a tuk tuk or remorque to get you about.
To hire a driver for the day, we’d recommend speaking to the staff at your accommodation who will be able to organise a driver for you. Just let them know where you want to go, how many people there will be and how long you want to be out. The more people in your group, the cheaper it will be.
Scooter rental
The most fun way to explore some of the sites further afield, such as Bokor National Park or Kep, is by hiring your own scooter. There are plenty of scooter rental places in town and all the hostels will be able to offer this service.
We hired a 125cc scooter from our hostel Karma Traders for $5 a day.
If you do hire a scooter, make sure you’re a confident driver. The Cambodian roads are very chaotic with trucks, tractors and tuk tuks coming at you from all directions.
Before you set off, test the bike and make sure you have enough helmets for both you and your passenger.
There are plenty of petrol stations in and around town so you shouldn’t have any problem with filling your scooter up.
The best cafes and restaurants in Kampot
Western fare - brunches, coffee and smoothies
Epic Arts Cafe
(location)
This cute cafe is open from breakfast to late afternoon and is always super popular. Serving everything from paninis and bagels, porridge to eggs and amok curry to salads. We can highly recommend their vanilla cheesecake. They also serve up excellent carrot cake, and our fellow travellers at Karma Traders were split as to whether they preferred the cheesecake or carrot cake. We were in camp cheesecake and thought it was possibly the best cheesecake we’ve eaten on our travels so far!
The delicious cheesecake from the Epic Arts Cafe!
The cafe is part of a NGO offering jobs, education and training to young Cambodian’s with disabilities. You can learn more about the work or make a donation to the Epic Arts charity here.
We visited numerous times on our week-long stay here and always had great food and coffee. Plus it doesn’t feel bad having an extra slice of cake if you know you’re supporting a good cause.
There is also a small shop upstairs selling crafts and trinkets. The cafe frequently puts on shows and performances featuring local talents.
Sunrise Cafe
(location)
We arrived in Kampot after an eight hour overnight bus journey from Siem Reap.
Waking abruptly from our bumpy slumber as our bus pulled to a stop, we groggily threw on our backpacks and headed into town. In our sleepy state, we desperately needed food and caffeine. It was coming up to 7.30am and there was barely another sole on the streets. Trudging on, we feared our breakfast quest may be in vain, but that was all to change when we stumbled upon the Sunrise Cafe.
Scanning the menu, there was a single word on the menu that stood out to us…bacon!
Two bacon, egg and cheese rolls were presented to us along with two hot americanos and our faces immediately lit up. It’s been a while since we’ve had a bacon roll for breakfast and this roll certainly didn’t disappoint!
Sunrise Cafe offers a small menu of Western and Cambodian breakfast favourites, including a ‘Full English’ breakfast, toasties and even fresh baked sausage rolls along with Cambodian chicken rice and noodle soups.
The meat and cheese are all imported, so if you’re after some home comforts, then make sure you don’t miss dining here. Good bacon is rare in Southeast Asia so get it while you can!
Blend House Cafe & Zen House Yoga
(location)
Located down the very small Kampot Alleyway (a hip new collection of bars and shops), this cafe and yoga studio has some of the best food on offer in Kampot. Serving delicious smoothie bowls, bagels, coffee and cake. The staff are super friendly and if you’re vegan, they have lots of different options on the menu.
Upstairs, there is a yoga studio offering daily classes - more on this later.
Cafe Espresso Roastery
(location)
This cafe wins the award for Jellie’s favourite breakfast / brunch spot in Kampot!
Cafe Espresso Roastery is set in an old warehouse with an aesthetic of modern meets industrial vintage; with lots of wood, metal and antiques all thrown together with the odd Cambodian twist added in.
The cafe has a great menu offering breakfast sandwiches, bigger breakfasts, wraps, pancakes and burgers. Before placing your order, make sure to check out their specials board which were offering Greek gyros when we visited.
We always ordered two of their bagels and two flat whites. As soon as the bagels arrived for the first time, we knew we had made a great decision! Bagels are one of those tricky bread types that, when they are done right, they are done really right.
The bagels served at the Cafe Espresso Roastery were done perfect. Crunchy yet chewy and topped with sesame seeds, they were so tasty, we could easily have just eaten the bagel plain, that is until we tried the cream cheese filling! The cream cheese was amazing, sharp yet creamy, it was layered in thick mounds on top our bagel. Underneath the cream cheese layer came a genius move. A thin layer of vinegary sliced gherkins which gave an incredible sour kick against the creamy cheese filling.
Alongside the bagel we were given a ramekin of their delicious chilli jam, salt and the all important Kampot pepper. It really was the perfect breakfast, sweet, sour, salty all in one bite. It was so good we ended up having the bagels on more than one occasion!
The flat whites were everything we hoped them to be. Strong, rich and full of flavour, it was a delicious coffee, and definitely the best we had in the whole of Cambodia. We also loved the small sesame tuile served with the coffee.
If you enjoy the coffee as much as we did, you can also buy the beans straight from the cafe itself. As the name suggests the cafe roasts its own coffee. You can see the roasters as you enter at the front of the cafe.
Make sure you head here if you want a delicious breakfast and a good coffee!
Jean Coffee and Bakery
(location)
Located just off the durian roundabout, this small coffee shop serves excellent coffee and French pastries. We stopped by for a quick breakfast of an iced latte and a chocolate croissant and it was just the ticket to set us up for a full day of exploring
Mama Chicken
(location)
The smell of roasting chicken in the air drew us in like moths to a flame, Mama Chicken sold us with the smell alone.
Mama Chicken offers just two things on the menu. Rotisserie chicken and potatoes. Now if you’ve never tried the deliciousness that is a rotisserie chicken then you’re really missing out.
We ordered two plates of a quarter chicken and potatoes and what was presented to us was huge! A mammoth leg of chicken sat next to a small mountain of potatoes.
Simplicity at its best - if you like you’re grilled chicken, don’t miss Mama Chicken in Kampot town!
Mama Chicken has added a Cambodian flair to the roasting of its chicken, by adding lime leaf which gave the chicken a citrus kick. It was a little surprising on our first bite but by the end we were converted.
We challenge you to tell us, is there anything better than juicy chicken and potatoes?
You can order a quarter, half or even full size chicken. Make sure you get there early in the day as we passed by late one afternoon and she was already packed up after selling out.
Karma Traders
(location)
We’re probably a little biassed as this was where we were staying, but honestly Karma Traders serves up some excellent munch.
From breakfast to dinner, the rooftop restaurant and bar dishes up some brilliant food including a traditional Khmer breakfast of grilled pork and rice, delicious mac and cheese and tasty nachos as well as all the favourites of fried rice and noodles.
If you’re in town make sure you don’t miss out on their Sunday burger and quiz night or the very popular ‘Taco Tuesdays’. If you’re planning to dine on one of their ‘special’ nights make sure you head up to the bar early to grab a seat as it can get very busy. Once the tacos have sold out, that’s it!
‘Taco Tuesdays’ at Karma Traders is popular for a reason!
For a cheap sundowner drink with a view over the mountains of Bokor National Park, head to the bar between 17.00pm and 19.00pm for happy hour.
Local food - fried noodles, rice, salads and grilled meat
Ecran Noodles (Kampot Branch)
(location)
Set a few doors down from the Old Bridge, Ecran Noodles is a small restaurant specialising in all things noodles and dumplings. You can choose to have fried noodles, noodle soup with dumplings, dumpling soup or fried dumplings.
We ordered two of the pork dumpling noodle soup and out came two steaming bowls of comfort! On top of the soup sat five plump dumplings, alongside pak choi, spring onions and noodles. The soup was rich and full of garlic but still light enough not to overpower. The dumplings were perfectly moist inside with a great porky, chive filling.
If you’re up early, make sure you check out their morning deals to pick up a cheap bowl of dumplings and a soft drink!
Market stalls and Kampot’s Night Market
Spiralling out from the ‘Big Durian’ roundabout (location) along all the streets are plenty of market stalls and small restaurants selling local dishes. From fried noodles and rice, rice and curry to barbecued meats and papaya salads. Whatever you fancy, you can easily find it. On the northern edge of the roundabout, you can find Kampot's night market (location). Selling everything from clothing to children’s toys, there are also a few food stalls inside.
Fried noodles, the backpacker staple!
If nothing on the durian roundabout takes your fancy, there are plenty of stalls on the street opposite the Old Bridge as well as in front of the hospital on the riverfront.
We had an excellent beef fried noodle topped with a runny egg from one of these stalls and it was hearty and filling. Make sure you add some of the Kampot pepper, found on every table, to pimp your dish to the next level!
What to do in Kampot?
Now you’ve finished cafe hopping, let us tell you what else is there to do in and around Kampot!
Activities in and around Kampot town
The famous seahorse statue and the riverfront
The most famous attraction on the riverfront is Kampot’s seahorse statue (location). The pink statue stands tall above the waters of the Praek Tuek Chhu river and shoots water through its nose back into the river.
According to news sources online, the designers of the seahorse had likened the design to that of Singapore’s famous Merlion statues! Although the backdrop isn’t quite that of the glass-fronted buildings of Singapore, the seahorse is worth a quick stop.
The famous seahorse statue of Kampot!
The seahorse statue seemed to be a big draw for local tourists, as whatever time of day we passed, the area was always full of Cambodian snapping photos! At night and during the weekends, a lot of small stalls set up selling trinkets, drinks and snacks.
After the seahorse statue, head north, back along the riverfront to take a look at the Old Bridge (location). A leftover relic from the colonial French days, the bridge is now almost always full of scooters and motorcyclists crossing over the river. The bridge has somewhat disintegrated since the French were in town, and multiple different repairs have created a mismatch of a bridge with what appears to be three separate bridges all stuck together.
The mismatch of the Old Bridge in Kampot - the scooter drivers crossing were braver than us!
Kampot’s riverfront is currently undergoing a lot of renovation work, and the area after the Old Bridge looks as though they’re trying to create a riverside “beach” area. During the day it’s very quiet, but during the evening and on the weekends, the beach becomes super popular with locals having picnics and paddling in the water.
There are plenty of cafes and restaurants lining the riverfront as well as market stalls selling fried dishes, snacks and drinks. For those backpackers that can’t live without their cheese and ham toastie there’s a 7-11 store and for those who like more milk than coffee, there’s a riverfront Starbucks!
Lotus pond
(location)
Just behind the riverfront and seahorse statue is a huge pond covered in lotus flowers and lily pads. There’s a circular path that circumnavigates the whole pond and a couple of footbridges you can cross to small islands.
We visited during the wet season on an overcast day so there were very few flowers out, but we can imagine on clearer days it would be a beautiful sight!
Take a sunset boat ride along the river
During the dry season, one of the most popular things to do in Kampot is to take a sunset boat cruise along the river. If you’re lucky you should get a spectacular sunset as the sun dips behind the mountains of Bokor National Park.
The boat trips depart every evening from near the Old Bridge and most boat trips will include a bar on board and snacks.
Once the sun sets you may even get a chance at seeing some fireflies! On our first trip to Cambodia we had an incredible evening watching the sides of the river bank light up with a covering of shimmering lights.
Canoe, kayak and paddleboard on the river
One of the most popular activities in Kampot is kayaking around the Green Loop. This small river loop of around 3 km takes around an hour or so to complete and is a relaxing way (depending on how fast you paddle) to see the river. The Green Loop is also known as the Green Cathedral due to a natural green tunnel that covers the river, created by the mangrove and trees intertwining together. To book a kayak trip, check out Kampot Adventure Tours or speak with your hostel.
If stand up paddleboarding is more your thing, then take a look at SUP Asia to book a session.
Spend a day at the Arcadia waterpark
(location)
Even if you’re not staying at the Arcadia Backpackers hostel, you can still spend a day enjoying their riverside water park facilities. With inflatables, slides, rope swings and kayaks there’s plenty of things to keep you occupied for a full day of riverside adventures.
Arcadia’s restaurant and bar serves food and drinks all day and has a view right over the waterpark.
Entry to the waterpark for non hostel residents costs $7.
Learn to kiteboard
The coast of Kampot creates a unique wind system which is ideal for kiteboarding. With two wind seasons operating throughout the year, you can learn to kiteboard almost all year round.
If you’re new to the sport, the Cambodia Kite Boarding offers introductory and beginner classes. If you’re already a pro at it, you can join one of their advanced classes or rent the gear directly from them.
To learn more about the courses on offer, check out their website here.
Take a yoga class
On the complete opposite end of the scale from kiteboarding, why not attend a yoga session during your stay in Kampot? There are plenty of yoga classes on offer, here are a few suggestions.
The most popular yoga class for backpackers is held at the Zen House Yoga. Offering different yoga classes throughout the week, they offer a morning backpacker package for $10 which includes a yoga class, a smoothie bowl and coffee or freshly squeezed juice after the class in the Blend House Cafe downstairs. Check out their Instagram page here for more information.
Another popular class is held at the Monkey Republic Yoga Studio. A group class costs $6 and there is no need to pre-register your interest, just turn up before the class. Check out their website here for more information on their classes. Monkey Republic also offers private classes as well as hostel rooms and a restaurant. To book a room at Monkey Republic, click here.
A little further out of town is the Yoga Barn Kampot. The Yoga Barn offers two yoga group classes a day costing $7 a class. If you’re staying longer in Kampot and want to do multiple classes, ask about their class passes. Check out their website here for their timetable of classes. The Yoga Barn also offers longer yoga retreats.
Visit one of Kampot’s world famous pepper farms
Kampot may be a popular destination in the Southeast Asian backpacking scene, but did you know Kampot holds another famous boast?
In the culinary world, Kampot is famous and renowned for its pepper! The peppercorns are so important, that like champagne and parmesan cheese, they were given Geographical Indication status. They were the first Cambodian product to gain this accolade.
You can visit any one of the pepper farms surrounding the town to learn all about how they grow, plant and harvest the pepper as well as getting the chance to try some of the famous floral peppercorns yourself.
Just ask your hostel for recommendations. Most packaged hostel tours will include a stop at a pepper farm.
Visit Kampot’s salt fields
Every year from the end of the wet season until December, saltwater from the sea is allowed to seep in and flood Kampot’s salt fields. This saltwater is then left to evaporate in the hot sun of the dry season. The salt is then harvested and sold throughout Cambodia and beyond.
The best times to see the salt fields are during the dry season where the fields are flooded and you can see the salt being harvested. If you’re visiting during this time, make sure you head to the fields at sunset to see the reflections of the sky in the waters of the salt fields.
During the wet season the fields are left uncultivated, so if you’re visiting between May to October we wouldn’t recommend a trip.
Again speak with your hostel to arrange a trip. Most of the ‘package’ trips will include a salt farm visit.
Bokor National Park
(location)
Visible from the whole town, the hills and mountains of Bokor National Park rise up against the horizon. A well maintained road winds its way up through the park all the way to the top to what can only be described as some strange ‘Fallout-esq’ scenery. Once a hill station for the French colonialists and then taken over by the Khmer Rouge, a lot of the hotels and buildings were left to ruin. Wreathed in mist, these abandoned buildings have been joined more recently by modern ruins, half-finished enormous hulks of pre-COVID development left abandoned and unfinished.
Bokor National Park is also home to the famous abandoned Catholic Church that has become an icon of the area. There are also plenty of waterfalls, viewpoints and wild animals to spot.
If you are driving a scooter, just be wary of the huge packs of macaque monkeys that line the roads. The baby monkeys are especially prone to running and darting out in front of you!
We’ve written a whole article on our day trip to Bokor National Park with all the information you need, check out our guide below.
A day trip to Kep
A short forty minute drive away from Kampot lies the coastal town of Kep (location). The town is most famous for its blue swimmer crabs (there’s even a statue commemorating these small crustaceans) and a lunch at Kep’s Crab Market is a must do! Full of stalls selling the freshest of seafood, including the famous crabs, you can order a seafood bounty for very cheap and have it cooked there and then for you.
After you’ve eaten your seafood feast, head to Kep’s National Park for incredible coastal views and, if you’re lucky, the chance to spot a hornbill!
We had a fantastic day out in Kep, eating our way through a mountain of cheap seafood and exploring the national park. You can read all about our day below.
Other things to do in and around Kampot
Take a cooking class to learn all about Khmer cuisine. Check out Lucky Kitchen and Kampot Seafood and Pepper to see what cooking classes they have on offer.
Visit one of the caves dotted in and around Kampot. The most popular caves to visit are Phnom Chhngok Cave, Phnom Kbal Romeas Cave and the Phnom Sorsia Caves.
Push yourself to new heights with a climbing lesson with Climbodia.
Unwind and relax with a spa and thermal experience at the Nibi Spa.
If the weather permits, why not visit the tropical island of Koh Tonsay (also known as Rabbit Island) located 4km off the coast of Kep.
Booking a guided tour around Kampot
Wherever you’re staying, you’ll easily be able to arrange a tour with the staff at your hostel. Just speak with the staff at reception and let them know what you would like to do. At Karma Traders they had a remorque driver who could ferry you around for a whole day.
If you are hiring a driver for the day, try and get a group together beforehand. This will not only make it a more fun trip, but to also make things cheaper for you as you pay for the remorque not per passenger!
If you’d prefer to have everything arranged in advance, why not book a tour through Get Your Guide. Check out the widget below to see what tours are available in Kampot:
How long should I stay in Kampot?
We’d recommend booking at least a four night stay in Kampot. It’s the kind of place you can just slow down in. There’s plenty of things to do and it’s easy to spend an afternoon just relaxing with a book in one of the many cafes.
We’d recommend spending at least two days exploring further a field in Kep and Bokor National Park and then spending the rest of your time around Kampot, relaxing in the cafes or by the riverside.
When to visit Kampot?
Cambodia has two seasons. The dry season that runs between November and April and the wet season that runs between May to October. During the dry season you can expect sunny days and high temperatures. The wet season, you’ve guessed it, brings with it a lot of rain.
The best time to visit Kampot and to enjoy all the river based activities would be during the dry season. Be aware though that as it is the high season for tourism you will need to book your accommodation and transfers well in advance as things can get booked up very quickly. Also the national park, Kep Crab Market and all the tours and activities will be much busier.
If you are in Kampot during the wet season do not fear, there’s still plenty of things to do, plus you’ll have the advantage that, as it's the low season, prices will be cheaper. This brings us nicely onto…
Kampot in the rainy season - is it worth visiting?
Absolutely! We spent a week in the height of the rainy season and still had a fantastic time. At the start we had three full days of solid rain, but it didn't dampen our spirits. We just spent our time relaxing with our other travellers at Karma Traders or enjoying the cafes of Kampot.
After three days of solid rain, we managed to get out and about on the scooter and had an amazing time exploring Bokor National Park followed by another day in Kep. It did rain on these two days, but it was almost always in the early evening once we had returned. If it did rain that day, it would be a short but very heavy rainstorm that would disappear as quickly as it arrived.
When it rains, it rains!
If you are visiting in the rainy season just make sure you are a little more flexible with your plans, check the weather and pack a wet coat with you. In the days where it rained constantly a lot of the roads in town became flooded. This wasn’t a problem if you were on a scooter or tuk tuk as you could get through but just meant that you had to do some detours if you were walking on foot. The floods didn’t last long and disappeared overnight.
Leaving Kampot - where to go next?
As with every travel story, there’s always an end to a chapter. Suddenly it's time to pack up, haul your backpack on your back and head on to your next destination. From Kampot, it’s easy to book onwards travel to pretty much anywhere in Cambodia.
As you’re already in the south of the country, the next logical stops would either be north to the bustling capital of Phnom Penh, or west to Sihanoukville to catch the ferry to the island of Koh Rong.
Book Kampot to Phnom Penh bus tickets here.
Book Kampot to Koh Rong bus tickets here.
Book Kampot to Siem Reap bus tickets here.
If you’re at the end of your Cambodian visa or need to head to your next country, you can easily book bus tickets to get you across the border to either Vietnam or Thailand.
Vietnam bus tickets:
Book bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh here.
Book bus tickets to the island of Phu Quoc here.
Book bus tickets to Can Tho and the Mekong Delta here.
Thailand bus tickets:
Book bus tickets to Bangkok via the Poipet border here.
Just some of the places you can reach by bus from Kampot!
Cambodia itineraries
If you’re looking for inspiration on where to go next, check out our one week, two week and one month travel itineraries here.
Final thoughts - is Kampot worth a stay?
We absolutely loved our time in Kampot and definitely feel it's worth a longer stay. Kampot is the perfect place to relax and soak up the laid-back vibes of the town. It’s one of those places where it's totally fine to do nothing all day whilst at the same time rewarding those who go out and explore. Kampot had an ideal mix for us of comfort and adventure. We could spend the day biking through abandoned churches, passing monkey troupes and vertical views but end the evening eating delicious mac and cheese whilst drinking cheap, ice cold beer! It was, for long term backpackers, just what we needed
We have visited Kampot twice now and are already planning a third visit.
Kampot you were great and we cannot wait to come back again!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
Read all out other Kampot guides:
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Essentials for your Backpacking Trip
Before you set off on any backpacking adventure, it is absolutely necessary that you have sorted out all the essentials before you depart.
With all the excitement of planning your trip, it's easy to overlook some important (but dull) things!
Travel Insurance
Before you even board your plane, make sure you have travel insurance setup and in place for the whole of your trip. Healthcare abroad can be extremely expensive and should, you ever need it during your travels, you want to make sure you have the best!
Check out SafetyWing who offer travel insurance policies to long-term travellers and digital nomads.
SIM cards and mobile data
Mobile data is essential to modern backpacking. As soon as you land in a new country you’ll need to be connected to the internet. We’d recommend getting an eSIM setup in advance with Airalo.
VPN
Once you’re online you’ll need to protect yourself from dodgy internet connections and phishing scams. We’d always recommend you use a virtual private network - VPN such as Surfshark.
A VPN will also mean you can still watch Netflix whilst away!
Booking Accommodation
You’ll always need somewhere to rest your head at the end of a day. We’d recommend booking stays on either booking.com, agoda, or hostelworld.
During the high season make sure to book well in advance as popular hostels will sell out quickly!
Booking Transport
To get around you’ll need to book transport on the fly and in advance. We’d recommend using 12Go to book bus, train and ferry tickets.
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The Complete Travel Guide to Siem Reap - What To Do, Where To Stay And What To Eat In The City?
Beyond the temples of Angkor the city of Siem Reap offers tons of things to do. From backpacker friendly beer prices and excellent restaurants to silly mini-golf courses and epic museums, Siem Reap has loads to offer any traveller. Come with us as we share our complete guide to Cambodia's second city.
If you’re planning a trip to Cambodia, it’s an absolute certainty that you’ll have at least a night or two staying in Siem Reap. This small city is Cambodia’s second largest and is home to the country's most popular tourist attraction, Angkor Wat and the wider Angkor archaeological park. But what should you not miss out on in Siem Reap? What else is there besides the famous ruins?
Siem Reap has everything any traveller could want, from budget and luxury accommodation, great restaurants, a lively nightlife scene and plenty of things to do. The city is full of French-colonial buildings mixed with Chinese style shop fronts, that spiral out from the popular nightlife spot of ‘Pub Street’ and the Old Market.
We spent nearly a fortnight in Siem Reap and could easily have spent longer. This is our guide to everything you need to know about visiting the vibrant and artistic Cambodian city of Siem Reap.
In this travel guide:
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
How to get to Siem Reap
Siem Reap is extremely well connected with transport links all over Cambodia and further beyond, with bus and air links to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
If you are already travelling within Cambodia, there are plenty of bus operators that will connect you to Siem Reap. You can get to the city from the tourist hubs of Phnom Penh, Kampot, Sihanoukville (gateway to the islands of Koh Rong), Battambang and Kampong Cham. We’d recommend booking bus tickets through 12Go.
Book your Siem Reap bus tickets here.
We arrived in Siem Reap after a brilliant few days in Battambang. We booked two tickets with Go Ho Travel who shuttled us between the two cities.
For those backpacking around South East Asia, there are direct bus links to Siem Reap from Bangkok in Thailand and Vientiane in Laos.
If you’re looking to fly into Cambodia, Siem Reap’s International Airport has flight connections to all the major cities within Southeast Asia. Book your flights to Siem Reap using the widget below.
For those travelling to Cambodia from further afield, such as Europe, the Middle East or Australia, you’ll almost certainly arrive in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. From Phnom Penh’s International Airport you will need to book a bus or taxi transfer to get you to Siem Reap. From the airport it’s just over a five hour drive. Book your transfers to Siem Reap here.
Where to stay in Siem Reap
Being the main tourist hub of Cambodia, there’s no shortage of accommodation in Siem Reap. With everything on offer from dorm rooms to high-end, luxury hotels, there’s something for everyone. Most of the accommodation is located within walking distance of the riverfront, close to the restaurants and cafes of the Old Market and Pub Street.
Hostel recommendations
If you’re backpacking, Siem Reap has plenty of hostels to choose from.
For more social hostels we’d recommend checking out Onederz Hostel with their rooftop pool, cheap cafe and comfy rooms. Mad Monkey if you’re after party vibes and legendary pub crawls along Pub Street or the Lub-D hostel with their swim up bar and epic tours.
If you’re looking for a hostel with more chilled out vibes and want to leave the partying to Pub Street, then why not check out the White Rabbit Hostel with their Alice and Wonderland themed decor and large pool, or the Darling Pub Hostel with an on-site restaurant, pool and great common area.
Mid-range accommodation
If you’re not one for hostels, but aren’t looking to break the bank with a ritzy stay, then there are plenty of guesthouses and mid-range hotels to suit you.
We had an excellent stay at the Rithy Rine Angkor Residence that was just a 5 minute walk from ‘Pub Street’ and local restaurants. The room came with a huge four-poster bed, en-suite bathroom, balcony and a pool.
Our fancy four-poster bed in the Rithy Rine hotel!
On our first trip to Siem Reap we also had a fantastic stay at the Angkor Leap Hotel which had a huge, comfy double bed, balcony and small pool to use.
Luxury hotels
If you are looking for some luxury and are wanting to make your stay in Siem Reap as opulent as possible, then there are many high-end hotels to choose from. Why not take a look at the Eightfold Urban Resort with their modern decor, swimming pool and garden, or the Anansaya La Maison which boasts comfy rooms, an outdoor pool and spa centre.
There’s also the Lynnaya Urban River Resort Hotel that’s located in the heart of Siem Reap and offers two restaurants on site. There is also the Mane Village Suites, a small hotel located a few kms away from the centre of Siem Reap which offers a rooftop bar, on-site restaurant and outdoor pool. For a spot of super luxury make sure to check out the Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor located next door to the Angkor National Museum.
All Siem Reap accommodation
To have a look at all the accommodation choices available in Siem Reap and to book your Siem Reap stay, check out the map below:
Getting around in Siem Reap
Despite being Cambodia’s second largest city, Siem Reap still retains that small town vibe. If you’re staying close to Pub Street, then everything you could possibly want (cafes, restaurants, shops and bars) are all within walking distance of you. To get further afield, such as the Angkor temple complex or the botanical gardens you will need to hire a taxi. This is super easy as wherever you are in the city, you’re never far from a remorque driver. In fact, you’ll only need to leave the entrance of your accommodation and we are certain it’ll be less than a minute before you’re asked whether you need a ride!
For those new to Cambodia and have absolutely no idea what a remorque is, then let us tell you. The remorque is Cambodia’s traditional tuk tuk. Take a motorbike, strap a carriage to the back like a cart and voila, you have the Cambodian remorque! They’re super comfy and can easily sit four adults in the back.
A traditional remorque spotted on the streets of Phnom Penh!
You can arrange a remorque driver for the day or just to take you on a single journey anywhere in the city. The easiest way to arrange a remorque if you shudder at the thought of negotiating prices, is to request a ride via the Grab or the PassApp.
To use the Grab app you will need a Cambodian sim. If you would like to arrange this in advance of landing, we’d recommend checking out the Cambodian eSim packages on Airalo.
If you’re after a smaller ride, there’s also plenty of tuk tuks available in the city, and similarly if you require air conditioning and a comfy seat, then taxi cars are plentiful. Again both these options can be requested online via Grab or PassApp.
For backpackers like us, the easiest way to get around the city is by hiring a scooter for your stay. We hired a 125cc Honda Zoomer for the week at $7 USD a day and it was by far the most fun and more enjoyable way to see the city! Zooming through one of the ancient gateways of Angkor with the wind in our hair and more and more ruins on either side of us will be one of those great memories we’ll always remember!
Let us know in the comments if you can think of a better way to get around the Angkor complex!
If you are planning to hire a scooter, just remember to negotiate the price, check the bike before you set off and always request a helmet for both you and your passenger.
The roads in and around Siem Reap are well maintained but they can get busy in the early morning / evening and during the school kick out time.
If you’re an avid cyclist, then almost all of the accommodation, as well as every travel agency in town, will have bicycles for you to hire. There is even a cycle pathway that circumnavigates the whole Angkor archaeological park for those with serious stamina!
What to do in Siem Reap
There is plenty to do in Siem Reap, read on to find out how to fill your time in the city!
Angkor Wat and the Angkor Archaeological Park
Angkor Wat and the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor are almost certainly the reason why you’ve booked a trip to Siem Reap in the first place. These humongous ruins are a wonder of the world and are deservedly Cambodia's most famous and most popular tourist attraction. The Hindu-Buddhist temple complex of Angkor is massive, with over 1000 ancient structures hidden away under the thick Cambodian jungle.
To visit the park, you will need to purchase an Angkor Pass. The passes can be bought online or in person at the ticket office. You can opt to buy a one day pass ($37 USD a ticket), a three day pass ($62 USD a ticket) or a seven day pass ($72 USD a ticket).
Smiles all round outside the magnificent Angkor Wat!
If you only have a day make sure you don’t miss sunrise at Angkor Wat, the vine ridden Ta Prohm Temple (also known as the Tomb Raider Temple) and the Bayon Temple with its many carved faces.
The temple site is vast and there is so much to see and do. We’ve covered everything you could possibly ever want to know about visiting the park in our bumper Angkor Temple Guide. In it we cover the history of Angkor, which Angkor ticket pass to buy, opening times of the park, which temples to see, what not to miss as well as different itineraries depending on how long you have in Siem Reap. Read our complete guide here:
Angkor Botanical Garden
The Angkor Botanical Garden (location) was a complete surprise to us. The garden was so much bigger than we expected but still had that ‘secret garden’ feel where every section is completely different from the next. It wasn’t very busy when we visited, so it was easy to escape the small crowds and have a slice of the garden all to ourselves.
The garden was full of colourful flowers, swaying grasses, huge butterflies, ponds, fountains and even a hobbit hole!
No admittance except on party business!
Unlike other botanical gardens we’ve visited recently, the Angkor Botanical still had that cottage garden feel, where everything is just starting to grow, rather than being cut and grown into perfectly manicured lawns and hedgerows. It was the chaotic, colourful style that we just love.
We spent a good hour and a half wandering through and getting lost amongst the different gardens, feeling as though we had the whole garden to ourselves.
Make sure you don’t miss the mini petting zoo at the end of the garden, with its friendly ostriches (especially if you have some food to feed them), fluffy bunnies and monkeys! There’s also a huge pond full of bright orange and black koi carp.
The monkeys at Angkor Botanical gardens are not really part of a “petting zoo” they are part of a conservation and reintroduction project.
Ticket price: Entry to the Angkor Botanical Garden is completely free.
At the entrance to the gardens, instead of a ticket price, the staff will ask you to give them a follow and a like on their social media pages, (Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok) and ask that if you take any photos / videos you tag them in your content.
If you’re travelling to the garden by scooter like we were, there is parking available opposite the entrance to the garden. To park here, it costs just 1000 riel ($0.25 USD). Just pull up, take your parking ticket and pay the guy when you leave.
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday from 8am until 6pm. The gardens are closed on Monday’s.
Apopo Visitor Centre - the ‘Hero Rats’ of Cambodia
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear little harnesses! Let us introduce you to the ‘Hero Rats’ of Cambodia and the excellent work of the Apopo Centre (location).
With specialist training, African Giant Pouched Rats are trained to sniff out TNT and are then flown to Cambodia and all over the world to help clear unexploded ordinance and landmines. In Cambodia alone, it is estimated that there are between 4 to 6 million unexploded munitions, landmines and ordinance. Leftover from the end of the war, these dangerous time bombs still litter the countryside.
When they are put to work, the hero rats at the Apopo Centre are strapped to little harnesses attached to lines and use their supersonic smell to clear an area the size of a tennis court in just under 30 minutes. In Cambodia, so far they have cleared over 100 million square metres of land!
For many, an afternoon with rats would be the thing of nightmares, but we had a fantastic hour or so at the centre.There is a small visitor centre and museum, as well as a cafe and shop on site. During the tour, we learnt all about how they trained the rats, how they operate in the field and even got to meet the very cute Valerie!
Ticket price: To take a tour and learn more about the work of Apopo, it will cost $10 per person. You can book online in advance or book onto a tour when you arrive at the centre.
Opening times: The visitor centre is open every day from 8.30am to 5.00pm. The last tour will start at 4.30pm.
To learn more about the fantastic work of the Apopo Centre or to make a donation (or even adopt a rat), check out their website here.
Angkor National Museum
Just a short drive from downtown Siem Reap lies the Angkor National Museum (location). Set in a huge modern building, the museum is split into different galleries. Each different area covers every aspect of the Khmer civilisation. The museum is stuffed full of beautiful statuary, stone carvings and religious artefacts found at the ancient city of Angkor.
We’d recommend visiting the museum before you head to the Angkor archaeological park to learn as much as you can about Khmer history before seeing the ruins themselves. The museum is huge and is perfect to fill a morning or afternoon.
For those who are keen to stretch their legs, instead of taking a taxi, you can take a very pleasant walk from the Old Market to the museum. The walk follows the riverfront and through the Royal Independence Gardens. In the gardens make sure you look up at the trees as they are home to a colony of Fruit Bats. From the gardens, it’s just a short 5 minute walk to the entrance of the museum.
Ticket price: Entry to the museum costs $12 USD per person. If you’d like an audio guide, it costs $5 USD.
Opening times: The museum is open everyday from 8.30am until 6.00pm.
Angkor Wat Putt
If you’re after a fun-filled activity that’s not entirely ruin based, then make sure you head to the Angkor Wat Putt mini golf course (location).
We had a very funny afternoon putting our way across the 14 holes of this crazy golf course. As you can guess by the name of the golf course, the owner has gone full Angkor theme with mini replicas of the temples acting as holes.
The mini Angkor temples were very cute!
We had a great afternoon shooting balls all over the garden, missing holes and generally realising that we’re not natural golfers.
For a giggle make sure you check out the Instagram reel below! Let’s just say John’s face sums up our golfing skills.
Ticket price: One round of golf (14 holes) costs $5 USD per person including golf club, ball and score sheet.
There’s also a free beer on offer if you get a hole in one! Although there was no fear from the owner that he’d have to give up his supplies when he saw our deplorable skills.
Opening times: Angkor Wat Putt is open everyday from 8.00am until 20.00pm.
Art galleries of Siem Reap
Siem Reap is a haven for artists and the city is full of galleries to unwind in after a busy day of temple hopping.
The most popular gallery is Theam’s Gallery (location), which is set in a traditional wooden house and is surrounded by a beautiful garden. The gallery is full of intricate wooden statuary, carved stone and paintings. It’s well worth a visit, even if it's just for the tranquil settings!
Another great gallery is the River Gallery (location) set a short walk from Pub Street. This small gallery showcases colourful pieces of art from the talented youth of Siem Reap. The paintings are incredible and it's great to see such talented young artists being recognised and showcased.
The two galleries above are just the most popular ones in the city, but there are plenty of others to choose from. If you’re into art then just Google ‘art gallery’ in Siem Reap and you’ll soon realise you’re never far from one.
Cafe hop in the heart of Siem Reap
During the day, the streets surrounding Pub Street are full to the brim with backpackers and travellers taking a well earned break with a Flat White in hand and a plate of avocado toast. There are so many cute cafes to choose from it would be impossible to visit them all.
We will go into more detail about some of our favourite cafes in the ‘where to eat’ section of this guide later on, but let's just say, if you’re looking for great coffee and sweet treats, Siem Reap is the perfect place to indulge!
We enjoyed many afternoons hopping between the different cafes and enjoying some home comforts.
Go for a drink on Pub Street
Siem Reap’s ‘Pub Street’ (location) is the Cambodian equivalent to Thailand’s Khao San Road or London’s Soho district. Full of bars and nightclubs, it's the best place to head to if you’re wanting a drink. From sundown to sunrise, the street transforms itself into the “go to” place for late night revellers.
Pub Street lights up in a rainbow of colours as night falls!
Even if you’re not a night owl and not into late nights, we’d recommend having at least one drink on the famous street. We’d advise heading there just as the sun starts to set, to have a cheap sundowner drink. Pub Street is a great place to sit and just watch the world go by plus, for backpackers, the beer is extremely cheap!
We’ll go into more detail about the best bars and clubs to drink in later on in this article.
Shop for trinkets in the markets of Siem Reap
If you’re after gifts to take back home or are in the market for a new pair of some colourful ‘elephant pants’ then Siem Reap will have you covered.
For your everyday tourist trinkets, we’d recommend heading down to the stalls at the Old Market (location). Selling everything from “definitely not fake’ football shirts to colourful purses, the Old Market is the perfect place to practice your bargaining skills. Our only advice is to barter, barter, barter! We were told that a small bracelet was going to cost us $10 USD as it was definitely “handmade” but after some negotiation we had gotten the seller down to $2 USD. The stalls at the Old Market all seem to sell the same trinkets, but it’s worth getting lost down the narrow, filled alleys of the market and having an afternoon shopping.
If you’re after more unique and handmade gifts then definitely check out the Made in Cambodia Market (location) which is full of local artists and their crafts. Like a magpie drawn to the sparkles, John had to steer Ellie away from purchasing a whole new set of jewellery!
Visit Wat Preah Prom Rath
As you look south east from Pub Street, you’ll see the gold tipped spires rising up from the roof of Wat Preah Prom Rath Temple (location). Sitting opposite the riverfront, this beautiful Buddhist temple complex is full of red and gold stupas, Buddhist statues and shrines all set within a pretty garden. Inside the temple there is a small reclining Buddha draped in orange cloth and lots more Buddhist statues.
As it is a temple, if you do plan to visit make sure you dress appropriately! Please keep your shoulders and knees covered and definitely no crop tops.
Angkor Miniatures
If you thought the Angkor temple complex was too large, then why not come to see its “mini-me”!
The Angkor Miniatures (location) was one of those strange places we’ve found ourselves in on our travels, one of those attractions you think “how the hell did we get here?”.
From its name we were super excited, mini models of the temples of Angkor, yes please! Maybe we went in with too big expectations, but as we quickly went around the very small garden (possibly no bigger than the size of a hotel room), we realised that the Angkor Miniatures was a much more mini experience.
A very mini Angkor Wat!
There is one large, stone diorama of Angkor Wat and then to be honest there’s not much more. There are a few statues and stone carvings that were supposedly crafted by the guy, but look a bit like they’ve been lifted from the ancient site itself. There are also a couple of other stone renditions of famous Angkorian temples scattered around.
We enjoyed our time there, but felt that it was a little too expensive for what it was ($2 USD entry each), and can’t really recommend it, but if you’re into stone carving, or miniatures are your thing, then go for it, who are we to judge?
The Killing Fields of Siem Reap (Genocide Museum)
As with the whole of Cambodia, Siem Reap didn’t escape the terrifying atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. Set in a beautiful monastery complex, with orange clad monks walking around the golden stupas, it’s hard to comprehend the horrors that took place here in the Killing Fields of Siem Reap (location).
The museum weaves its way through the temple buildings with photos and first hand narratives describing the extreme brutality of what happened there.
As with a lot of the historical Khmer Rouge sites it’s not a happy place to visit, but unfortunately, it’s a part of history that has shaped Cambodia today.
Despite the fields being the location of such savage and barbaric violence, the monastery grounds today are peaceful and serene.
It’s not an easy visit, but one that everyone should do to learn more about Cambodia’s dark past.
Ticket price: Entry to the museum costs $3 USD per ticket.
Opening times: The museum is open everyday from 7.00am until 18.00pm.
The War Museum of Cambodia
A short fifteen minute drive away from downtown Siem Reap lies the War Museum of Cambodia (location). This small museum houses military weaponry, tanks, helicopters, rockets and mines used during the Cambodian Civil War.
Instead of being placed neatly in glass cabinets, the museum has that feeling that the locals have just found the war relics in the local forest and placed them in piles for everyone to see.
The larger exhibits (tanks, helicopters etc) are set in the garden and have been almost left to the elements. There’s something disturbingly pretty about the rusted orange remains of a large tank sat in amongst a vibrant green leafed garden. The relics almost feel as though they’ve just been left there since the war ended.
If you’re into military history, or you just want to hold a gun, then the War Museum is worth a trip.
Ticket price: A ticket to the war museum costs $5 USD. There is also the option to have a guided tour around the site itself.
Opening times: The museum is open everyday from 8.00am until 17.30pm.
Visit Tonle Sap lake and the floating villages
Lying south of Siem Reap is the enormous Tonle Sap lake (location). The lake itself is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and during the year changes the direction of its water flow. During the wet season, the water flows into the lake, but during the dry season this reverses, and the water flows back into the Mekong River. The lake is home to around 80,000 people and is an extremely important freshwater ecosystem.
The stilted houses on Tonle Sap lake in the wet season are only accessible by boat!
We didn’t visit Tonle Sap this time. On our previous trip to Cambodia we had a fantastic boat trip to the lake. Our little boat drove down through one of the narrow waterways leading to Tonle Sap, around one of the floating villages and onto the vast lake itself. We visited just before the sun went down and were treated to a spectacular sunset across the water. It was a great boat trip and one we’ll always remember.
Many of the 80,000 people who call Tonle Sap home live on what’s known as one of the lake's floating villages. Large, wooden stilts are driven into the lake bed, and on top, wooden houses are built. When the lake is flooded during the wet season, the locals would step out their houses and get around by boat. However, once the waters dry up during the dry season they have to descend down from their stilted houses to get to the water. It was incredible to see, one of our favourite things we saw that day was a floating pig pen!
Just a couple of pigs floating on Tonle Sap lake!
There are plenty of tour operators offering a tour of Tonle Sap in Siem Reap, just shop around to get a good price.
If you’d like to stay the night close to the water's edge of Tonle Sap, then why not look at booking a room at ST 63 Home Stay & Tour Kampong Khleang. This small guesthouse is set in a small floating village, in a traditional stilted house. The guesthouse has great views over the lake and a small restaurant onsite cooking traditional Cambodian cuisine.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of reports of scams and extra charges on some trips to the lake and floating villages. It’s a real shame this is the case as Tonle Sap is incredible.
If you are booking a trip to the lake, make sure you shop around, check the reviews online and confirm all costs before heading out.
Also be aware of fake “charity” plenty of people are taken to a shop on the lake where they “buy rice for the children” only to be hugely overcharged in a high pressure sale. This is sadly a scam capitalising on your good nature, do not fall for it!
Don't let these issues put you off, Tonle Sap is incredible, just be aware and do your research.
Sunset at Phnom Kraom viewpoint and night market
North of Tonle Sap, rises Phnom Kraom (location). As the only hill visible for miles around, it sticks out like a sore thumb against the flat rice paddy fields and the reflecting water of Tonle Sap.
To visit the very top of the hill and the ruins of Phnom Kraom you will need a Angkor Pass (more on this temple in our full Angkor temple guide which you can read here), however, it’s not just the top that has a great view.
If you don’t have an Angkor Pass you can still drive halfway up the hill and park up to get a magnificent sweeping view over Siem Reap city, the vibrant green paddy fields and Tonle Sap. The viewpoint is extremely popular with local teenagers and every night a small market opens up selling everything from grilled meat to papaya salad.
The paddy fields surrounding Siem Reap are so green in the wet season!
The views from the hill are magnificent and we’d recommend heading here just before sunset to watch the sun go down.
Day trips outside of Siem Reap
If you’re in Siem Reap for a while there’s plenty of day trips and things to do outside of the city.
For those interested in hiking and nature, why not check out Phnom Kulen National Park. This national park is criss-crossed with hiking paths, waterfalls and ancient temples. The national park is also home to the Kbal Spean or the ‘River of a 1000 Lingas’. Carved into the stone that forms the river bed, are thousands of lingas, figures of animals and images of Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma.
If you’ve not had your fill of ancient temples, then north of Phnom Kulen National Park are the ruins of Koh Ker. The ruins of this 10th century temple rise up in a 7 step pyramid of moss covered stone.
Further north than Koh Ker, on the border with Thailand is the incredible Prasat Preah Vihear temple. This ruined UNESCO World Heritage temple sits on top of a cliff with magnificent views out from the top.
To arrange a day trip, just speak with one of the tour operators in town who will be able to arrange a driver and / or guide. We were quoted $50 USD for a driver and car for the whole day, but we’re sure you could negotiate on this price.
If you want to skip the negotiation and book a top rated tour in advance have a look at the tours offered below from Get Your Guide.
Guided tours of Angkor Wat and Siem Reap
Within Siem Reap there are plenty of tour guides who can show you around the main attractions of Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor. Just head to one of the many tour operators and discuss what you’d like to do.
If you’d prefer to arrange everything in advance of arriving, then why not check out the tours on offer with Get Your Guide.
Get Your Guide offers some of the best tours, all of which have been vetted and reviewed by real travellers. Check out what’s on offer in Siem Reap in the widget below:
Where to eat and drink in Siem Reap
Wherever you are in Siem Reap, you’ll never be far from food. Almost every shop front is a different restaurant, and come the evening, there are plenty of street food stalls that pop up all over the city. Whatever time of day, it’s very unlikely you’ll go hungry in Siem Reap, so let us share with you some of our favourite spots to dine in the city!
Cheap eats, local street food and night markets
For backpackers worldwide, budget eats are a must and Siem Reap can easily cater for you and your wallet.
The Old Market (location) just off of Pub Street has a brilliant fresh market inside, selling everything from fresh fruit to cuts of meat. If you’re after a cheap breakfast, we’d recommend heading here early in the morning to grab a bowl of coconutty nom banh chok or a meaty kuy teav. There’s also plenty of rice and curry stalls, grilled meats, fresh fruit and baked goods to pick up for on the go.
The Old Market of Siem Reap is a feast for the senses!
If you’re after another cheap and filling breakfast, then you can’t go wrong with a bowl of borbor, Cambodian rice soup from the Sinorn borbor Monsrae restaurant (location). Cheap, filling and super tasty, what’s not to love. To read more about the best breakfasts in Siem Reap, both local eats and western, then why not check out our full article here!
Another Cambodian comfort dish that’s budget friendly and super filling is a plate of lort cha from the Family Rice Noodle and Chive Cake restaurant (location). Lort cha is a delicious dish made up of stir fried noodles, a sweet, salty sauce, beansprouts, onions, a fried egg and a gooey chive cake to soak up all the goodness! Our mouths are watering just writing this! To read more about the greatness that is lort cha check out our full article here.
If you’re staying within the Pub Street area you’ll pass by lots of different restaurants all with a similar menu and all at a similar price. As creatures of comfort, our local restaurant The Corner Zone (location) became our go to. We had everything from fried noodles to stir fried chicken and ginger and it was all super delicious and comforting. Our favourite dish though was the super cheap $1.25 garlic fried rice. Perfectly cooked rice, studded with deep fried garlic, it was exactly what the doctor ordered the next day after a heavy night on Pub Street!
You can’t beat a plate of fried noodles!
For cheap local street eats, then up and down the riverfront in downtown Siem Reap (location), market stalls open up serving everything from fried rice and noodles to salads. We ate some fantastic fried meals along the riverfront including a very tasty beef pad krapow with a perfectly cooked fried egg on top!
Tip: As you are dining near the river, make sure you top up with lots of bug spray as there are lots of mosquitoes!
Just outside of downtown Siem Reap (a fifteen minute drive away), is the local night market known as Road 60 (location). All along the road, market stalls open up serving everything from grilled meat to ice cold beer. With the smell of grilled meat and smoking barbecues in the air, it’s a great way to spend an evening with the locals in Siem Reap.
If grilled meat and street eats are not your thing, we have to give a shout out to Nick’s Restaurant (location) who served excellent crispy chicken burgers that were super cheap! For just $2 you could get an excellent burger on its own, or for just a little bit more ($4.50) you could pair a burger with a side of your choice and a soft drink. Did we also mention that the restaurant is home to the extremely cute, and extremely friendly Sunny the dog!
For backpackers who just can’t keep away from the neon lights of 7-Eleven (location), fear not you can still get your hands on the forever favourite cheese and ham toastie. Set underneath the X Bar, Siem Reap’s 7-Eleven sells all the Thai favourites and is always packed full with other travellers. Be aware that just because it's selling everything you’d find in a Thai 7-Eleven store, it’s not as cheap as it is in Thailand!
Budget Coffee in Siem Reap
If you need a caffeine fix on a budget, we can highly recommend checking out Ten Ten Cafe Shop (location). This small coffee shop was always full with young Cambodian’s studying or reading and served super tasty coffee at just $1 USD for an iced latte.
Another cheap coffee we drank was from the Nisai Cafe (location). Set on the pavement of a side road opposite the banks of the Siem Reap river, this small coffee shop was more of the makeshift variety.The temporary shop consisted of a bike with an attached coffee machine and camping chairs dotted around on the pavement. The iced latte was super strong, yet nutty and creamy, all for $1.25 USD.
The best cafes in Siem Reap - posh coffee, smoothies and brunch in Siem Reap
If you’ve had your fix of Cambodian food and are looking for some home comforts, then Siem Reap has plenty of insta-worthy brunch spots to sink your teeth into.
The Sister Srey Cafe (location) is a very popular brunch spot and is busy all day.
The cafe serves all your brunch favourites such as avocado toast, corn fritters, french toast and smoothie bowls alongside juices, tea and coffee. If you head there later in the afternoon, we can highly recommend a good old pot of ‘Earl Grey’ tea (we are British after all) and a slice of their coconut, banana bread. The bread was delicious. Super moist with a sweet coconutty and banana flavour. It was served with warm butter and honey which was just the ticket to make it super decadent!
Just next door is the Brownie Temple Bakery and Smoothie Bar (location). Equally popular with backpackers and digital nomads, the Brownie Temple Bakery and Smoothie Bar was another amazing brunch spot. Their smoothie bowls were enormous and full of colourful tropical fruits. They brought a spot of vibrancy against the grey skies of the rainy seasons! We are gutted we never got to try their carrot cake (Ellie’s favourite) which looked moist and full of nuts and cream cheese. Next time Brownie Temple, next time!
A short walk over the river heading away from Pub Street, is the excellent Muffin Man (location) cafe. As you can guess from the name, the Muffin Man specialises in all things muffin but also has a fantastic brunch menu. We had two delicious avocado toasts topped with ham (boy have we missed ham whilst travelling Asia), scrambled egg and feta cheese. It was delicious, and the perfect way to recuperate after a late night on Pub Street. We opted for the ‘full’ plate, but honestly it was massive and we could easily have shared a plate between the two of us. If you’re dining on your own we’d recommend ordering the ‘half’ size plate.
Baked goods, especially French patisseries are extremely hit or miss in Asia and so when you find a great bakery, you become somewhat of a loyal patron. This is exactly what happened to us and the amazing Eric Kayser bakeries (location one, location two).
We picked up two pain au chocolates for a picnic lunch at Angkor and were not disappointed. The pastry was layered perfectly, with crunch on every bite. The chocolate filling was rich and indulgent, but never too sickly.
During the next week we tried everything from the plain croissants, the almond croissants and some of their breads. They also serve eclairs, brownies, sandwiches and tarts as well as coffee and drinks.
The best restaurants in Siem Reap
Whatever cuisine you’re fancying, you’ll almost certainly find a restaurant catering for you. From Mexican to Sri Lankan, Greek to French, Indian to American you won’t fail to find something to munch on in Siem Reap. As is to be expected, the Western restaurant prices are a lot more expensive than the local offerings, but if you’re a backpacker and after some familiar treats, Siem Reap can certainly cater to you.
It was our engagement anniversary and two year travel-versary whilst we were in Siem Reap and we decided we needed to treat ourselves. Dolled up in our only posh dress and shirt (on separate people, we were not attempting avant garde fashion) , we headed out to find pizza. Lost City Pizza Society (location) is set on the opposite banks of the river from Pub Street and serves up some incredible pizzas.
We ordered their ‘Orto’ pizza, a vegetarian pizza full of sweet peppers, olives and red onion which was delicious. Alongside this we chose from their special menu and ordered a ‘Dr Jones’ pizza. This pizza was definitely the star of the show. A super crispy base, topped with creamy mozzarella, fiery jalapenos, peppery peperoni and sweet onions. The crowning glory though, was a whole garlic clove that had been roasted alongside the pizza. This genius move, meant you had roasted garlic paste that you could literally squeeze from the roasted cloves onto each slice. It was heavenly! As it was a celebration we also had some of their ‘Lost City Bubbles’ which was the perfect accompaniment to the pizzas. It’s been a long time since we’ve drank sparkling wine, and gosh have we missed it! If you’re in Siem Reap and a pizza lover, make sure you hit them up. You will not be disappointed.
Another fantastic wood-fired pizza restaurant is Il Forno (location). Serving all your pizza favourites alongside pasta, bruschetta and salads, Il Forno is a great little Italian restaurant. With all their ingredients imported from directly from Italy, both pizzas (a spicy diavolo and a napoli) we shared were delicious. Alongside we had a cheeky Aperol Spritz. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a glass of the orange bubbles and it was just as good as we remember!
If you’re after curry, then Siem Reap has no shortage of Indian restaurants for you to try. We ate a couple of different curries during our time there, but our favourite was definitely from Dakshin’s (location). After spending six months in India, our cravings for a good curry can often get a little out of hand. So, after trying a few different restaurants and not having our cravings fulfilled, Dakshin’s finally scratched our curry itch! We ordered a creamy butter chicken alongside a aloo gobi, two naans and some rice. It was an incredible feast! Both dishes were rich, creamy and perfectly spiced. The tandoor naans were excellent. If you’re after an Indian in Siem Reap then make sure you head here.
One of our favourite dishes and one certainly under-represented world-wide, is the Sri Lankan rice and curry. During our three month stint in Sri Lanka we lived purely off rice and curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We stumbled upon Serendib Srilankan cuisine (location) whilst shopping in the market stalls behind Pub Street and knew we had to pay it a visit. Rice and curry, is literally what it says on the tin. A pile of rice with three to four offerings of curry served alongside it. The lovely lady at Serendib offered us a choice of vegetarian or chicken. We opted for the meat version. Out came a metal tray full to the brim with colourful curries. We had a bright yellow, lentil dahl, a dark purple beetroot curry (one of our favourites from our time in Sri Lanka), a chicken curry, a salad of tomato and onion and a shaved, spicy, coconut dry curry. It was delicious and had all the flavours we had missed from our time in Sri Lanka.
If you’re after more Asian dishes, then we can highly recommend a lunch or dinner at Brother Noodles (location). If anyone knows us, you know that we absolutely love Thai cuisine and especially their noodle soups. Brother Noodles was a Cambodian take on the Thai favourite ‘boat noodles’. Two big bowls of steaming noodles came topped with a dark, chocolate coloured broth, rich with beef, stock and blood. On top sat green onion, thin slices of beef, crispy onions and shallots. We added all the extras to ‘pimp’ our bowl with crispy pork skin, dried red chilli and more herbs to give it some extra oomph! It was a great bowl and felt to us like a hybrid of Thai boat noodles and Vietnamese pho all with a Cambodian twist.
Don’t tell us this doesn’t look good!
Cambodia does hand pulled noodles and dumplings extremely well. During our time in the country we had some fantastic bowls in Battambang, Phnom Penh and in Kampot, Siem Reap was no exception. A little way outside of Siem Reap (over the river, opposite the Old Market) is មីទាខ្វៃសៀមរាប - Siem Reap Roast Duck Noodle (location) which served up delicious bowls of you guessed it, duck noodles! We opted for two bowls of duck noodles with extra dumplings. Out came two steaming bowls full of egg noodles, blood cake, slices and leg of duck, spring onions, crispy garlic and two plump dumplings. The soup was delicate, yet packed with ducky goodness. The dumplings were delicious with a thin wrapper that managed to soak up the soup without becoming soggy. It was ducking good!
Another fantastic noodle joint is the Angkor Hand-Pulled Noodles and Dumplings restaurant (location). Serving as the name suggests noodles and dumplings! We ordered a set of fried chicken dumplings and a plate of fried pork and egg noodles. Both dishes were fantastic. The noodles had the perfect bite, yet could be easily slurped up with the runny egg. The fried dumplings were crispy, yet the interior was still moist and flavourful. The restaurant is located just a short walk from Pub Street.
Nightlife in Siem Reap - where to drink once the sun has gone down
As soon as the sun goes down, Siem Reap comes alive with neon lights, thumping bass, live bands and the calls of ‘happy hour’. The best spot to enjoy a night on the town is at Siem Reap’s famous ‘Pub Street’, a crossroads full of bars, clubs and restaurants open from early evening until sunrise.
There are plenty of bars to choose from, all with similar drink deals, happy hour menus and cocktail offerings. These are some of our favourites.
The best bars and clubs on Pub Street
If you’re after a drink and want to watch the night unfold, the best spot to drink is in one of the four bars that encompass the main crossroads of Pub Street. Our favourite bars were the two Temple Bars (location) which offered cheap beer and comfy seats. For the best view, head upstairs to one of their balcony seats so you can watch the evening unfold from a great vantage point. As the evening goes on, sometime after 10pm drinking here gets extremely cheap with buy one draft beer get another one free. A dangerous offer as the night progresses and one we definitely didn’t take advantage of! If you’re enjoying the Temple bar, they also have a nightclub a short walk away from the crossroads. The nightclub is open until early morning and seems to be the most popular club in town.
Opposite the two Temple bars on the cross road is the Goal Sports Bar (location). A great place if you needed to catch up on the football. We were visiting during the World Cup and they showed all the games on the TV as well as older Premiership games. It was always busy and had great music. They also have a big pool table.
For a more fancier drink, set a little away from the noise and chaos of Pub Street, make sure you check out the Asana Old Wooden House Cocktail Bar (location). Set in a traditional Cambodian house, this cocktail bar serves excellent cocktails in very pretty surroundings. With comfy seats underneath the wooden stilts and seating inside the house, it was a beautiful spot to enjoy a couple of cocktails and some beers. Asana’s cocktail menu is vast, with a very definite Cambodian twist on some cocktail favourites. We enjoyed tasting their Khmer Old Fashioned, a whiskey based cocktail made from black rice and citrus bitters and a Siem Reap Monsoon made from rice spirit, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, mango and green chilli. Both cocktails were delicious.
The X Bar (location) was our go to bar for a big night of drinking and dancing! Set over three floors, the bar has everything you could need. Great DJs, a dance floor, lots of bar games (beer pong, pool table etc), cheap beer and live bands. Upstairs on the rooftop, the bar has a great view over Pub Street. The rooftop also is home to a huge half-pipe that is very popular with Siem Reap teenagers practising their skate-boarding skills. It was a great way to spend an evening whilst sipping on cheap beer. The X Bar is a great bar if you want a mixture of a good bar and club and is definitely our favourite bar in Siem Reap. It’s definitely more of a late night bar and we wouldn’t recommend heading there until way after 10pm as it doesn’t really get going until then.
There aren’t too many bars with a half-pipe on the roof!
If you’re after an LGBT friendly bar, then make sure you head to Barcode Bar (location) located on Little Pub Street close to the river. With live performances and cheap drinks it always looked super busy.
How long should I stay in Siem Reap?
This is always a difficult one to answer and it depends on how long you have in Cambodia. There is so much more to Siem Reap than just the ruins of Angkor Wat and the temple complex. That being said, the Angkor archaeological park warrants a longer stay in Siem Reap as it is incredible! If you can, we’d recommend at least four nights in the city. This would give you enough time to enjoy the temples of Angkor Wat, have a night or two on Pub Street and go see some of the smaller sites in and around the city.
If your schedule permits you can easily spend longer in Siem Reap, the seven day Angkor pass is a great way to space out your temple hopping!
Where to go after Siem Reap
As we mentioned at the start of this article, Siem Reap is extremely well connected and you can pretty much arrange transport to anywhere else in Cambodia.
Most travellers head east to continue their Cambodia adventure to Phnom Penh or to Kampong Cham, but if you’re heading from Cambodia back to Thailand, you could easily head to the Poipet border or to Cambodia’s third largest city - Battambang.
By far the cheapest way to get around in Cambodia is via bus, check out the most popular routes from Siem Reap below.
Siem Reap to Sihanoukville (gateway to the islands of Koh Rong)
When we left, we took a very comfy overnight bus from Siem Reap to Kampot and arrived just in time for breakfast!
Cambodia travel itineraries
For more ideas on where to go after your time in Siem Reap, make sure you check out our one week, two week and one month Cambodia travel itineraries here.
Final thoughts
Siem Reap is one of those perfect cities that has everything any traveller could need. From cheap and cheerful accommodation and street eats, to upscale hotels and western fare.
If you’ve been travelling for a long time, it’s one of those places that you can just unwind in. If you want to eat and drink like the locals you can easily do that, or if you fancy treating yourself, there’s plenty of restaurants and cuisines to choose from.
It goes without saying that if you’re in Cambodia you will be visiting Siem Reap for Angkor Wat and the spectacular ruins. If you can however, and you have the time, stay that little bit longer. Really get to know the city, explore that little bit further and you will have a fantastic time! There is so much more to do than temple hopping, from mini golf to gardens, art to heroic rats you should never run out of things to do in Siem Reap.
Siem Reap is Cambodia's second city but is easily the most popular place for backpackers and tourists. This is for a reason! The ruins of Angkor may have been the catalyst for bringing tourists to town but the city is amazing in its own right. Siem Reap is a fantastic city, diverse and full of flavour and fun. Do not skimp out on time here or miss the opportunity to treat yourself!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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The Complete Guide To Angkor Wat And The Temples Of Siem Reap
Angkor Wat and the temple city surrounding it are wonders of the world. Check out our complete guide to getting the most out of your visit no matter how long you are staying for. With itineraries, hints and tips and all the essential and lesser know temples to visit our blog covers the lot!
The ruins of Angkor are more than just temples, they are the symbol and emblem of Cambodia. If you think of Cambodia, you’re probably thinking of Angkor Wat. It features on the Cambodian flag and currency. Angkor was once a city the same size as downtown LA. It was the largest pre industrial city in the world and home to the biggest religious structures on Earth including the crowning jewel of Angkor Wat. The Angkor archaeological park today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a wonder of the world. Read on for our complete guide to visiting and getting the most out of your time in Siem Reap and the incredible temples of Angkor.
Every child has a dream of stumbling upon jungle covered ruins. Indiana Jones through to Uncharted, Tarzan through to Tomb Raider the image of vine strewn, root cracked ruins taps into something romantic, curious and exciting in our brains. We love exploring ruins just look at Ritigala or the Lion’s Rock Fortress of Sigiriya so, there was no way on our Cambodian adventure we could miss out on the temples of Angkor.
Read on to find out how to plan your temple run and maximise however long you have in Siem Reap and the Angkor area.
In this Angkor guide:
Angkor Pass ticket prices
Where to buy the Angkor Pass
So which Angkor Pass ticket should I buy?
Transport in and around Angkor - How to visit the temples of Angkor Wat
Cycling around Siem Reap
Hiring a private driver - cars and remorques
Hiring a scooter
One day itinerary - Making the most out of a short time at Angkor Wat
Longer stays in Siem Reap - Ideas for a longer stay for Angkor Wat
Tips for visiting Angkor Wat and the Angkor archaeological park
Photos of Angkor Wat - Temples, ruins and incredible history!
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
What is Angkor Wat?
First things first, there is a big difference between Angkor and Angkor Wat. Angkor refers to the Temple City of Angkor, a vast, sprawling, ancient collection of ruins with over a thousand temples that archaeologists now think represents the largest pre-industrial city in the world. At its heart, is the largest religious structure on the planet, the incredible temple of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat can be translated to the Capital of Temples, an apt name for the crowning glory of the incredible Angkor site.
A very brief history of Angkor
The ruined city of temples came to prominence under the Khmer Kings around 800 CE. The city grew and flourished over the next few centuries. The city of Angkor was a wonder of its age and seat of the Khmer Empire. It was possibly the largest city in the world and was the base of the Angkorian period of Khmer exploration and expansion. The city was very advanced for its time with a complex water management system built to normalise and take advantage of the uncertain monsoon rains.
The crown jewel of the capital, the temple of Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II at the start of the 12th century. Designed as a temple mountain, Angkor Wat is built to mirror the Hindu Mount Meru, and its walls are covered in intricate carvings of Hindu Gods, scripture and legend. The whole temple is surrounded by a huge moat and outer wall.
Just look at the carvings! Every inch of Angkor Wat is a treat for the eyes.
The city of Angkor also provides a unique insight in the changing times of the Khmer Empire. Starting as a Hindu site, the whole of the Angkor complex slowly transitioned towards Buddhism over the course of its long life.
You can see where they scratched out the old Hindu iconography.
Evidence of this change is everywhere. With temples having defaced carvings of Hindu Gods and enormous Buddhist statuary being added as later additions.
The change in religion came in the later part of the 12th century when King Jayavarman VII converted to Buddhism under the direction of his favourite wife.
Jayavarman VII wanted to cement the new state religion and moved the “Capital Temple” from Angkor Wat to his newly built Bayon Temple. It’s the face of Jayavarman VII you see looking down from the gates and stupas of the Bayon Temple.
Jayavarman VII is always watching you in Angkor!
As the power of the Khmer Empire waned in the 14th century, its capital in Angkor was invaded, sacked and looted by the Ayutthaya Kingdom from the west. This was the end of Angkor as the capital of the Khmer Empire.
Obviously this is a quick, dirty and very basic overview of an enormous and complicated swathe of history. If you want to read more (and we’d highly recommend you do) check out the Encyclopedia Britannica page here.
Today the Angkor archaeological complex is a huge UNESCO World Heritage Site. With roads, cycle paths and walking trails running between many of the uncovered ruins. Restoration is still happening throughout the site, with satellite imagery revealing more and more hidden treasures every year.
On the left; before restoration, on the right; after!
What the city of Angkor is to us is one of the most beautiful, fascinating and mysterious places we’ve ever visited.
Where is Angkor Wat - How to get to the ruins of Angkor?
The ruins of Angkor are located in Krong Siem Reap. The massive archaeological park sits around 7 km north from the centre of the city of Siem Reap. Siem Reap is Cambodia’s second city and will almost certainly be your base for exploring Angkor. The city is full of great accommodation, food and the famous nightlife of “Pub Street”.
From downtown Siem Reap it will take you around 15 minutes to drive to the archaeological park.
Transport to, from and around the site is up to you. You can drive yourself, hire a driver or even cycle around. More on this later!
The Angkor Pass - Entrance tickets and which ticket to buy?
One of the first decisions you will have to make when arriving in Siem Reap is which ticket to buy. The Angkor Pass is how you access the archaeological park and ruined city. It comes in three versions:
A one day pass - gets you access for, you guessed it, one day.
A three day pass - gives you access three times over a one week period
A seven day pass - allows you to visit the park seven times over a month long period.
The Angkor Pass actually offers a lot of flexibility. Other than the one day pass, they allow you to go in and out of the temple complex, but also let you space out your visits so you don’t get overwhelmed or “templed out”.
When you come into any of the roads surrounding the site, your ticket will be scanned and that will be counted as a day's entrance. You can then go in and out of the site as much as you like, see however many temples you want that day, and spend as long (obviously opening hours dependant - more on this later) as you want in Angkor. This entrance will count as one of your days. When you buy the ticket you will specify a starting date and then, if you have a three day pass you will have seven days to use your three entrances and with the seven day pass you will have a month.
The one day ticket does what it says on the tin. You buy it for the day you want to visit and it will get you full access to the park for one day only. One day passes bought after 5pm will be valid for entry the next day.
All tickets give you access to the full Angkor site including the ruins of the hill to the south of Siem Reap; Phnom Kraom (more on this later) and to Prasat Beng Mealea out to the east.
It’s important to note that the Angkor Pass does not include Koh Ker Temple or the 1000 Lingas of Kbal Spean.
Angkor Pass ticket prices
The cost of Angkor Pass tickets:
One day pass - $37 USD each.
Three day pass - $62 USD each.
Seven day pass - $72 USD each.
A portion of each ticket purchased goes to the upkeep of the archaeological site and a small donation is made to a local charity.
Please be aware that once you have bought your tickets they cannot be refunded or extended. You also cannot transfer a ticket to another person. It will only be valid for you and will have your photograph on it. There are heavy fines if you are found in the park without the correct ticket.
Where to buy the Angkor Pass
The Angkor Pass tickets can be bought online here or in person at the ticket office located here .
The ticket office is open between 5 am and 5:30 pm everyday.
To purchase a ticket online you will need to upload a photograph of yourself. If you buy the tickets in person at the ticket counter, they will do this for you.
If you buy your tickets online, you will need to be able to show them to entrance staff. You can either print them off yourself or download it to your phone.
If you need mobile data and haven’t already sorted a Cambodian SIM card check out eSIMs with Airalo here.
So which Angkor Pass ticket should I buy?
It depends! We know that’s a cop out. Honestly if you are in Siem Reap for over two days, then we would highly recommend buying a three day or above pass. It’s a huge wonderful site and well worth exploring at your leisure. As we’ll say later on in this article, we bought the three day ticket and wished we had bought the seven. If you’re spending a long time in Siem Reap or your Cambodian itinerary loops back through the city, consider buying the seven day pass. For more reasons why you might want to buy the seven day ticket, make sure you read on for our seven day itinerary.
In the Angkor complex you really do need time to explore!
In terms of economy, the seven day pass costs only a little more than the three and only a little more to buy the three than the one day pass. If you buy too little time in Angkor then it costs a lot to buy one more day, so we would advise buying the longer ticket and having more flexibility in your schedule.
Transport in and around Angkor - How to visit the temples of Angkor Wat
Depending on how you want to visit the temple city of Angkor there are many ways of getting about. If you are with a tour (more on this later) they will arrange transport for you. But, if like us, you are more of a free spirit and want to show yourself around, you will need some wheels. Technically you could walk between the sites but the area is vast. For example one itinerary for a day in Siem Reap is over 30 km not including climbing the monuments themselves!
We would recommend one of the following.
Cycling Siem Reap - The temples via bike
All over town you can rent pedal bikes for very reasonable prices. The bikes range from $3 to $7 USD per day depending on the quality of bike and where you get them from. You will usually be able to negotiate some form of discount for multi-day rental. Most guesthouses, hotels and hostels will offer bike rentals, just make sure you test the bike before renting it, you don’t want to end up like John in Anuradhapura!
Angkor Wat actually has an amazing cycle pathway, looping in and around the jungle and (for the most part) avoiding the roads. This would make a fantastic way to explore the ruins especially if you are travelling with children. Just make sure you understand and plan just how far you will go in a day. Like walking, you might not want to sign yourself up for a 30km bike ride especially in the Cambodian heat.
We wouldn’t recommend renting a bicycle if you only have one day in Angkor. There’s just too much to see and the temples are very spread out. If you have multiple days, a bike would be a lovely way to get around for the more athletically inclined visitor.
If you’re in town there are many, many bike rentals, however it might be worth jumping in a taxi / remorque and hiring a bike from nearer the entrance to the site itself. Hiring a bike in or near Angkor Wat will cut off the 7 km cycle from the city along the main road. You can hire bikes from near Angkor Wat here.
For those interested in a bike tour have a look at the offerings from Get Your Guide below who offer loads of different bike-borne itineraries.
Temple by taxi - Private car or remorque
For those looking for a more relaxed way to visit the temples and ruins of Angkor, then the easiest way is to hire a driver and be chauffeured around the sites.
Depending on the level of luxury you want, this can come in many forms. For those on a bougie budget, who need air conditioning and a comfortable seat, then you can arrange a private taxi to take you all over the Angkor complex. This will allow you to beat the heat and have a nice cool refuge to escape to in between climbing temples. The trade off is of-course the price and this would definitely be one of the more expensive ways to explore. Private cars can be hired either as part of a tour or just as a driver and car where you can instruct them where to go.
For tours by car check out this link or to rent your own car have a look here.
The more fun way to be chauffeured about the temples and ruins of Angkor is the traditional Cambodian remorque. Think of the carriage from Cinderella but instead of being pulled by mice or horses, it is hitched to a motorbike! We have used remorques all around Cambodia both for tours in Battambang and via Grab as taxis. They are a great fun way to get around.
In Siem Reap it's no exaggeration to say that if you threw a stone in any direction it would hit a remorque driver who would offer to take you on a tour of the temples (after wondering why you lobbed a rock at him). Every street corner, shop, bar and travel agent will have a throng of remorque taxis outside. Just negotiate a price, itinerary and whether you need a guide and these guys will take you anywhere you need to go. Just make sure to be clear on what you want to do and how much it will cost you before setting out.
A remorque can easily sit four adults in the back. Remorques can vary a lot in price depending on where you want to go and how long you need them for. For a curated tour check out your options on Get Your Guide below.
Both private car and remorque would be good options during the rainy season as they provide, at least a little, cover from the elements.
Exploring Angkor by scooter - Our favourite way to see the temples
It should come as no surprise to the Southeast Asian backpacker that everywhere in Siem Reap offers scooter rental. A budget backpacker favourite, these cheap and cheerful 125cc scooters are perfect for independent exploration of the Siem Reap sites. Renting a scooter means you are totally independent. You can go anywhere, stay as long or as short as you like and just zoom off whenever you feel like it. It was by far the most fun way to explore the ruins of Angkor.
There really is something special about driving along a jungle road with the wind in your face and passing through one of the ancient gateways to the Bayon Temple. It’s not something you get to do everyday!
The best way to travel through the Angkor park!
Scooter rental is very inexpensive, typically between $6 and $8 USD for basic models. The basic models are usually a 125cc Honda Click, the delightfully named Zoomer or sometimes a cute little Scoopy. Any of these bikes will be more than enough to ferry you and a passenger around the sites. You really don’t need anything bigger than a 125cc which is good as in Cambodia, foreigners cannot ride anything above a 125cc without a licence. All the normal warnings about renting a scooter apply here. Make sure you have helmets, give the bike a test and do not ride if you’re not comfortable, there’s no shame in getting a driver - plus healthcare in Cambodia is expensive and not what you want to rely on!
It’s also worth pointing out that scooters offer very little protection from the elements. We visited in the wet season and were caught in a thunder shower and were comprehensively soaked one day.
Throughout the archaeological park there are loads of places to pull over and park your bike. Outside every one of the major temples there will be a parking spot usually full of food and drink vendors. Sometimes the vendors will couch your parking space as meaning you need to buy a drink from them but this is usually not the case. Just park anywhere you see bikes or anywhere there is a spare space.
The roads around the Angkor complex are well maintained and easy to drive but you are sharing them with locals, trucks, remorques and cars.
We absolutely loved the freedom of the bike as it allowed us to explore much further and cram much more into our Angkor experience. If you’re confident on a scooter, do it!
Angkor itineraries - What to see in Siem Reap and the Angkor archaeological park
We will take you through some possible routes around the Angkor archaeological park. Depending on how long you have, how many temples you want to cram into any one day, and what kind of transport you’re getting around, you can mix and match any elements of these.
Whichever route you take, we’d recommend reading our “one day itinerary” as this will give you an overview of the unmissable highlights you should not skip in Siem Reap. The three and seven day suggestions will build on this one day itinerary adding in more incredible sights for those with the time to see them.
One day in Angkor - What not to miss on a short visit to Siem Reap
If you only have one day to explore the incredible temples and ruins of Angkor do not despair. You just need to do some planning and be ready for a packed day of exploring. Before you set off you will need to arrange transport, either by booking your taxi / tuk tuk the previous day or sorting your scooter rental out beforehand. We would recommend bringing a packed breakfast / lunch and plenty of water - the Cambodian sun is no joke.
Fully prepped and ready to go, this is what we would recommend for a one day visit highlighting the most famous temples of the Angkor complex.
One day itinerary - Sunrise at Angkor Wat
First things first, you have a decision to make. When do you want to get up? If you’re only in Angkor for a day and you have not been before, then honestly you would be cheating yourself if you missed sunrise over Angkor Wat.
We’ll get the negative out the way now, this is probably the busiest the site is at any time in the day. Expect to share your sunrise experience with hundreds if not thousands of other travellers. That being said, it is totally worth it. Get up early, before the sunrise!
Sunrise over Angkor Wat nearly a decade ago!
Angkor Wat opens at 5am everyday and depending on the time of year, sunrise may not be too long after this. Park in the large car park (located here), cross the Rainbow Bridge and moat and enter the Angkor Wat complex. The best place to view the sunrise is from the West bank of the Reflecting Pond just in front of the Northern Library. We have dropped a location pin on the map here.
If it’s too crowded there, the lake on the other side of the terrace (in front of the Southern Library) is also a good vantage point. The lakes here create amazing reflections of the clouds and temples as the sun creeps up behind them. If you’re running a little late or if it's really busy you can stop and wait before crossing the Rainbow Bridge for a different sunrise perspective.
We cannot recommend sunrise over Angkor enough. We have been lucky to have visited Angkor Wat on two occasions and we treated ourselves to the sunrise on our first visit and even now, a decade later, the memory is beautiful, vivid and strong.
All that being said, if you’re allergic to mornings, or just had a wild night on Pub Street all is not lost. If you miss the sunrise and you visit Angkor Wat later in the morning, you’ll find that the crowds have nearly all gone and you have a much less busy wonder of the world to explore.
As you can see, if you arrive at Angkor Wat after the sunset crowds have gone it’s certainly not too busy!
The temple complex of Angkor Wat was built between 1122 CE and 1150 CE by King Suryavarman II. It was to be the state temple of the empire, and the crown in the Khmer King’s capital.
Angkor wat is enormous. As soon as you come through the carpark, gift shops and cafes you come face to face with the massive moat and outer walls. These ancient edifices surround the towering inner temples, their spires and stupa’s jutting into the sky and reflecting in the waters below. The sheer scale of the place is nearly overwhelming. You’ll have seen millions of photos, but none can quite compare to seeing it with your own eyes.
Angkor Wat is the largest and one of the most beautiful religious structures on earth. It’s been extensively restored and is in (for its age) remarkably great condition. On every surface, are carvings, statues and inscriptions depicting both Hindu, Buddhist and ancient Khmer scenes.
The temple started life as a Hindu temple mirroring the Hindu holy mountain of Meru before being transitioned to a Buddhist temple. All throughout Angkor Wat you can see evidence of its many layered history.
To really get a perspective of the temple, make sure you climb the very steep steps to the tallest tower in the dead centre of the complex. The views from the top are amazing!
The view from the top is the only real way of getting a handle on the scale of Angkor Wat!
If you’re taking yourself around, expect to spend between 40 minutes to an hour and a half wandering around Angkor Wat. Even within its walls it’s a large site full of nooks and crannies to explore. If you are on a guided tour being shown around by an expert, expect to spend a lot longer here. If you come for sunrise, you may find there is a queue to climb the central shrine.
After Angkor Wat - Bayon Temple
Just to the north of Angkor Wat is the magnificent Bayon Temple complex. Your first stop should be before you even enter the temple complex. Bayon Temple has a truly enormous moat surrounding it. Seriously, check it out on Google Maps here (we’ve dropped a pin where your first stop should be) - just look at how big the moat for Bayon Temple is compared to Angkor Wat in the south!
On each compass point of Bayon Temple's square moat lies a huge stone gate. Each gate has pillars with four faces pointing out in each direction and you’ll have to drive through these to get to the temple.
One of the best spots to pull over for a photograph is just before you travel through the Southern Gate of Tonle Om (see the above map link for location). The stone bridge leading to the gate is lined on either side with huge stone statues of men pulling on the body of a naga. It really is something else, and this is only the entrance to the temple!
Bayon Temple (location) lies in the centre of its enormous square moat and was built as the new state capital temple by King Jayavarman VII. Bayon Temple lay at the exact heart of the King’s new capital called Angkor Thom (all these Angkor’s are getting confusing). It was this King, Jayavarman VII, under his wife’s influences that pivoted the empire from Hinduism to Buddhism, and his Bayon Temple was a display of grandeur and authority for the new state religion.
King Jayavarman’s face stares out at you from all over Bayon temple. Spires, stupas, doorways, arches and gateways are all adorned with his likeness, or at least what he wanted everyone to think he looked like.
If you’ve seen a serenely smiley, enormous stone head when researching Cambodia, this is probably Jayavarman.
When you go round the temple itself, it is amazing, you can’t believe the scale of construction and the delicacy of the carvings. The enormous stones head gaze down at you in uncanny 3D. They are literally building sized sculptures!
Bayon Temple was one of our favourite temples to explore. The scale and other-worldy beauty of the place were fantastic. There are so many hidden pathways, rooms and passages to find. It really isn’t like any other temple we had been before and we have been to quite a few temples!
Baphuon Temple
Within the moat and grounds of Bayon Temple, a short walk northeast of the main temple, lies the ruins of Baphuon Temple (location). Also known as the Golden Mountain Temple, this amazing tiered square pyramid lies at the end of an impressive causeway and houses an incredible secret.
Baphuon Temple has fewer wall carvings and is less ornate than Bayon or Angkor Wat. Even so, it has a serene kind of beauty to it. Make sure you climb the very steep steps to the top to get a great view over the temple, bathing pools and the surrounding jungle. When you look at the jungle and temples from up high, you can see how easily nature reclaims these places. You can completely believe there are hundreds of other temples lurking within the forest, their stone passageways and arches overtaken with thick green vines.
Travelling in the wet season does have its advantages. Just look how many people we had to share Baphuon Temple with!
Make sure to go round the back of the temple where its secret treasure lies. The huge back wall of the temple, will, like a ‘Magic Eye’ picture, suddenly resolve itself into focus and make it obvious that the whole structure of the wall is one huge reclining Buddha!
Make sure you combine Baphuon Temple with your visit to Bayon as it is only a short walk away.
Lunch in Angkor Wat
We’d recommend packing a lunch for your Angkor Wat day out. This would give you the flexibility of choosing your lunch time and location. Just grab some food on the go from Siem Reap town and find somewhere cool for a picnic. If you feel like treating yourselves check out the Eric Kayser bakeries or some of the other delicious brunch options in town. Check out our full guide to breakfast in Siem Reap here.
We’re backpackers honestly!
After Bayon Temple you have a great opportunity for some snacks / lunch stops. Take the road north out of Bayon, driving past the amazing Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King and pass through the northern gate of Dei Chhnang Gate. Follow the road east from the gate and you’ll find yourself at Neak Poan Lake and Temple. This would make a fantastic lunch stop before continuing on the road east and south towards Srah Srang Lake and Market and the world famous Ta Prohm Temple.
Alternatively, you could head east out of Bayon Temple through the Victory Gate past Ta Prohm before arriving at Srah Srang Lake and Market. This would be a good option if you haven’t packed a lunch as there are plenty of vendors selling grilled meats, fried rice, noodles and other snacks. There are plenty of sit down restaurants lining the Srah Srang lake, but bear in mind that within the Angkor Park, food comes at a premium - they were charging between $7 and $8 just for a plate of fried rice - not particularly backpacker friendly!
For those like us on a backpacking budget we’d recommend hitting up one of the markets in Siem Reap for some fruit and then grabbing some baked goods to go from one of the many local bakeries for a cheap picnic with a fantastic view!
Ta Prohm - The ‘Tomb Raider’ Temple
Angkor Wat is the most famous temple in the whole complex, its silhouette at dawn is legendary, however, if you’re looking for the most photographed temple of the complex, it is almost certainly Ta Prohm (location).
Ta Prohm is like something from fantasy, a picture perfect jungle temple.
Ta Prohm was nicknamed the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple after an appearance in a certain terrible Angelina Jolie film. Ta Prohm is a storybook temple with tumbled down walls, trees growing through collapsed ceilings, roots spreading across ancient walkways and moss covered foundations. It is impossibly picturesque.
Ta Prohm Temple was built by King Jayavarman VII as the ‘Monastery of the King’. Work started in 1186 A.D. (at least according to Wikipedia) and the site was home to over 12,000 people including 615 dancers! The whole site of Ta Prohm was constructed without mortar and after it was abandoned in the 15th century, nature took it back. The tree roots and plants grew between the stones, forcing them apart and collapsing large parts of the temple.
Nowadays the temple is a wonderful mix of restoration and ruin. With large piles of moss covered stone lying like the worlds hardest lego set alongside beautifully restored corridors, pavilions and bas reliefs. If you have seen pictures of trees bursting out of walls and roots coiling around statues, it is probably Ta Prohm.
Lego difficulty level = Nightmare. The restoration of Ta Prohm is almost as impressive as the buildings!
After Angkor Wat itself, Ta Prohm is probably the most “popular” of the Angkor site temples. It is very photogenic and throughout the temple grounds you’ll find selfie spots, wooden platforms and perfect viewpoints to take photos from. As such Ta Prohm is usually busier than some of the other temples, but this really doesn’t distract from the beauty of the place. Despite the renovation, Ta Prohm still feels like you’re discovering it. The forest breaks through everywhere, there’s not a scene inside the temple which hasn’t been touched by the roots and leaves of the surrounding jungle. Ta Prohm is popular for a reason. It is stunning!
Ta Prohm also holds a little secret. If you’re looking for a treasure hunt, try a game of spot the stegosaurus! This unlikely dinosaur is featured in one of the wall carvings and has sparked some very colourful debates. Theories ranging from aliens to disproving the fossil record have been proposed but most people agree it's a big lizard with a sun in the background! If you want to track it down, it can be found here but even with this Google Map reference you’ll have to do a little bit of looking.
Can you spot him? He’s kinda cute!
Ta Prohm would probably be the last stop on your one day tour of Angkor Wat. If you’re not templed out or want to fit a few more temples in along the way, read on for our three and seven day suggestions for other amazing temples to add to your itinerary. Or, if you’ve had your fill of temples, go grab yourself a cold beer on Pub Street!
Three day full itinerary for the Angkor Temple complex
This time when we visited the temples we bought the three day Angkor Pass. This being our second time in Angkor Wat, we have devised what we think is a great itinerary for three days in and around the temples of Angkor. As with the one day expedition, a lot will depend on the transport you arrange, so if you have your own scooter it's easy to go wherever you like, but if you have a driver you will need to make sure you agree on what stops he will make on any given day.
Day one - Angkor Wat and Phnom Kraom
We eased ourselves into the temple extravaganza in Siem Reap by not cramming in too much into day one. What we did and what we would recommend doing is the main site of Angkor Wat (location) in the morning. It is up to you if you want to get up for the sunrise or wait until later when the temple is less busy. As we’ve said before, if this is your first time in Angkor Wat and the weather allows, we would definitely recommend getting up early to see the sunrise. This was our second time in Siem Reap so we had a bit of a lie in, (nothing to do with an outing on Pub Street the night before, honest!) and came after the sunrise crowds had left. We were visiting under rainy skies in the low season and had nearly the whole complex to ourselves - okay that may be a little bit of an exaggeration but we did only see about twenty other people whilst we were there!
If you haven’t already, make sure you read the one day guide above for more information on Angkor Wat itself.
When exploring Angkor Wat, make sure you take a full tour of the gallery walls surrounding the central temple. These two concentric square layers house incredible bas relief carvings, depicting famous scenes from Hindu and Khmer history. In the northwest corner, is the famous bas reliefs depicting the battle against the Lanka demon. In the centre of the Western entrance is the Hall of a Thousand Gods with amazing statues and huge ancient baths.
By baths we mean swimming pools of-course!
Outside of the main temple of Angkor Wat, the giant causeway known as the Terrace of Honor runs between the moat, Rainbow Bridge and the entrance to Angkor Wat itself. Make sure to check out the two “libraries” that lie either side of this stone causeway. The Terrace of Honor itself is an amazing structure. Giant naga balustrades run the length of the causeway in various states of restoration and decay. If you’re lucky enough to visit when it's quiet, you can get some absolutely fantastic photos of the causeway running up into the centre of the temple.
Even under grey skies, Angkor Wat is still beautiful!
Within the bounds of the moat, to the north and south of Angkor Wat lie two pagodas. These pagodas are much less visited than the main Angkor Wat temple and are definitely worth a detour to find.
After exploring Angkor Wat we took a break. We travelled back to Siem Reap for a nice lunch before later that afternoon, hopping back on the scooter. We headed south to Phnom Kraom Temple and its sweeping 360 degree views.
Phnom Kraom Temple
Set around thirty minutes drive south of downtown Siem Reap, the hill of Phnom Kraom (location) rises up over the flat rice paddies all around. The road snakes up the side of the hill higher and higher before reaching the temple and ruins that crown its peak.
Phnom Kroam is a fantastic sunset spot in Siem Reap. At the top you can walk around the ancient ruins for 360 degree views out across Siem Reap city to the north and across the vast Tonle Sap lake to the south. It is a fantastic way to end a day. The temple ruins are smaller than the ones set within the main Angkor Park, but can be accessed with your Angkor Pass.
The view from Phnom Kraom was fantastic!
The ancient temple may be smaller, but it more than makes up for it with the fantastic views. The landscape all around is so flat, you have an uninterrupted view over the green, gold and reflective surface of the paddy fields, farms and lakes all around.
Top tip:
It is only the ruins and temple at the peak of the hill that require the Angkor Pass to access. You could easily drive 80 to 90% of the way up the hill, pull over and enjoy the sunset without a ticket.
This is a very popular spot with the Cambodian youth and come sundown there’s usually several food and drink vendors popping up all along the road. Please be careful though, as around sunset and sundown the road becomes very busy.
Day two - exploring the temples north of Angkor Wat
Day two started with us driving north past Angkor Wat until we reached Phnom Bakheng (location). This giant stepped pyramid lies a little way west off the main road and is a stunning multi-stepped temple. Since our visit, we have heard that this makes an amazing place to watch the sunset from. We are now slightly annoyed as we can imagine this would be spectacular!
Just up the road from here is the orange stone and steep stepped pyramid ruins of Baksei Chamkrong (location). We parked just off the Tonle Om South Bridge and walked back to Baksei Chamkrong. Visiting early in the morning, we had it all to ourselves and climbed to the top to see the views over the jungle and all around. The temple gave us Mayan vibes, with its stepped pyramid structure and single, tall central stupa.
Back on our scooter we drove through the fantastic southern gate - Tonle Om, honestly this alone was worth the scooter rental. It was one of those pinch yourself moments, that yes, you are currently driving a little 125cc scooter through an ancient Khmer gateway!
The Tonle Om gate is amazing, even more so when your whizzing through on a scooter!
The road goes due north and so did we. The road arrowed through the jungle before suddenly opening out into the vast beauty of the Bayon Temple (location). On our scooter we took an orbit all the way round the ring road that surrounds the temple before parking just off of the western road.
The scale of Bayon Temple is just vast!
We spent a good hour wandering around and taking in the many faces (quite literally) of Bayon Temple. This is an absolute must on your exploration of Angkor - remember this was the temple built to replace Angkor Wat and cement a new religion for the Khmer empire!
All around Bayon Temple are smaller but no less fantastic ruins. You can easily walk to these sights from Bayon Temple, but we’d actually recommend hopping on your bike and driving a short way north to park at the top corner of the Terrace of the Elephants (parking location). This allowed us to do a great circular walk taking in some incredible sights.
Our first stop was the Terrace of the Leper King - Preah Ponlea Sdach Komlong (location). We were greeted by a towering, seemingly impenetrable wall. From the wall, we were glared down on by hundreds of carved figures. There is no space left uncarved, it was like looking up at stadium seating. Despite looking impenetrable there are actually many layers to this wall, you can go inside the outer walls and walk through equally intricately carved inner walkways before coming down and into the famous Terrace of the Elephants (location).
The stadium seating at the Terrace of the Leper King.
The Terrace of the Elephants is literally a royal grandstand. This is where the Khmer Kings would watch displays, parades and events on the fields and towers to the east. The terrace gains its name from the huge carved elephants that sprout out from the stone, their trunks curling and supporting the structure. From the terrace you can look across at the ruins of the Prasat Suor Prat Towers. Originally there were 12 of these tall structures, and almost unbelievably, they were known and used as the tightrope dancer towers where dancers would perform in front of the King on ropes suspended between the tall towers.
From the Terrace of the Elephants we headed south to the incredible Baphuon Temple (location). After a sweaty climb to the top we took in the amazing views of its carved gateway and long stone causeway before making our way down to the west of the temple to find the hidden reclining Buddha.
Again make sure you’ve read our one day highlights above for more information on Baphuon Temple.
After Baphuon Temple we headed north through the jungle towards Phimeanakas Temple (location). We love walking through the jungles in the Angkor temple complex. On either side you can see what must be more and more remains and ruins just waiting to be uncovered. It's one of our favourite things about the Angkor experience. Even with the beautiful temples and the restoration work that has already happened, you just know there is so much more out there!
There must be so many more ruins hidden away in the jungle of Angkor!
The Phimeanakas Temple is frankly gorgeous. Less restored than some of its neighbours, its crumbling ruins are covered in green moss and mature trees sprout out from its stones. On each corner, stand the remains of elephant statues.
We took the footpath north through the thick jungle passing the Women’s Pond (location) taking in the scattered remains and ruins either side of the path. We continued walking through the forest until we came to the remains of Prasat Preah Palilay (location). This was one of our favourite smaller temples. Again, like Phimeanakas, Prasat Preah Palilay has not been as extensively restored as some of the other Angkor temples, and retains its “lost in the jungle” charm. Hidden amongst the trees with the jungle crowding in on all sides, the ruins now are nearly fully overtaken by nature. On the side of the stepped central shrine, three trees sprout out, fighting for sunlight.
From Prasat Preah Palilay, we wandered back eastwards towards the Terrace of Elephants and our waiting scooter. Just before hopping onto our next stop, we headed behind the food vendors to check out the ruins of Prasat Preah Pithu Group (location) and Prasat Khleang Khang Cheung (location).
Back on our scooter, it was finally time to leave the Bayon Temple complex. Scootering underneath the ornate many faced Dei Chhang Gate (location) we followed the road to Prasat Preah Khan (location).
Like Angkor Wat and Bayon Temple, Prasat Preah Khan Temple is surrounded by a square moat and walls. We walked over the naga lined bridge, through the three stone towers marking the gateway entrance into the temple park.
Prasat Preah Khan was an unexpected treasure of the whole Angkor experience. It was like a mini Angkor Wat, this beautiful temple sprawled out from its central stupas, with incredible carvings, doorways and ruined walkways. It’s a very large site - only slightly smaller than the Angkor Wat grounds, but it's far less popular than its more famous neighbours. There are walkways and paths throughout the tree sprouted ruins and all around the perimeter moat.
Prasat Preah Khan is in a much more advanced state of decay than Angkor Wat or Bayon Temple. Its stones are stained green with centuries of lichen and its ruined structures give amazing views through ancient tumbledown windows, courtyards and passageways. Prasat Preah Khan is a great example of the advantages of staying a little longer in Siem Reap. If you were on a shorter itinerary you may have to sacrifice a visit here in order to get around the “main” sites. But if you have a little longer and take things a little slower you can, like us, discover this amazing gem of a temple.
We’re so glad we had the time to come and find Prasat Preah Khan temple!
After Prasat Preah Khan, we continued a little way north to Bantey Prei Temple (location) taking in its ruined stupas and partially restored statuary before heading east along the massive man-made lake to Krol Ko (location) and the Neak Poan Temple (location). We parked up outside of Krol Ko and had a nose around this smaller temple before heading over to the lake.
Neak Pean lake is stunning with lots of lily pads and pink lotus flowers!
Neak Pean is a unique temple in the Angkor complex. Set on a man-made island on a man-made lake, the temple is accessed via a long wooden jetty that stretches across the water. On either side of the jetty, lily flowers bloom and the remains of ancient trees stick out like wooden skeletons from the lake. The temple on the island is stunning. Set around several temple tanks, it almost looks like a sunken temple with its stupas rising up from the ponds and waterways on the little island.
As I’m sure you can see, we had packed in a lot of exploring so far. We had started around 9am in the morning and by now it was a little after 3pm and we were reaching our daily limit for temple visiting. The weather seemed to agree with us. As we walked back across the jetty, from Neak Pean temple, we were greeted by a beautiful, but disturbing sight. On one side of us blue skies and sunshine, on the other side, the sky was so dark it was nearly black. We could see distant trees disappearing under a cloak of rain. It was time to leave!
It turns out the time to leave was probably about 45 minutes before we did. We did not outrun the rain. It hit us around Bayon Temple and soaked us completely. We had to pull over several times as the storm was so intense we could not see more than a few feet in front of our bike. Our supposedly waterproof shoes did an admiral job keeping water inside them and by the time we arrived in Siem Reap, it looked like we had gone for a swim! We squelched back to our room for a well earned shower.
Travelling in the wet season does come with risk, however there are many advantages that make it worth risking a soaking! It’s also one of those great travel memories. We will always remember clinging onto the back of a little scooter, passing ancient temples with the rumble of thunder overhead and our boots overflowing with rain!
We got well and truly soaked. Wet season in Angkor Wat takes no prisoners!
Day three - exploring the temples east of Angkor Wat
Day three dawned and we headed out into town to pick up a breakfast and our picnic lunch. Our breakfast was very backpacker friendly with two bowls of Nom Banh Chok sat amongst chattering ladies in the Old Market (check out our article here for the best Cambodian breakfasts). For lunch we were slightly less backpacker-y buying some fruit and treating ourselves to some delicious French pastries from the Eric Kayser bakery in town. Provisions stowed it was time for day three of our Angkor exploration.
This time we took the road east from Angkor Wat towards our first stop at Prasat Kravan (location).
Set overlooking the road, Prasat Kravan was a great start to the day. A small temple with five towers set in a line, it almost looked like a gateway rather than a temple in its own right. Inside each tower, were amazing carvings of the Hindu God Vishnu. We had set off mid morning and, like had happened a few times on our Angkor adventures, we had the whole temple to ourselves. There was just us, a guard and some ladies trying to sell us drinks in the car park.
On the scooter we rounded the corner from Prasat Kravan and spotted a little wooden sign that caught our fancy. The sign was a siren's call, one word - coffee. One of the slight oddities of the Angkor archaeological site, is the lack of coffee shops, being millennials lack of coffee is akin to a lack of oxygen. It was mid-morning and we had had no caffeine, so we had to stop. Chita’s Cafe (location) is run by a friendly lady operating out the front of her traditional wooden house. She sells everything from coffee to snacks and fried rice. We bought two cheap ($1 USD each) iced milk coffees and they were just the ticket to set us up for the rest of our temple hopping day.
After Chita’s we had a very short ride to the carpark next to Banteay Kdei’s East Gate (location). If you park up here make sure you don’t miss the Srah Srang viewpoint (location). Just east of the gate there is a small raised stone platform looking out across Srah Srang lake.
When we visited, not only did we get treated to a view over the lake but we also had the luck of running into a family performing a Buddhist rite. White clad men and women played traditional instruments, whilst laying offerings of flowers on the stone slabs overlooking the man-made lake.
Back to the west and through the amazing four faced east gate of Banteay Kdei (location) we entered what may be one of our favourite temples of the Angkor complex. Banteay Kdei is a warren of a temple. With ruined corridors, stupas and squares sprawling out from its central points. Prasat Banteay Kdei translates to ‘A Citadel of Chambers’ and was a famous and important monastery complex. It was one of our favourites because, not only is it beautiful, but it had that perfect balance of ruin and structure.
Banteay Kdei is full of corridors and paths to explore.
A surprise John!
You could always clearly see what once was there, even if what is there now is a pile of stones. On one of the outer walls, we stumbled across a titan of a tree, growing out and through the wall itself, this towering arboreal overlord was now irrevocably part of the temple structure. Its roots were like deep sea cables stretching in knotted bunches through the walls and across the temple floors.
We use the Ellie system for measurements and can confidently say that this tree was many Ellies wide!
After Banteay Kdei it was time for what may be the most famous temple other than Angkor Wat itself, it was time for Jellie to go to the Tomb Raider temple of Ta Prohm (location). For a full review of our thoughts make sure you’ve read the one day highlights earlier in this article. Suffice to say, Ta Prohm is famous for a reason. Its picturesque decay, restoration and war with the encroaching jungle are spectacular and should not be missed. It is busy, but so what? It should be busy, it’s beautiful! It's also not hard to lose the crowds and find your own quiet corner of this incredible place. Also don’t miss the stegosaurus!
Ta Prohm Temple really does live up to the hype!
From Ta Prohm we scooted up the road north until we reached the entrance to Prasat Ta Keo (location).
He looks philosophical but we all know he’s just thinking about lunch!
This temple, again, was one of those unexpected delights. We had just come from the crowds at Ta Prohm and arrived at a nearly deserted temple. We walked down the dusty path through the jungle and were greeted by an ornate gateway. Behind this, rose an impossibly steep staircase leading to the top of a stepped pyramid style temple. The stairs were so steep it was more like a ladder than a staircase, but the views from the top more than made up for the awkward climb!
After Prasat Ta Keo we crossed the road and circumnavigated the crumbling overgrown remains of Don Mao Temple (location).
Back on the scooter it was nearing lunchtime and so it was time for us to find our picnic spot. Passing the busy stalls of Srah Srang Market, we followed the lakeside road until we reached the northeastern corner of the lake. We hopped off our bike and found a tree shaded spot on the waters edge. Sat on an ancient wall we tucked into our picnic. Overlooking the small temple in the middle of the lake it was a memorable location for a light lunch.
Not a bad spot for a bite to eat!
Pastries devoured we got back on the bike and headed eastward to Pre Rup Temple (location). Looking like an amalgam of Prasat Kravan and Prasat Ta Keo, Pre Rup Temple was a tall stone stepped structure with a collection of stupas set into its crown.
“Speak friend and enter”…
With great views over the surrounding area and statues of lions guarding every approach, the temple was super impressive. The carved doors looked like they should open up to the Mines of Moria!
Honestly, you’re so spoiled in the Angkor complex, if you took Pre Rup out of Cambodia and popped it down in any other country it would instantly become one of the countries top historical attractions. The temples all throughout the Angkor archaeological park are huge. We’re probably not doing them justice in our descriptions here, they absolutely dwarf the historic sites we’ve seen before.
We left the towering stupas of Pre Rup behind and followed the road north. Passing Pre Rup’s ancient lake and vibrant green paddy fields we eventually reached the junction to Road 810. It was here where we took a detour and drove out east towards Banteay Samre Temple.
Passing through the town of Preah Dak, the road was lined on either side with restaurants roasting whole pigs. The smell of roasting pork clung to us as we drove on through and we regretted having already eaten lunch. If you do not pack a picnic lunch you could easily stop here and have a Cambodian feast. Leaving the busy town behind we eventually reached the carpark for Banteay Samre Temple.
Ignore Google Maps which will tell you to turn off right down a dirt road to reach the temple. It is easily accessible from the main road, just drive a little further on from where it tells you to turn off and there will be a clearly marked car park.
Banteay Samre Temple (location) was another deserted treasure when we visited. It felt very different from the temples we had seen over our last two days as instead of rising up behind its entrance, the temple sank down behind its ornate gates and walls. The stupas rose up from steep, sunken wells with raised walkways joining them together.
The outer walls were covered in windows, each one filled with ornate, stone blinds. These carved columns let light and air through whilst giving enough shade to deflect the worst of the Cambodian heat. Banteay Samre Temple is a little out of the way of the normal circuit, but is well worth the detour.
Doubling back on ourselves we headed back west towards the junction we had turned off of earlier and headed north towards Eastern Mebon Temple (location). Eastern Mebon Temple was another stunner full of tall angular stupas and dotted with huge elephant statues guarding every corner of the upper square platform.
Our final stop and temple of our three day temple hopping expedition was the beautiful Ta Som Temple (location).
Another hidden jungle gem, Ta Som Temple let us finish on a high. Completely hidden in the jungle, we approached along a tree lined path towards the stone carved gateway. Inside it was a true lost world. It was just us and the crumbing remains of ancient history. Lichen and moss covered bas reliefs and stone carved statues stared out from every corner of the crumbling ruins. Four faced gatehouses rose amongst the trees and what must have been grand pathways were half hidden by the jungle floor. It was our favourite kind of feeling, the almost innocent wonder of discovery. We knew millions had been there before but then and there with just us, the temple and the swaying trees it felt like we had just stumbled across a lost civilisation.
From here we took the scenic route back home. As opposed to the soggy downpours of our previous expedition we could enjoy cruising back along the lake, around Bayon temple, through the gatehouses and past Angkor Wat back to Siem Reap. This victory lap marked the end of our three day Angkor Pass and our adventures through the ancient ruins.
Longer stays in Siem Reap - The seven day Angkor Pass
If you have the time, we would honestly recommend purchasing the seven day Angkor Pass. It is not much more expensive than the three day ticket and offers you so much more flexibility. We bought the three day pass but by the third day, we wished we had bought the seven day pass. Remember you cannot extend your ticket, the only way to spend more time in the park is to buy another full ticket.
With seven days we could have spaced out all of our visits, not rolled the dice with the weather and done everything at a more relaxed pace. With more time we could have easily decided to come up just for a sunset at Srah Srang or Phnom Bakheng or treated ourselves to multiple sunrises across Angkor Wat and the temple park.
The seven day pass is valid for seven days entry over a month period, so if you were looping back to Siem Reap as part of a bigger Cambodian adventure it would make a lot of sense to spend the extra and get the seven day pass.
If we had stayed longer we would have loved to have visited some of the further flung temples such as Phnom Bok (location) with its hilltop ruins and 1000 steps or the giant lake and ruins at West Mebon (location) and Prasat Ak Yum.
What we would have mainly done with a seven day pass though, is take it slow and stop everywhere. With only three days to explore and the weather closing in, we were always conscious about making extra stops. As you can see from our itinerary, we crammed a lot into three days and we were at risk of being “templed out”. Even with this hectic itinerary, we found ourselves driving past side-roads and signposts missing out on other hidden temples.
A slower approach over seven days would give you the luxury of, at any time, going: “you know what that’s enough temples for today, let’s go for a beer on Pub Street”. With a longer pass you’d be able to take it easy without ever feeling that you were going to miss out.
If you have the time, get a seven day pass. We stayed in Siem Reap for a good long while and when our pass expired it was frustrating to see how much it would cost us to buy one more day's access compared to how much it would have been if we had just bought the seven day pass in the first place. Next time we’ll know better!
Opening times - When can I visit the Angkor Wat complex?
The official opening times of the Angkor Wat complex vary from temple to temple.
Most temples are only open from 7.30am until 5.30pm everyday.
The exceptions are the sunrise temples of Angkor Wat and Phnom Bakheng which will open from 5am for sunrise.
Do check with local guides though when you’re in Siem Reap as in the summer seasons the temples will frequently be open as early as 4am to keep up with the sunrise.
Angkor Wat - Private tour and guides
As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Angkor Wat and the Angkor archaeological park has tonnes of curated tour options. You can arrange a tour on the ground in Siem Reap from any of the local tour agencies or even just asking any remorque driver.
For backpackers, your hostel will definitely offer group tours at good prices and for those staying in hotels and guesthouses your host / reception staff will easily be able to arrange a tour for you. Just make sure you shop around. Remember groups will get better prices and everything is always negotiable!
As we’ve mentioned before, you can always hire a taxi driver for the day and use this guide to specify where you want to go. Even if you arrange a tour guide, you can ask them to stop at certain places. Check your itinerary before you go and use our blog to make sure you don’t miss some of the incredible but lesser known temples.
If you’re arranging transport yourself: outside all of the larger temples (Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, Ta Prohm etc) there are plenty of tour guides offering their service.
If you want to plan a head and have more choice over your Angkor Wat experience, then check out Get Your Guide below. They offer a huge variety of top-rated tours including private tours, the best walking tours, cycling tours as well as sunrise and sunset at Angkor Wat. The tours that they offer are all vetted and rated by customers so you can make sure you are picking the right tour for you.
What to wear in Siem Reap? Dress code at Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples are a really special site, so dress up for the occasion!
The temples within the Angkor complex are, you guessed it, temples and as such, should be treated with respect.
There is a strict dress code across many of the sites where shoulders and knees must be covered with no crop tops or revealing clothing allowed. Some sites will let you in to see parts of them without this dress code, but there will be large portions you cannot visit.
We would recommend wearing loose light clothing and a good pair of shoes as there is a lot of walking and clambering to do.
If you’re travelling in the wet season, make sure you pack a good waterproof coat and umbrella.
Tips for visiting Angkor Wat and the Angkor archaeological park
Our essential tips for making the most out of your visit to the Angkor archaeological park:
Toilets
There are free public toilets located throughout the whole Angkor archaeological complex. Check out Google Maps for exact locations. If you are at one of the major temples there will be toilets on hand. Just pack some loo paper and hand sanitiser!
Food and drink
Wherever there is a carpark there are food and drink vendors. They vary from pick up and go to full sit down restaurants. Around the temples themselves these restaurants are more of the makeshift variety - large stalls with plastic chairs and tables under awnings. If you’re looking for a more restaurant-y restaurant check out the offerings around Srah Srang lake and opposite the Angkor Wat main car park.
For snacks and drinks there are plenty of small shops and vendors.
Inside the archaeological park, food and drink cost considerably more than in Siem Reap. For backpackers like us, we’d recommend stocking up in town and filling your scooter with cold water, snacks and whatever lunch you want - for cheap eats check out the markets in town!
If you’re going to Ta Prohm and east of the Angkor Wat complex, definitely check out Preah Dak village. It seemed like every second house was roasting a whole pig and the crackling looked delicious. There were also lots of market stalls selling the traditional Cambodian sticky rice treats.
Water seemed to be a standard price within the park at 50 cents for a small bottle. Make sure you drink plenty of water, you will be walking a long way if you’re having an exploration day around Angkor.
Sunscreen and bug spray
The sun holds no prisoners and you really don’t want to burn. Even on cloudy days the UV levels can be extreme, make sure you’re fully basted in SPF.
The park is surrounded by jungle and water, a haven for our buzzing little friends. Before heading to the park, spray yourself liberally with bug spray! We didn’t use deet and just stuck with the cheap backpacker 7-11 favourite and it seemed to do the trick, barring a couple of itchy exceptions.
Photography in Angkor
Personal photography is completely fine including using a tripod anywhere in the park. If you want to do professional photography you will need to obtain written permission first.
Drones are not allowed anywhere in the park without explicit written permission from the authorities.
We saw signs throughout the park which said that 180 degree photography (i.e ultra-wide) was not allowed and had photos of GoPro’s as one of the possible not allowed cameras. This did not seem to be the case or being enforced anywhere as the GoPro seemed to be the most common camera we saw in Siem Reap.
Climbing the Angkor monuments
Lots of the ancient temples can be climbed. Sometimes the steps to the top are renovated wooden staircases with handrails but a lot of the time they are ancient, crumbling small stepped, near vertical staircases. Be sensible, only climb what you are comfortable with and don’t climb anything with signs saying not to!
He’s like a mountain goat!
Visiting Angkor in the rainy season
Cambodia’s wet season runs from May to October. During this time there will be frequent torrential downpours. It’s the low season for tourism in the country which means there will be less crowds and much cheaper accommodation.
It is actually a great idea to visit Angkor Wat and the Angkor complex during the rainy season. There will be far fewer crowds and queues and you will frequently get whole temples to yourself. That being said, visiting during the rainy season requires much more flexibility and a little more planning than visiting in the dry season. You will need to work around the heavy rains, so if you only have one day in Siem Reap it might be difficult to see everything you want.
We visited during July slap bang in the middle of the wet season and over our three day Angkor Pass we did get soaked once, however we also got Angkor Wat without the crowds, Bayon Temple with nearly no-one else there and all of the smaller temples all to ourselves.
Photos of Angkor Wat - Temples, ruins and incredible history!
We took too many photos at the Angkor archaeological park, have a look at some of our favourite shots below.
How to get to Siem Reap
Siem Reap is very well connected by transport both nationally in Cambodia and internationally.
Flying to Siem Reap
Siem Reap International Airport has flights to Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and many more.
To book flights to Siem Reap, check out the widget below.
Getting to Siem Reap by bus
You can reach Siem Reap by bus from all over Cambodia, there are dozens of different operators plying every route imaginable. If you want to book your seat in advance, we’d recommend using 12Go.
If you’re travelling internationally from Thailand or Laos there are plenty of bus operators that will help you cross the border and get you to Siem Reap.
If you’re travelling from Vietnam you will need to book tickets via Phnom Penh. Virak Buntham bus company offers this connection.
Where to stay in Siem Reap
Siem Reap is almost certainly Cambodia’s top tourist destination and therefore there is plenty of accommodation to choose from.
If you’re looking for social hostels to stay in, then why not check out Onederz, Mad Monkey or Pomme Hostel. Onederz and Mad Monkey are very close to the popular Pub Street and offer lots of social activities, bar crawls and tours. Pomme hostel is on the other side of the river, but makes up for it, by having its own brewery!
For a budget friendly hotel with a pool, we scored a fantastic deal with the Rithy Rine Angkor Residence. Visiting in the wet season we had a four poster bed, massive AC room and private bathroom for $12 a night!
Our bougie budget room at Rithy Rine!
On our first visit to Siem Reap we also had a fantastic stay at the Angkor Leap hotel which again had a pool and comfy private rooms.
For those looking for some luxury in their Siem Reap stay, there are plenty of high-end hotels to pamper yourself with. We’ve heard great things of the Anansaya La Maison. The Eightfold Urban Resort looks super stylish and amazing. For classic elegance have a look at the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor or for more modern luxury vibes check out Viroth’s Hotel.
For all the accommodation available in Siem Reap and the Angkor complex, check out our handy widget below.
Final thoughts - Is Angkor Wat worth the hype?
Angkor Wat and the surrounding archaeological park are wonders of the world. We’ve spent over 11,000 words gushing about our time there and how amazing it is. We think we can safely say that Angkor temples are worth every bit of the hype and fame they enjoy. From the jaw dropping scale of Angkor Wat and the many faces of Bayon Temple, to the beauty of the ruins and jungle overtaken remains of Ta Prohm, the temples, monasteries and palaces of the ancient city of Angkor are incredible. We have run out of superlatives, we have used the word 'incredible' fifteen times (now sixteen) in this article but there really is no other word for Angkor. It defies credulity.
Angkor Wat and the temple cities of Angkor have survived thousands of years of history, from being sacked by the Cham, invaded by the Ayutthayan’s and abandoned to the jungle, to the more recent tumultuous history of Cambodia. It is a miracle any of these temples survived, let alone the vast city sized wonders we have today. Angkor is the most famous tourist attraction in Cambodia for a reason. It is an absolute must on any Cambodia itinerary. Wet or dry, short visit or long stay, you need to make time to explore Angkor. If you like us, love the feeling of exploration, the romance of ruins and the freedom to explore at your own pace, there really is no where in the world quite like the temples of Angkor.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
To help plan your trip to Angkor, make sure you read our one week, two week and one month Cambodia itineraries!
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Breakfast in Siem Reap - Local foods and the best brunches in the city
Breakfast in the tourist hub of Siem Reap can be a mixed affair, don’t fall into the tourist traps. Read our guide to finding all the best breakfasts and brunch spots in the city. From the most delicious local morning dishes in the market to home comfort brunch favourites, we tried them all!
If you are off to the ruins of Angkor Wat or looking to explore the overgrown courtyards of Ta Prohm you better not do it on an empty stomach! Siem Reap, home to the Angkor complex, has a thriving breakfast and brunch scene with amazing local eats sitting alongside luxurious Western fare. We spent a good long time in Siem Reap eating our way around town (it is a hard job but someone has to do it) so we can now bring you our guide to the best breakfasts in town!
Siem Reap will always reward those who venture out in the mornings in search of munch. Home of some fantastic local foods, the markets and streets of Siem Reap offer some delicious delicacies to the early riser. For those backpackers looking for a little luxury or just a taste of home, Siem Reap has a thriving brunch, coffee and baking scene. Read on for all our top breakfast picks.
Local Food - Breakfast like a Cambodian
For those looking for delicious cheap eats, local food is always the way. We love and travel for food, it is one of our favourite things about our adventures, landing in a new place and sampling what local flavours are on offer. Breakfast and the early morning seem especially important in Cambodia, we often found that lots of the local options had closed up by lunch time. Get up and get out for breakfast if you want some delicious backpacker budget friendly food!
Nom Banh Chok
(location)
In amongst the chaotic whirl of colour and smell that is Siem Reap’s Old Market we found one of our favourite Cambodian breakfasts. Opposite a table groaning under the weight of vegetables was a small stall with four stools crammed up next to an ancient looking wooden counter. We would have walked past without a second glance if it wasn’t for the little old ladies sat there eating amazing, vibrantly coloured bowls of noodles. Giving into curiosity we grabbed the remaining two stools and sat down.
Nom banh chok is a noodle dish similar to the Thai dish khanom jeen. White fermented rice noodles are covered with a rich coconut based sauce/soup and then topped with fresh herbs, vegetables and other toppings. The whole bowl is served at room temperature and appears alongside a huge punnet of raw veggies and herbs that you add to the bowl while eating.
When we said they gave you fresh vegetables with your nom banh chok, this is what we meant!
At the stall where we were sat, the nom banh chok came in two varieties: Red with a spicy rich sauce topped with chicken, bean sprouts and blood cake or green, with a lighter coconut broth with lime and flowering vegetables.
The stewed pumpkin in the red nom banh chock was so good!
We tried both over two days breakfasting at the little market stall. It is hard to pick a favourite but the green one was so unique. It felt simultaneously refreshing and rich, healthy yet indulgent. As we slurped our way through the noodles we added more and more raw veg to the delicious coconutty sauce. It was a great breakfast and not quite like any we have had before.
The nom banh chock was very reasonably priced at $1.00 per bowl in the market. We saw a few restaurants and posh hotels with it on the menu but honestly couldn’t see what was to be gained by ‘poshing’ the dish up. It was simple, satisfying and great as it was.
Borbor - Cambodian Rice Soup
Not to be confused with the expensive jackets worn by the landed gentry and Wimbledon wannabees, borbor is a Cambodian rice soup eaten for breakfast and throughout the day. Rice soup does not sound exciting, quite the opposite in fact, it sounds like something you eat when you have a cold or are missing your teeth. Borbor however is delicious, hearty and moreish, with amazing depth and flavour.
We found some great bowls at Sinorn borbor Monsrae - សុីណន បបរមាន់ស្រែ (location ) costing around $1.75 a bowl. You could buy chicken or fish variants and they served them alongside crispy, fluffy Chinese style donuts. Borbor is served throughout the day but, for us, it was the perfect breakfast.
Borbor also know as: a hug in a bowl
The rice soup is less gloopy than a Thai or Vietnamese congee, it was perfectly balanced between light and hearty. The soup itself was saturated with rich chickeny flavour (we went for this over the fish version). The stock was made with both meat and seafood to give it a real umami kick. Sticks of raw ginger broke up the richness and added a spicy zing to the dish. The bowl was topped with shredded poached chicken and deep fried garlic and shallots. Anyone who knows us already knows our feelings towards deep fried shallots (it is the love that borders on obsession).
The borbor had a luxurious texture from the rice, deep flavour from the stock, satisfying protein from the chicken and lightness and spice from the ginger. It was damn near perfect. We say near perfect because, like many southeast asian dishes, it is finished at the table by you and a cruet of spices and vinegar. We found (on bowl number three) that for our perfect bowl it only needed a small spoon of chilli vinegar and a large shower of dried chilli. Stained red with spice and with the extra hum of vinegar in the background it was probably our favourite Cambodian breakfast.
Kuy Teav - Breakfast Pork Noodle Soup
This is a true Cambodian staple, for sale everywhere from restaurants to street stalls. From the high end bankers to the most humble fruit seller, every Cambodian will have a favourite spot for a bowl of this breakfast noodle soup. Bowls can cost anywhere from $1.00 or less to, up to $3.00 for massive helping from a street side stall. If you buy this from a restaurant expect to pay more of course. Typically on sale from early in the morning until it sells out sometime before lunch, kuy teav is endlessly variable. Like pho in Vietnam or Thailand’s tom yam, no two bowls of kuy teav will be the same.
We had fallen for kuy teav’s flavours during our time in Battambang (Read all about that here) and made it our mission to find a good bowl in Siem Reap. Luckily for us the Old Market came up trumps again and provided us with a perfect little stall selling the delicious breakfast dish.
Kuy teav, as we have mentioned, can come in many varieties, from seafood to pork, chicken to beef. The stock is usually consistent with a rich deep flavour made from long simmered pork, prawns and seafood. The prawns and the seafood may sound odd but they really just add a deep savoury flavour to every mouthful.
The stock is then piled high with rice noodles and your protein of choice for topping. We always went with the pork and this meant every cut, off cut and entrail you can imagine! The delicate soup was studded with bits of heart, ear, lung, intestine and liver alongside tender pork patties and slices of roasted pork. If you are used to pork only in the form of chops or bacon this might all sound like something from a horror film but trust us it was delicious! Everything had different textures and every bite was deliciously unique. If you were looking for a good way to try some more ‘exotic’ cuts of meat, kuy teav would be a great introduction.
We should have probably mentioned, you can have kuy teav without any of these offaly additions, just ask for plain meat and the lovely lady at the stall will oblige. You would be missing out though! There are stalls serving kuy teav everywhere in Siem Reap, we had a great bowl at the Old Market here
Kuy teav is a great bowl of noodles and easily takes its place in the South East Asian Noodle Soup hall of fame...We know that doesn’t exist ok, but it should!
Lort Cha - Cambodian comfort noodles
Family Rice Noodle and Chive Cakes
(location)
This suggestion may be cheating as we usually had it for lunch or dinner but Google says it is open from eight in the morning so someone must be eating it for breakfast! Lort cha is the ultimate comfort food, stir fried pin noodles in a sweet and savoury sauce served with a fried egg on top. Our favourite place to eat it in Siem Reap, Family Rice Noodle and Chive Cake, also added a crunchy, chewy chinese chive cake to up the indulgence and comfort food feels. We loved this dish, so much we have written a whole article about it - check it out here
Lort cha - works as both a hangover preventer and cure!
Lort cha is a fantastic comfort food any time of the day and would be a great hangover cure for those who have overindulged on pub street the previous night. It is also very reasonably priced, we paid $2.50 each for plates of piled high with chive cake, beef and fried egg.
Western Comforts - Brunch in Siem Reap
For those looking for a little home style cooking, looking for their flat whites and avocado toasts (no shade intended, we are partial to a flat white), Siem Reap is an oasis of great international food. Mexican to Sri Lankan, Greek to Japanese, Siem Reap has restaurants catering to every cuisine and whim of its international visitors.
Brunch is especially well represented in the Siem Reap food scene. We are not immune to the siren song of coffee and baked goods and have compiled a list of our favourite Western breakfast and brunch spots in the city:
The Muffin Man
(location)
Away from the main tourist hub, across the river from the Old Market and Pub Street you can find the Muffin Man Café. Grown out of the real success story of a local man and his gamble on muffins, the cafe serves coffee, large brunch plates and, you guessed it, muffins!
We headed down there after a ...lively... night on Pub Street in search of good coffee and something to fill the roiling void where our stomachs used to be. We settled into the cute and cosy outside area and ordered a cappuccino, A lime iced tea and two plates of the cockily titled “Best Scrambled Egg Toasts”. The plates come in “full” or “half” sizes, our stomachs gurgling, we ordered full size.
The coffee was great, just the right kind of bittersweet rocket-fuel to kickstart a fuzzy brain. The lime iced tea was sharp fresh and a slap in the face - in a good way! The food soon arrived and we realised we may have overestimated our stomachs capacity for food. The “full” size plate was huge, we could probably have shared one between the two of us!
A generous two doorstops of wholemeal bread was topped with mounds of smashed avocado, tranches of smoked ham and snowdrifts of fluffy scrambled eggs topped with chunks of crumbly cheese. It was too much but it was so good!
The Muffin Man - do you know him? He does brunch right!
The Muffin Man was exactly what was needed that morning. Coffee to reawaken parts of our brain that had been slacking off and a great plate of filling breakfast much to refuel us and get us in gear for the day. The one thing we didn't have was … a muffin (they did look delicious)!
The Muffin Man is (obviously) more expensive than eating Cambodian noodles in the market. It set us back $14.00 for our meal and coffees but, you do have to treat yourselves sometimes don’t you?!
Sister Sray
(location)
You know somewhere is Instagram popular when Google Maps has over one thousand eight hundred photos of its food uploaded. Sister Sray seemed to be the unofficial meeting hall for the backpacking crowd. There was permanently a throng of bedraggled travellers hungrily tucking into its menu or slurping on their smoothie selection.
Sister Sray is definitely one of the most popular cafe / brunch spots in Siem Reap. It has a wide ranging menu from soup to burgers, all day breakfasts to fried noodles. The menu has plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, which adds to the popularity. Everything that came out of their kitchen looked fresh, vibrant and yummy. The food is a little pricier but they do have some great value treats to enjoy.
We ordered the banana and coconut bread along with a pot of earl grey tea (I know we were living up to the stereotype). The tea came in at $3.25 for a pot big enough for two people and the banana bread was only $1.50, which we thought was a bargain.
The bread looked like an even better deal when it arrived, a thick wedge of moist banana and coconut bread, served hot with pots of butter and honey on the side. It was the perfect indulgence and worked beautifully alongside a pot of floral, astringent earl grey tea.
Eric Kayser Bakeries.
Sometimes we just want a little Parisian luxury in our life. Even in Cambodia, in the midst of a backpacking adventure across South East Asia, the craving for croissants can strike. The seeds of desire were planted on our first day in Siem Reap where, backpacks weighing us down on the way from the bus station, we passed by the windows of one of Eric Kayser's bakeries.
Seriously the windows should have come with blinds, or a parental warning, the pastries on display were sexy. Food should not be sexy, not in public. We knew it was only a matter of time before we succumbed to the buttery succubus and caved to the expensive pastries.
It happened, in fact it happened more than once. The excuse we told ourselves is we needed portable food for a picnic among the temples of Angkor, it was a good excuse. It definitely excused us buying expensive (not really) french patisseries.
Over the course of our Siem Reap stay we tried the pain au chocolat, the almond croissant and an olive stick. They were not style over substance, their enticing exteriors were matched by their delicious taste. The almond croissant and pain au chocolat were many-layered things of beauty; crunchy, buttery with the perfect chew and texture. The olive bread was fantastic, dense and studded with dark olives, a perfect savoury snack.
There was also a selection of cakes, sandwiches and pastries on display. They looked so good it would have almost been a crime to eat them. Glazed tarts, sandwiches stuffed with imported charcuterie and all manner of deliciousness tempted us. With a herculean effort, we managed to resist these further temptations, if you give in let us know what we missed out on in the comments!
We have dressed Eric Kayer’s bakery up to be expensive, it really wasn’t. It was luxurious but not expensive. Our pain au chocolat was $1,20 for a small one and this was well worth the price. It is true that we could have had a whole plate of noodles for around that price but that does not make $1.20 expensive. On long term travels it is worth differentiating between indulgent luxury and needless expense. One should be avoided and the other indulged in when the need arises.
Victory! …. For excuses to buy pastries!
Siem Reap is a large city - the second biggest in Cambodia. As the tourist hub for Angkor Wat and the temple complex, it has dozens of brunch spots, coffee shops, local markets, slow bars and street stalls. You could live here for years and not sample half what the city has to offer. That is our roundabout way of saying that this is definitely not an exhaustive guide to the breakfasts you can enjoy in Siem Reap. If we have missed your favourite place, local or Western, let us know in the comments.
Being such a tourist friendly city means that it is possible to eat both badly and expensively in Siem Reap; we saw any amount of flaccid omelettes and boring benedicts being served around town. The above places all impressed us with genuinely good food. We usually stick to a backpacking budget friendly diet of local and street food, but in Siem Reap we indulged in some home comforts and were very glad we did. Siem Reap is a city to treat yourself in, do not resist the call of the croissant!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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Lort Cha - Family Rice Noodle and Chives Cake in Siem Reap
Every country has its comfort food and Cambodia has Lort Cha. Come with us as we devour our favourite plate of this Cambodian delicacy at Family Rice Noodles and Chive Cake in Siem Reap. Read all about why these quick stir-fried noodles and chive cakes are the ultimate, addictive treat!
Wherever you are in this world, you’ll soon realise that every country has a certain dish that just oozes comfort. A dish you seek out when you’re ‘under the weather’, hungover or just want to be reminded a little bit of home. For the Cambodian’s its Lort Cha.
What is Lort Cha?
Lort Cha is a stir-fried noodle dish. Made up of short, circular noodles, imagine a really thick piece of spaghetti that is chopped into short, inch long segments. The rice noodles are then stir-fried together with sweet soy sauce, protein, bean sprouts and vegetables to give a smokey, sweet, addictive taste.
The rice noodles are what makes the Lort Cha unique. Gummy yet firm, the noodles have an addictive texture that soaks up the sauce, egg yolks and anything else you put on top.
You can have Lort Cha with pretty much any protein you can imagine and it is usually topped with a runny fried egg for extra delicious richness! Add to this tasty pile of stir fried goodness a sweet vinegar sauce and then tweak at the table top with dried chillies, vinegars and white pepper.
It is the ultimate comfort food!
Where can Lort Char be eaten in Cambodia?
Lort Cha can be eaten all over the country, from markets to street side stalls, just look out for the huge metal pans and listen out for the traditional sizzle of hot oil! We found an especially brilliant example of Lort Cha at…
Family Rice Noodle & Chives Cake Restaurant - Lort Cha in Siem Reap
Lort Cha is delicious on its own, but there’s a restaurant in Siem Reap that’s raised the bar.
When you inevitably find yourself in Siem Reap which, let's face it you will, it is the home of Angkor Wat after all, make sure you head to Family Rice Noodle & Chive Cake Restaurant (located here) on Highway 63.
Open since 1987, this small restaurant has been a Siem Reap staple feeding both locals and tourists its tasty fare for decades. What sets this restaurant apart from other Lort Cha stalls, stands and shops is the addition of a fried chive cake to the noodles. This may not seem like much but it elevated the dish, transforming it into our favourite Lort Cha we’ve eaten so far in our Cambodian travels.
The small restaurant is located near the popular Pub Street in the tourist heart of Siem Reap. Despite this, it maintains a healthy clientele of local regulars as well as passing hungry tourists. Always a good sign!
We ordered two plates of Lort Cha with beef, chive cake and egg. The menu is small and just variations on the theme of Lort Cha plus chive cake plus topping. The base is always the same but the extras make the dish! We are always a little put off by large menus, they sometimes translate to a large freezer but there was no worry about this here. The restaurant does one thing and it does it very well.
You can have Lort Cha as a vegetarian dish if you want. The toppings can be swapped, mixed and matched to your heart's desire. You could have it topped with fish cake, tofu, chicken or beef. You can even have chive cakes served by themselves.
At the open front of the stall, our short noodles were thrown into a massive flat wok and quickly tossed and fried together with vegetables, beef and the addictive sweet, smokey sauce. In another large pan to the side, plump chive cakes sat sizzling away. Its sides charing up into a crispy, crunchy, golden crust. In one final move the lady scooped our noodles and cake together before quickly frying a runny yolked egg and topping off our plates.
What came to our table was two plates of smoking, messy, comforting goodness. The eggs were quickly smashed into the noodles and chive cake, coating everything in the golden rich yolks. We added lashings of white pepper and a generous scoop of spicy dried chilli flakes before delving into our Lort Cha.
Everything came together in a smoky, sweet, spicy explosion of texture and flavour. The short noodles clung on to the sauce and vegetables, the thin slices of beef added another dimension to the rich sweet sauce and the crunchy quick fried vegetables added a fresh angle to the plate. The chive cakes however stole the show.
The chive cakes were delicious. Soft, fluffy and full of minerally flavour. The cakes are, like much of Lort Cha, Chinese in influence, with a rich oniony taste of fresh chives coated in a goey, crunchy edged batter. The texture reminded us of mashed potato covered in a crisp, crunchy coating. The chive cakes were like an Asian take on bubble and squeak.
For those readers not from the UK, bubble and squeak is a soft, cake made up from the leftovers of your Sunday roast all smashed together with potato and then fried.
It was the texture that made the dish. The fried coating of the chive cakes gave a delicious bite that, along with its soft interior and the firmness of the noodles made for the ultimate addictive comfort food. Every mouthful had every texture you could want, all flavoured with the soy, stir fry sauce and perfumed with chives and chilli. It was sooo good!
The dish was everything we hoped for when we read about the “Cambodian comfort food” and more. It was a simple stir fry dish that was completely unique. You can say it was a little like bubble and squeak meets chow mien but this wouldn't give you half the picture. Lort Cha is Lort Cha, nothing else is quite like it. Whether you're nursing a hangover from too many Anchors on Pub Street, or just looking for some delicious comfort food, Lort Cha is an absolute must try. We tried it several times….
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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Taking a cooking class in Cambodia - learning to cook Khmer food in Battambang
We feel the best way to get to know a country is through its food and there’s no better way of doing this than through a cooking class! Come with us as we spend the afternoon buying ingredients at a local fresh market and cooking up a Cambodian feast of fish amok, stir-fried beef and lemongrass and a Khmer chicken curry at the Smokin’ Pot Cooking School in Battambang!
The cuisine of Cambodia, Khmer food, doesn’t enjoy the same international fame as its Vietnamese and Thai neighbours, but anyone who has travelled through this fantastic country, knows that Khmer food is ridiculously good! One of our favourite ways to get into the culinary scene of a country is to take a cooking class. So in our first week in Cambodia, in the city of Battambang, that is exactly what we did!
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Cooking classes in Battambang
Up and down the streets of Battambang there are several different cooking schools and classes to choose from. Each class will offer a similar menu of Khmer favourites and will almost always, include a trip to a local market to buy ingredients as well as giving you the recipes at the end so you can cook the dishes at home.
A quick Google search will give you the names of Coconut Lyly, Nary’s Kitchen and the Smokin’ Pot.
We chose the Smokin’ Pot for an afternoon cooking class. The Smokin’ Pot has a restaurant in town and the reviews on Google looked great. We cannot tell you if this is “the best cooking class in Battambang” as we only took the one, but what we can say is that we had a fantastic time with them.
The Smokin’ Pot Cooking Class
We were picked up from our cheap and cheerful hostel, Lucky Hostel by Vannak in his remorque (think an old school carriage but pulled by a motorbike rather than a horse) and were whisked away out of Battambang town. This is where things got off the rails. The benefits of travelling in the rainy season are cheaper accommodation and less crowds. The disadvantages are well… it rains. Sometimes it rains a lot.
A little way outside of Battambang, we made an impromptu stop at a covered market to escape the deluge we had run into. Sheltering inside next to closed up fruit stalls we were quickly joined by soaked school children on their way back home and other locals escaping the rain. As quickly as it started, the rain moved on across the plains, a quick wipe down of the seats and we were back in the remorque and on our way again.
Our first official stop was to gather some ingredients at the Kwaeng Market (location). As soon as we stepped out the remorque we knew this wasn’t your usual tourist market but a truly local affair. Vannak was clearly a regular, joking and chatting with all the stall holders.
Our first stop was a coconut stall where we were shown how to strip a coconut into coconut shavings. These shavings were then squeezed into fresh, delicious coconut milk. We needed both the shavings and the milk for our cooking, so we grabbed a bag of each.
Next up was the vegetables. Spread out on the floor like a colourful patchwork quilt, were boxes, baskets and punnets of fruit and vegetables in every shape and colour imaginable. Vannak walked us through all the more exotic vegetables we might not get in the UK, explaining how they could be used in both cooking and medicine. We picked up some fresh bunches of morning glory, long strands of snake beans, a bouquet of herbs, fiery red chillies, twisted stumps of ginger, turmeric and galangal and a large bag of garlic.
Next we needed protein. Heading to the meat stall, the butcher presented us with all the different cuts of beef to choose from. Vannak clearly knew what he was looking for and after testing for tenderness, he sliced off a fresh chunk of juicy steak. Some chicken was also selected and added to the bag ready for curry-ing later!
The fish lady was nowhere to be found, her stall was there but her baskets were empty and she had wandered off to get some very fresh supplies. Whilst we waited for her return, Vannak took us over to a steaming pile of beef innards. It was time for a snack, Cambodian style! He explained to us that this dish was a special treat in Khmer cuisine, and often eaten at weddings and special occasions. Every part of the inside of the cow was stewed together in a large steaming silver bowl. Vanank sliced us off some choice cuts of heart, lung and stomach lining. Each piece had a unique texture and had been deeply flavoured from the broth it had been stewing in. It wasn’t unpleasant, but the textures were very different from the uniform beef we are used to. The stomach lining in particular was very odd, with one side of it being tender and melting and the other side requiring serious effort to get your teeth through. It's one of those dishes where if you grew up with it, we can imagine it being a tasty treat and a texture you could become addicted to.
During this meaty interlude our wayward fish seller returned. Inside her plastic bowls were live catfish, snakehead fish and even some eels. You couldn’t argue with the freshness, they were all there wriggling and writhing. Vannak picked out a fresh snakehead fish and the seller got to work. With a brutal efficiency and knife skills Gordon Ramsey would be proud of, the fish was dispatched, gutted, scaled and filleted in a matter of moments. Into a bag it went and back to the remorque we went.
A short drive from the market and we pulled into Vannak’s house. The kitchen for the cooking class stretched down one side of the house, with a lovely view out over his small farm and the rice paddy fields beyond. We washed our hands and were quickly set to work.
Over the next few hours we cooked up a Khmer storm.
First up we needed a curry paste base. In a stone pestle and mortar we smashed and pounded together turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaf and garlic. This would be the base for all three curries we were cooking that day.
Our first curry would be the fish amok. An iconic Khmer dish and one that Ellie is very fond of. We made delicate, traditional banana leaf baskets to steam the fish curry in. The fish was chopped and joined by the ruby red chillies, curry paste and freshly squeezed coconut milk and poured into our banana leaf bowls. This all went into a covered steamer, and was left to simmer away.
Who made the banana basket best? Ellie’s is on the left, John’s is on the right!
Next we sliced up thin slithers of beef along with smashed lemon grass, snake beans, morning glory and more chillies. This was the base for our quick beef and lemongrass stir fry.
Our final dish to prepare was a traditional Khmer chicken curry. Curry paste, fish sauce, sticky palm sugar, sliced onions, green beans, chicken and lime leaf all went into a bowl to be cooked together.
Our method of cooking was a traditional, Cambodian wood fire. A large stone / terracotta pot was filled with embers and branches of wood, and a pot or wok was placed on top of the flames to cook. The smell of burning wood and frying curry paste filled the air. Stood amongst rice paddies and farm fields with the smell of wood smoke and cooking in the air, it was perfect. A fantastic way to experience proper, traditional Cambodian cooking. As we stir fried our beef and cooked up the curry, all our meals came together. Served with mounds of steaming rice, we tucked into our home cooked feast.
The fish amok was incredible. Creamy and coconutty with firm chunks of fish and peppered with spicy red chilli it was a harmonious symphony of flavour and texture. The steaming had perfectly cooked the fish without turning it into mush, and the once liquid coconut milk had firmed up into a thicker, curry texture.
The citrus lemongrass beef was the perfect counterpoint to the creamy amok. Full of sharp, vibrant zingy flavours, it lightened our taste buds right back up!
The Khmer chicken curry was full of spices all held in a perfect balance. The chicken had leant its flavour to the curry paste, the paste leant its flavour to the vegetables and it all came together as a beautiful bowl of curry.
It was a delicious feast and tasted even better knowing we had bought all the ingredients and made it all ourselves!
How to book a cooking class in Battambang
To book a cooking class with the Smokin’ Pot, just head over to their website here.
Classes can take place either in the morning (9am to 12pm) or in the afternoon (3pm to 6pm, just pick your preferred time.
Cost of the cooking class
It costs $15 USD per person. This included pick up and drop off in Battambang as well as all the ingredients and food we ate.
Travelling in the low (wet) season meant that we got an especially good deal as we had our very own private class - we were the only ones cooking that day!
Final thoughts
There really is no better way than to get in amongst local culture than by its markets, produce and cooking. You can combine all of these together in a cooking class! We had gone into the cooking class fairly ignorant of Khmer cuisine and had come out with bundles of new found knowledge and a deeper appreciation for the food of Cambodia.
The man himself, Vannak!
Vannak had been amazing, giving clear instructions whilst being great fun and a real wealth of local knowledge. If you’re in Battambang, definitely take a class! We would highly recommend the Smokin’ Pot.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
To read more about what there is to do in Battambang city, check out our travel guide below:
For help planning your Cambodia trip, make sure you have read our suggested routes:
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Battambang - A Cambodian adventure of bats, ruins and a bamboo train!
Battambang is a ‘must visit’ on any Cambodia itinerary. With plenty of things to do including the ruins of the Banan and Ek Phnom temples, the famous ‘Bamboo Train’ and the cave bats of Phnom Sampov. The city is full of cute cafes, local markets, traditional Khmer restaurants and even a ‘Pub Street '. Read our complete travel guide for all you need to know about visiting this laid back, Cambodian city.
Battambang city or Krong Battambang will be, for many travellers, their first stop on their Cambodian adventure. Set a short two hour drive away from the border with Thailand, Battambang is the third largest city in Cambodia. Full of colonial style buildings, Khmer ruins and interesting days out, Battambang city still retains a sleepy, laid back and relaxed feel.
Battambang has recently become a hub for artists and performers with street art, community spaces, art galleries and pop-ups springing up all over the city.
Battambang is also full of fascinating and occasionally upsetting history. The city has loads to see and do and the surrounding countryside is studded with incredible sights and activities. From the cheesy fun of the Bamboo Train, to the amazing spectacle of millions of bats pouring out from the Phnom Sampov mountainside, Battambang has so much to offer!
In this Battambang travel guide:
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Where is Battambang?
Battambang is located two hours east by car from the Poipet / Aranyaprathet border between Cambodia and Thailand - for more information on crossing this border, check out our article here.
Battambang is south west of the city of Siem Reap and the historic ruins of Angkor Wat. Between the two cities lies the enormous lake of Tonle Sap (the largest freshwater lake in southeast Asia).
Battambang is a major transport hub with bus links to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, the rest of Cambodia and beyond. The closest international airport to Battambang would be Siem Reap International Airport.
To book tickets in advance for getting around Cambodia, check out 12Go. We travelled to Battambang from Bangkok, Thailand and if you’re travelling internationally, you can get buses from Vietnam or even from Laos.
Book Bangkok to Battambang bus tickets here
There is a railway station in the city, the Battambang Royal Railway Station (located here) which has links to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, however, there are very few trains that serve the station. Currently there is only one train departing Battambang to Phnom Penh at 15:00 pm in the afternoon. If you’re heading from Phnom Penh to Battambang, there is only one daily train which departs from the capital at 06:40 am. Both trains stop at the city of Pursat (gateway to the Cardamom Hills) .
Before the pandemic there used to be a rail service that linked Battambang with Poipet and the border with Thailand, but this has been temporarily suspended for now. To keep up to date with when the rail service is resumed, we’d recommend checking Seat 61. You can s
When booking tickets, if your next destination isn’t showing on 12Go, there will be tourist offices and agents to help book your onward transport. Just be aware they will add their commission to the cost of the ticket price!
If you are looking at planning a Cambodian adventure make sure you check out our suggested itineraries here.
What to do in Battambang?
So you’ve made it to Battambang, what next?
We spent nearly a week in Battambang, a good deal more than most travellers, and have found that there is plenty to see and do in this small city.
Street Art of Battambang
(Location)
All along Pub Street (more on this later) alleyways and walls are decorated with huge murals. Part of the S’art Urban Art Festival held in 2019, Battambang saw artists descend on Pub Street and create massive, vibrant pieces of street art. Each artist has their own style with everything from an abstract Cambodian tuk tuk to a beautifully painted multi-story lady from the Mekong. The street art spills out from window and side streets, just make sure to look down every alleyway!
We always love stumbling across street art (check out our Songkhla and Hat Yai articles for more examples) and the street art here was really impressive.
To learn more about the artists and their art, check out their Facebook page here.
Ticket price: Free
Opening times: Open 24 hours a day but you’ll want to see it in daylight!
National Museum of Battambang
(Location)
Set in an impressive building with beautiful blue and gold fretwork gables, the National Museum houses a treasure trove of artefacts from prehistoric times through to the Angkor period.
The museum is split into prehistoric, archaeology, Buddhist relics, Hindu and Khmer pieces.
We particularly loved the door lintels and frames intricately inscribed with old Khmer and Sanskrit writings. It was like looking at the ‘Rosetta Stone’ you’d have passages in ancient Khmer, followed by excerpts in old Sanskrit. If you ever needed a perfect example of two cultures coming together, these lintels were it!
The museum is not very large and you won’t need more than 45 minutes to see everything. Even so, it’s well worth popping in.
Ticket price: $3 per person - you can also pay in Cambodian Riel.
Opening times: Monday to Friday from 08:00am to 12:00 pm and from 14:00 pm to 17:30pm. The museum is closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Romcheik 5 Artspace & Cafe
(Location)
Located over the river from the main tourist area, past high-rise hotels and local bars, this art space and café is full to the brim with colourful paintings and sculptures created by local Battambang artists.
Upstairs above the gallery is a stylish coffee shop serving all manner of hot and iced coffees, as well as a selection of sweet treats and brunch options.
There are no cameras allowed inside so you’ll have to take our word, but the artwork was striking and unique and well worth a nose around.
Our favourite installations of the whole gallery were actually the first ones we stumbled upon at the entrance when we arrived. These were huge wind chimes made up of recycled beer and soda cans that swung slowly from the trees above.
The gallery was a little splash of colour against the grey skies of the rainy season.
Ticket price: $5 per ticket. A little pricey for Cambodia, but the money is used to support the local artists and their families.
If you just want to visit the rooftop café, there is no entry fee.
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday from 09:00 am to 17.45 pm. The gallery is closed on Monday.
Markets of Battambang
There are two main markets in Battambang selling everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to knock-off designer clothes and toys.
Battambang Central Market
(Location)
Leading away west from the Sangker River, Battambang’s Central Market was a hub of activity throughout the day and well into the evening. The outside of the market is dominated by fruit stalls, their rainbow produce stacked into perfect pyramids. There is a small food court inside and plenty of stalls selling souvenirs and “designer” goods. There’s also a large selection of gold and jewellery dealers, being backpackers we weren’t even remotely tempted, but if you know your stuff it might be worth a look.
Boeung Chhouk Market
(Location)
The Boeung Chhouk Market is a much more local affair with fresh fruit, meat and fish being sold alongside toiletries and children’s toys. We really enjoyed wandering around here in the early evening and watching all the local youth having their hair and nails done in the many impromptu salons dotted inside the market. You’d be walking down a market alley selling live frogs and nappies by the crate load, when you’d suddenly have to dodge around a barbers chair from the 1960s that had been dragged out into the middle of the aisle. There were literally queues of youngsters dolled up, or waiting to be, all around the market!
If you’re after a SIM card there are plenty of mobile phone providers all around the market. If you’d prefer to arrange this in advance, check out the eSIMS available on Airalo here.
Battambang Riverfront
Anyone who has spent any time on this site knows that we like to just wander around a new city. Battambang is no exception. An interesting walk is to start at the Central Market and follow the Sanker River south taking in the National Museum, the Independence Monument, the Dragon Peace statue and the gardens along the riverfront. You can then cross the river and check out the Sangke Pagoda and monastery with its Angkor style gateway.
At night, on both banks of the riverfront, street vendors set up selling everything from rotis and noodles to salads and beer.
Take a cooking class
Taking a cooking class is a great way to spend a morning or afternoon in Battambang. There are loads of classes to choose from in the town including Nary Kitchen, Coconut Lyly and the Smokin’ Pot. Most lessons will include a trip around a local market followed by the chance to cook some Khmer favourites.
We had a fantastic afternoon with the Smokin’ Pot cooking class where we learnt to cook a citrussy stir-fried beef and lemongrass, a Khmer chicken curry and a creamy, coconutty fish amok. It was a great class and we got to learn so much. Plus the dishes at the end were delicious!
Read all about our afternoon of Khmer cooking here.
Day trips outside of Battambang
Outside of Battambang, there is plenty to do, with most of the famous ‘attractions’ of the area being found in the countryside surrounding the small city.
The easiest way to see all that the area around Battambang has to offer is by hiring a tuk tuk or remorque (traditional Cambodian trailer tuk tuk) driver for the day. Everyone in town will offer this to you, just speak with your accommodation and shop around to get a good deal. If you are hiring a driver for an agreed price, you will still need to pay the entrance fees to the various sites.
Taking a ride in a remorque - Cambodia’s form of a tuk tuk!
Passenger princesses!
If you can ride a scooter, you can easily rent a bike from the city and explore the area yourself, just speak to your accommodation or one of the travel agents in town. Just be aware that some of the roads are not in the best condition, and that’s putting it mildly! If it has been raining, be extra careful as the puddles will mask just how deep some of the potholes are.
Another option, especially for those with limited time, is to arrange all your sightseeing in advance by booking a tour with Get Your Guide. Check out the many Battambang tours they offer below:
Take a ride on the famous ‘Bamboo Train’
Any search of social media for the town of Battambang will quickly bring you to the ‘Bamboo Train’.
This backpacker favourite has been going for years and we ourselves first took a ride on this train nearly a decade ago, when a fresh faced Jellie first set foot in southeast Asia!
A very young Jellie!
What a difference a decade makes!
Nowadays the bamboo train looks a little less ramshackle than we remembered it being. The tracks have been cleared and cleaned up and you’re no longer ducking the foliage and large spiders that used to line the rails.
For $5 USD per person, you get to sit on a small, square bamboo platform that’s strapped to some tiny train wheels and powered by what looks like a lawn mower engine. It shouldn’t be fun, but it really is!
You spend around half an hour zooming down the track at unexpectedly high speeds, passing paddy fields, buffalos, cows, bridges and children. If you meet another bamboo train coming the other way, you politely slow down and one of you disassembles their train, lets the other pass and then reassembles the train and continues on their way!
Today it is just for tourists, but originally the abandoned train line was used by the local farmers to speed up the transport of their crops. Nowadays it is quite cheesy and there is a disappointing number of children selling bracelets (please don’t buy them), but it’s still definitely worth a visit.
Throughout Cambodia you will find countless numbers of children begging / selling trinkets on the streets. It sounds heartless, but please do not buy from them or give them money. The parents of these children have taken them out of school as they think tourists will give them money. By supporting this, you will reaffirm the parents beliefs and will keep the children out of education. If you want to help, have a look at donating to a charity such as The Cambodian Children’s Charity.
Where is the bamboo train?
Located half an hour's drive to the southeast of Battambang city. You can find the Bamboo train here.
Bamboo train tickets
You will pull up to what can only be described as a large shed and pay someone $5 USD per person for your ride on the bamboo train. Each “train” can seat 4 people. It being the low season when we went, we had our very own private locomotive.
How long does the bamboo train ride last?
The whole bamboo train experience lasts around an hour. You ride the tracks for around twenty to twenty-five minutes to a stop, you then have ten to twenty minutes of high-pressure sales for drinks, t-shirts etc and then climb back on and come back down the line.
When is the bamboo train open?
The opening times are listed as open between 7am and 6pm everyday. Festivals and public holidays may affect this.
We visited the Bamboo Train in the calm of the wet season. There was hardly anyone else there and we only met two other “trains” whilst riding. If this was the height of the high season, it may have been a very different experience. As we mentioned if you meet someone going the other way your train has to stop and be disassembled to let them pass. The more trains, the more frequent these stops would be and the less time you’d spend cruising at top speed!
Is the bamboo train worth it?
It’s cheesy, it’s touristy but it is also good fun! If you’re in Battambang it's only $5 per person and we’d say just go for it. It’s not going to be a life-changing travel experience but it is a good laugh. Also, if you’re travelling with children this would make an excellent trip, and probably a welcome break from culture and ruins!
Banan Temple
The ruins of this beautiful hilltop temple sit right at the top of a very steep set of stone stairs. To reach the wat, you’ll need to climb the 300 hundred plus steps of this naga-lined staircase.
We visited on a swelteringly hot day in the wet season and by the top, you could have wrung us out - top tip, take plenty of water!
At the top, the temple is absolutely gorgeous with its five towers in various states of collapse and restoration. Dotted around there are active Buddhist shrines and statues with the scent of incense hanging everywhere. If you’re lucky, the local grey striped temple kitty will be photo-genetically posed in front of one of the shrines!
As the temple is set on top of a large hill, you also get fantastic views wherever there is a break in the trees.
If this is your first Khmer ruin in Cambodia, savour it. It is so much less busy and feels more like a discovery than the much larger, more popular ruins of Angkor Wat.
At the bottom of the hill before you climb to the temple, there are lots of food and drink stands and a couple of larger restaurants.
Where is the Banan Temple?
Banan Temple is 22 km south of Battambang city, about half an hour's drive away. You can find it on a map here.
Entrance fee for Banan Temple
Tickets cost 8000 riel each ($2 USD).
Banan Temple opening hours
The temple is listed as being open between 6am and 6pm daily. During religious festivals and holidays this may change, however the temple did not have any gates or anything, so it may just be unattended.
Ek Phnom Pagoda
To the north of Battambang lies another incredible Khmer ruin, the Ek Phnom Pagoda.
As we pulled into the carpark on our remorque, all we could see was a modern, beautiful, golden temple. Its walls and roof covered in colourful illustrations of scenes from the Buddha’s life and gold pillars and fretwork gleamed everywhere. Loud speakers were playing out the chanting service from within. The Buddhist temple was beautiful, but there was a greater treasure hidden behind it.
The ruins of the Ek Phnom temple are surrounded by lily ponds, with the ruins rising up in the centre. This small site was nearly deserted when we arrived with just one other pair of backpackers and a Cambodian family.
The whole temple had a magical feel to it. Simultaneously abandoned and in use, ruined and restored, Ek Phnom was just what you pictured when you think of Cambodia. Something that is both preserved and still somehow lost to time.
You can walk, clamber and explore the whole site by yourself and it really does feel like you’ve stumbled upon something special. Inside the half ruined walls there is a small shrine, surrounded by incense and offerings.
When you leave, make sure you check out the seated giant buddha in the lake near the car park. Judging by the amount of fairy lights covering him it would be quite the sight at night!
Where is the Ek Phnom temple?
The Ek Phnom temple is located 8 km northwest of Battambang and will take just over fifteen minutes to drive there. You can find the temple here.
Entrance fee for Ek Phnom?
There is a small counter on the side of the new temple as you approach the ruins. Tickets cost 8000 riel each ($1 USD).
Opening times for Ek Phnom temple?
The temple should be open from 7am to 6pm everyday.
Wat Samrong Knong and the Samrong Knong Killing Fields / Torture House museum
The beautiful grounds of Wat Samrong Knong hold a terrible past. The temple grounds were taken over by the Khmer Rouge in early 1976, and turned into a prison and interrogation camp. This quickly became one of the infamous Killing Fields of Cambodia.
Today, the temple has been restored and the grounds were full of school children and monks cycling around on bicycles. Just outside however, was the grim monument to the horrific history the site held, the Well of Shadows.
The Killing Fields memorial started life as a wooden platform with an awning to shelter the bones that were dug or washed up from the ground. Nowadays, it is a peaceful, white tower known as the Well of Shadows. At the bottom, is a garden surrounded by billboards explaining its history. The bones and skulls of the victims still stare at visitors from the glass centre of the monument. Like lots of places in Cambodia it is very shocking and the inscriptions and paintings of what happened on the site are truly horrific. Not one for small children, but as a visitor to Cambodia you cannot and should not ignore its recent history.
As well as the monument there are plaques around the temple and its grounds explaining what happened and where. There is also a small exhibition from survivors set on the lake over the road from the monument and the torture house museum which gives further information about the crimes committed in the fields and camp.
Where are the Samrong Knong Killing Fields?
A short ten to fifteen ride from Battambang city, the Samrong Knong Killing Fields are 5 km north of town. You can find them on a map here.
Entry costs and opening times
There is no cost to enter the Samrong Knong Killing Fields or temple, but there is a donation box.
The Well of Shadows is open to the public 24 hours a day.
Craft villages - Rice paper making, sticky rice, fish sauce and rice wine distilleries
Surrounding Battambang are sets of villages each specialising in a particular craft or product. You can take tours from the city and stop off to see how different local goods are produced.
We didn’t visit them this time around as we had visited the villages as part of a tour last time we were in Battambang (a very long time ago).
We don’t know if this has devolved into the depressing “tourist villages” seen elsewhere, where the actual production is now an after thought compared to the pantomime put on for visiting tourists. We can say that when we visited, way back when, they were still very much working villages, and the goods being produced were still made by hand in the traditional way.
We are hopeful that the process hasn’t changed to much. When we passed through the rice paper village this time, we could still see the rice paper being dried on the bamboo racks in the gardens lining the road.
Let us know in the comments if you take a tour and visit the villages as we would love to know if it's still the same now.
Fruit Bats of Baydamram
Battambang is famous for its bats and the amazing nightly displays at Phnom Sampov, but there are other sky-borne critters to discover.
During the morning, if you head south (around 15 km away) from Battambang to the small riverside village of Baydamram (located here), you can witness hundreds and hundreds of Fruit Bats sleeping in the trees.
Head past the market and walk to the trees opposite the Buddhist temple and look up to see the sleeping sky puppies. These Fruit Bats shelter here to sleep before flying off around lunch time to feast.
It takes a while for your eyes to adjust, but when they do, you’ll suddenly see that the trees are chock full of hanging bats!
We visited just before their lunchtime departure and a few eager beavers were already flying around, but the majority of the bats were still hanging upside down, fast asleep.
The Rickety Bridge
(Location)
Stretching the width of the Sangker River, this wooden suspension bridge has been aptly coined the ‘Rickety Bridge’. We took a quick stop off here and it certainly lived up to its name. You could feel the bridge move and sway underneath you, especially when a local would drive past on their bike. It gave us serious Indianna Jones vibes!
It’s not worth an expedition just to find the bridge, but if you’re passing on the way to the Bamboo Train its certainly worth a quick stop.
Phnom Sampov
To the south of Battambang rises a rocky hill amidst the flat rice paddy plains. This is the hill of Phnom Sampov located here.
Phnom Sampov is home perhaps to Battambang’s most famous attraction as well as to some of its most shocking history. Starting with the positives, the Phnom Sampov is home to millions and millions of the Asian Wrinkled Lipped Bats and their evening displays draw crowds from across the world. On top of the hill there is also a beautiful set of Buddhist temples and shrines that you can explore as well as some fantastic views out across the flat plains of Battambang province. On the darker side of things, Phnom Sampov hill is the location of the ‘Killing Cave’, a cave used by the Khmer Rouge for interrogation and the killing of prisoners.
To reach the top of the hill to visit the temples and the Killing Cave, you have four options:
The first is to walk up and down the mountain yourself. There are steep sets of stairs that wind through the forest all the way to the temple from which you can make your way across the hillside to the cave. We were told this option would take around three hours but we feel you could definitely do this in much less. Just beware of the monkeys and the heat!
The second option is to hire a bike driver for $10 per person who will take you up to the cave, wait for you, then take you onto the temple before driving you back down the mountain.
The third option and the one we went with, was to get a car up the mountain to the caves, then onto the temple. This would mean we had to walk back down the hill ourselves but would only cost $8 USD for the car ($4 per person).
The fourth option would be to rent a scooter from Battambang and drive yourself up and down the twist and turns of the hill to both the temples and the cave. This option is only for the most confident of drivers as the ride is steep and the mountain roads are barricade-less throughout!
Honestly we would recommend the first or the third option as the bike seemed a little pricey and the walking route down wasn’t as steep as we were led to believe. However, Cambodia is extremely hot and in the wet season very, very humid! The motorbike option (either driving yourself or hiring a driver) would make sense if you arrived a little later and wanted to fit everything in before the bats put on their aerobatic show.
The view from the top of Phnom Sampov!
The Killing Cave at Phnom Sampov
(Location)
You know from the name that this isn’t going to be a happy place. The Killing Cave at Phnom Sampov was another example of the brutality, cruelty and violence exhibited by the Khmer Rouge to anyone they saw as a threat. During the 1970s, political prisoners were marched up the hill, bludgeoned to death and then pushed through an opening in the roof of the cave, their bodies landing far below.
Today, the site has been reborn into a memorial. The cave itself is quite beautiful with a shrine and a golden reclining buddha statue. Outside there are plaques explaining the brutal history of the place as well as statues showing Buddhist hell and a lookout point with a seated buddha. To the left of the cave is another viewpoint with sweeping vistas across the paddy fields.
Like so many places in Cambodia, the Killing Cave is both sad and beautiful. A testament to the resilience and recovery of the Cambodians.
Entry fee:
Free but donations welcome.
Opening times:
Open 24 hours everyday.
Phnom Sampov Temple and viewpoint
(Location)
A short drive or walk away from the Killing Cave are the serene temples and stupas of Phnom Sampov Temple.
The temple itself is gold roofed and beautiful. With several stupas, outbuildings and statues. We found loads of different viewpoints that gave great views all over the surrounding landscapes. On a clear day you would be able to see for miles. We visited during the wet season on a far from clear day and spent a good half hour watching the rains sweep across the plains and paddy fields towards us.
Behind the temple, there is a set of stone stairs that seem to disappear into the midst of the mountain. Do not miss these! The stairs lead down to what feels like a lost world. Stone cliffs rise up on all sides with the sky only breaking through directly overhead. We came to the bottom of the steps into what felt like a green crater. Two stone statues stood as silent sentinels scrutinising our every move. Behind them a thriving forest had sprung up in this craterous light well. There is a small cave shrine set into the bottom of the cliff-face. The lights inside the cave weren’t working but as we shone our phone torches inside, the gleam of gold sparkled back at us.
We took shelter in this crater as the rains blew over us and it was one of those times where you really feel like you’re the only people in the world.
There is another set of stairs that wind you back up to the rear of the temple. To head back down the mountain, take the stairs from near to the shop in the temple grounds. If you’re not sure which path to take, the friendly owners will point you in the right direction. Especially if you buy a drink from them!
If you do buy drinks, snacks or walk up or down to the temple, be aware of the troop of monkeys that live in and around the temple grounds. They are particularly hungry monkeys and are not afraid to approach you for a snack!
What…
did…
he find?
Entry cost to Phnom Sampov Temple:
Completely free although the temple accepts donations.
Opening times of Phnom Sampov Temple:
The temple is open all hours.
The Bats of Phnom Sampov Cave
This is almost certainly why you’re here. Most of the tours organised in Battambang will get you here in time for the nightly displays of the bats of Phnom Sampov Cave.
When you approach the bat cave, you’ll have to pay a small fee (4000 riel each) and it will instantly become obvious that this whole area has been set aside for bat watching.
As the light begins to fade, the streets fill up with plastic chairs and tables and the smell of grilling meat. People start to pour into the area as hostels, minivans, tuk tuks and motorbikes disgorge backpackers and travellers ready for the nightly display.
The side of the mountain has been carved out into large scale artworks including a seated and a reclining buddha. It is still being carved now. When we visited we got to watch a duo consisting of a saffron clad monk and a man with an axle grinder drawing on the designs and carving the stone.
To the right of these carvings is the famous Phnom Sampov Bat Cave.
All along the road, chairs and tables are set up right in front of the bat cave. To sit on these seats you will be expected to order food or drink from one of the stall holders. As soon as your bum has hit plastic you will be given a menu. The food and drink options were surprisingly reasonable, obviously slightly more expensive than you’d pay in town but it didn’t feel exploitatively expensive.
As the sun goes down, people take their seats, order their beers and food and wait for the aerial show. You’ll know it's nearly time when the air is suddenly filled with high pitched squeaking as the cave comes alive.
It starts off slowly with a few wispy streams of bats floating out of the cave. Before long though, it is a torrent, a literal river of bats cascading in an undulating ribbon out of the cave mouth. Literally, millions of bats (around 2.5 million) pour out of the small cave entrance, in an unbroken, scintillating line that stretches past the horizon.
It starts off with just a few bats but soon becomes….
… thousands and thousands of bats!
The bats leave their cave at Phnom Sampov and fly up to 50km each night towards Tonle Sap Lake to eat their nightly insect buffet. These bats are more than just a tourist attraction in the area. They help Cambodian farmers by eating up pests and parasites. These bats save hundreds of tonnes of Cambodian crops every year. It is believed that the bats at Phnom Sampov save over 2000 tonnes of rice each year alone!
How much does it cost to see the bats of Battambang?
There is a general entry fee to the bat watching area of 4000 riel ($1 USD) per person.
If you don’t want to sit down then this is all you will have to pay. If you want to be a bit more comfy or fancy a drink, take a seat and order from one of the market stalls. The cost of the seat is covered by eating and drinking anything from one of the stalls.
We treated ourselves to a couple of beers which were $1.25 each.
What time do the bats take flight?
The bats take off as soon as the sun has gone down.
During the wet season (when we visited) this could be anytime from 6pm to 7pm. Accurate time is difficult after all, they are bats!
How long does it last?
Usually around 45 minutes from the first bats emerging to the last bats leaving the cave.
Facilities at Phnom Sampov
There’s plenty of street food vendors immediately around the bat cave. There are also toilets set back from the main square and a night market just outside the gate to the bat cave.
The main road runs up and down just outside the gate and has lots of restaurants, a good coffee shop and ATMs.
Where to eat and drink in Battambang?
Pub Street
(Location)
Nestled amongst colonial buildings and street art in the heart of Battambang old town is the backpacker hub of ‘Pub Street’.
Let’s get this straight out there, this is not Khao San Road, it’s not Pub Street Siem Reap either, but if you’re after a couple of beers, food and chats with other travellers, it’s a great place to head to when the sun goes down.
When we visited in the wet season, Pub Street housed a collection of bars and restaurants serving Khmer and Western food, beer, wine and spirits late into the evening.
As we always do we chose a bar and remained loyal throughout our Battambang visit. Our watering hole of choice was Pomme Hostel Bar and Restaurant.
This friendly bar was usually the busiest on Pub Street and had cheap beer, happy hour promotions and plenty of events throughout the week to bring people together. For those on a looser budget it also served craft beer brewed in its sister location in Siem Reap.
Everywhere on Pub Street offered a similar menu and similar prices. We also enjoyed delicious meals at Woodhouse Bar and Restaurant and the Lonely Tree Cafe. The ginger chicken was especially yummy at the Woodhouse restaurant.
The only place that stood out as being very different was the neon nightclub opposite Pomme’s that blasted out different music from each of its floors and seemed to be mainly patronised by Battambang teenagers.
Khmer Delight
(Location)
Just off Pub Street, Khmer Delight specialises in traditional Khmer cuisine. Decked out with paintings, statues and artwork from local artists, Khmer Delight more than lived up to its name.
We had an absolute delicious beef lok lak, The beef peppery and lime sharp as well as a creamy, coconutty amok fish curry.
The restaurant was very quiet but we were visiting in the low season. Prices in Cambodia for sit down meals do seem to be higher than neighbouring countries but the portions were generous and the food lovely.
Chinese Noodle Dumpling Restaurant - 兰州牛肉拉面馆
(Location)
This was just what we love to find. A smouldering pot in a steel trolley set outside a nondescript shopfront on a road otherwise only populated with sewing machine shops.
Hand pulled noodles and homemade dumplings are always a winning combination. We ate here twice, the first time we had a delicious dumpling noodle soup and the second time we had fried noodles with a side of fried dumplings.
All the dishes were amazing and you could really taste the difference in the homemade noodles and dumpling wrappers. The filling of pork and chives tasted fresh and light and the noodle soups were hearty yet balanced. Add to this a fantastic smokey chilli oil and you have some very happy diners.
If you like your dumplings do not miss this!
Kuy Teav - Pork and seafood noodle soup - គុយទាវប្រហិតត្រី
(Location)
If you are up for a slightly different breakfast and down for eating with the locals, make sure to check out this morning noodle joint.
A big bowl of steaming broth is full of thin rice noodles, spring onions and a plethora of meat and seafood, this is the quintessential Cambodian breakfast of Kuy Teav. This Asian surf and turf included pork cakes, pork sausage, squid, intestines, liver and maybe even the kitchen sink. The soup was complex, peppery and just the thing to set you up for a morning.
It was super popular with the locals, there was not a spare table inside and there were queues of delivery drivers waiting to pick up their orders.
This restaurant closes when they sell out and we never saw them open at lunch…
Battambang Night Market
(Location)
For budget friendly eats in the evening head on down to Battamnbang’s Night Market. Serving every kind of stir fry you can think of, you can grab a cheap plate of fried noodles, pad krapow or even a tom yum!
We ordered the confusingly named milky noodles (someone had a bad day with Google translate) and had a strange yet addictive plate of egg noodles, in a spicy, sweet, tomatoey, sauce. All for the princely sum of $1.25.
There are also smaller market stalls up and down both banks of the river in the evenings. The covered markets in town would make a good shout for breakfast but the food stalls close down early.
Where to stay in Battambang?
There are plenty of accommodation choices in and around Battambang city.
If you’re backpacking like us there are loads of hostels and cheap guesthouses to choose from. We stayed at Lucky Hostel for an absurdly cheap price of £6 a night for a large private double room and en-suite.
If you’d prefer to be somewhere a little more sociable, then the Pomme Hostel would be a great place to stay.
For those looking for a little more comfort in Battambang, have a look at some of our hotel suggestions here.
For all accommodation choices in Battambang, check out the map below:
How long should I stay in Battambang?
We’d recommend at least a two night stay, but if you’re lucky and time is on your side, then we’d honestly recommend staying for three nights.
Three nights would give you enough time to see everything without feeling rushed. We’d recommend spending one day in town to see all the sights in Battambang, and then spending the other two days out and about in the countryside.
Is Battambang worth a visit?
We hope that if you’ve made it this far through this article, then we’ve convinced you that Battambang is definitely worth a trip! We absolutely loved our time exploring the city.
If you’re in Cambodia, Battambang should be an essential stop on your Cambodian itinerary.
Where to go next?
As we’ve mentioned, Battambang has transport links to pretty much anywhere you’d want to go in Cambodia or even beyond. Make sure you have read our suggested Cambodia itineraries when planning your next move, you can find them here.
The most obvious next port of call, if you’ve entered Cambodia from Thailand and gone straight to Battambang, is Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat. There are dozens of buses leaving the city everyday that will take you to Siem Reap or the capital Phnom Penh. For other destinations the services will be less frequent but still easily doable. Check out 12Go for all your options.
Tickets to the most popular traveller routes from Battambang
Battambang to Sihanoukville - gateway to the islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem
If you’re coming to the end of your time in Cambodia, Battambang is very close to the border with Thailand. Check out our border crossing article here or book your tickets here:
Final thoughts
Battambang is a great city and the perfect starting off point for any Cambodia itinerary. It has all the charm of a small town yet is stuffed full of things to do. Many travellers skip Battambang and head straight to the more famous Siem Reap, but they’re missing out on such a treat. Battambang’s friendly locals and laid back atmosphere are polar opposites from the busy, tourist streets of Siem Reap.
Battambang has all the mod-cons of a bustling city, but as you leave the air conditioned cafes of downtown and head out into the villages and towns surrounding the city, you really get the feel that you’re in the “real Cambodia”. Children play in the streets, buffalo wander the lanes and ancient temples lie peacefully without crowds amongst vibrant paddy fields and forests. It’s a beautiful place… even in the heat and humidity of the rainy season!
We loved our time in Battambang and feel it truly deserves a spot on any Cambodia travel itinerary.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
To plan your route around Cambodia check out our suggestions here:
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Crossing the Poipet Border - Thailand to Cambodia
Crossing a countries border can be stressful, land borders even more so. The popular backpacker crossing point of Poipet links Thailand to Cambodia - Read our complete guide to getting a visa, booking a bus and generally having a stress free border crossing!
The Poipet /Aranyprathet border is the main land-link that most travellers will use when crossing between Thailand and Cambodia.
On the Thai side the border is called Aranyprathet. In Cambodia the border opens into the town of Poipet (sometimes spelt Poi Pet). Famous or perhaps infamous, the border is the closest land crossing between the Thai capital of Bangkok and Cambodia’s ancient city of Siem Reap and the ruins of Angkor Wat. This border makes for an easy bridge between the two countries if you’re looking to save money on flights.
The Poipet / Aranyprathet border has a reputation, perhaps undeserved, as an awkward or difficult border crossing. Read our guide below for our experiences, tips and tricks and how to have a smooth border crossing!
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
In this guide:
Bangkok to Cambodia - Our experience
After a fantastic month adventuring around Thailand, it was time to move on. We had really enjoyed seeing Thailand at the start of the ‘rainy season’ so we thought we’d continue into another country in the grips of the “wet” season - Cambodia.
The rainy season for both Thailand and Cambodia runs roughly from June to October. During the “rainy or low” season, accommodation prices are cheaper, attractions less busy but the heat and humidity are more intense and you will definitely be caught in some downpours of biblical proportions! The rain will be intense but generally over quite quickly. Just make you pack your raincoat and an umbrella.
We were finishing our time in Thailand in the capital city of Bangkok. Being budget conscious backpackers we didn’t fancy flying the short distance to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh in Cambodia, so instead we investigated the land border options.
We use 12Go for a good deal of our travel arrangements and found many operators running between Thailand and Cambodia. We decided our first stop in Cambodia would be the city of Battambang. Only two hours from the border, Battambang is Cambodia’s third largest city and has lots of interesting things to see and do.
We found tickets on 12Go that would get us between downtown Bangkok and the centre of Battambang. We would set off at 09:30 am in the morning and would arrive by 17:00 pm that evening.
After we had booked our tickets and obtained our Cambodia e-visa (more on this later), we were ready for our journey to Cambodia. Or at least we would be once we had finished fighting our clothes back into our backpacks!
The morning of the travel day quickly came around and we made our way to the Travel Mart Bangkok office near Khao San road (location). We arrived early and the helpful girls on the counter checked our passports and visas. If you are travelling without an e-visa, Travel Mart can help you obtain a visa for a fee. We were also given a Cambodian Immigration Card to fill out.
All immigration forms sorted, it was time for us to have one final Bangkok breakfast. Bypassing the noodle soup stalls we headed straight to the golden arches and had the traditional Thai breakfast of hashbrowns and a sausage egg McMuffin (don’t judge us, if you’ve been travelling for a long time, there comes a time when a McDonald’s breakfast just hits right!).
Back at the office we boarded our luxury minivan and headed out of the city. We stopped a couple of hours into the journey for a twenty minute snack stop to pick up coffee, lunch and any other supplies from the 7/11 service station. Continuing our healthy eating habits we treated ourselves to sushi triangles and an extremely sweet iced coffee.
On the minivan it was just us, a Cambodian father and son and two little old ladies heading to the border. However at our 7/11 snack stop we took on the additional passengers of a horde of angry mosquitoes! The next hour or so to the border was spent with us ruthlessly hunting down the airborne vampires.
We arrived at Aranyaprathet Gate on the Thai side of the border. Our driver gave us a lanyard identifying us and walked us through the border procedure. We had to walk to the second floor of the Thai side where we would be stamped out of Thailand. Then, we would cross ‘no mans land’ and the friendship bridge (donated by the UK), before heading upstairs to present our visas and to be stamped into Cambodia.
We have heard all sorts of horror stories about the Poipet border from denied entries to surprise “fees / fines” but we experienced none of that. It all unfolded exactly as our guide said it would. We were stamped out of Thailand with no issue and waltzed through Cambodia immigration.
We have some tips that made our border crossing easy, but more on that later.
After immigration we stepped out and were officially in Cambodia. We had not stepped foot in this beautiful country for nearly a decade. Years ago, it had been our first southeast Asian experience and you could even argue our current adventures could all be traced back to that first formative adventure. We were so happy to be back!
A very young Jellie on their first trip to Cambodia!
Outside of the border we had a short walk to the roundabout to the carpark of the Vireak Buntham Poipet Bus Office (location) car park where our minivan was waiting for us. From the border it was a two hour journey to Battambang where serendipitously for us the bus office was a 100 metres from our hostel.
Despite it taking most of the day and reading so many horror stories online, it had been a completely smooth, stress free experience. Once checked in to our hostel, the Lucky Hostel the only thing left to do, was cheers our first Angkor beers. We were back!
Booking your travel - Bangkok to Cambodia
The cheapest way to travel between Thailand and Cambodia is via land. We booked our tickets via 12Go.
We booked our tickets and travelled with Travel Mart Bangkok. Travel Mart offers a full range of departure times and buses and can transfer you between Bangkok and the Aranyaprathet/Poipet border, Battambang, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. They can also help in arranging your Cambodia visas.
Check out bus tickets for the most popular routes below:
Bangkok to Sihanoukville - for ferry links to the islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem
If you do want to travel by air, we’d recommend searching for tickets on the Trip.com widget below:
One reason you might want to consider flying is that, if you’re travelling from Cambodia to Thailand, the visa process (for the UK at least) is slightly different when arriving by air and you have more entries per year than by land border. Also it goes without saying that the journey is faster by air and if you’re short on time, it would save you a full day's travel.
Cambodia visas
Cambodia requires a visa for entry. You can do this at the border or in advance. For a smooth transition we would recommend sorting out an e-visa in advance.
Cambodia e-visa for UK citizens
Applying for an e-visa is easy to do and took us all of about ten minutes to apply. You can apply for a Cambodia e-visa here.
The visa costs $30 per person ($5 dollars cheaper than at the border) and you will need a passport sized photo to upload as well as images of your passport.
Once the visa is approved you will need to print two copies of the visa. One copy you will give to immigration when you enter the country and the other copy is to be handed over when you leave. You will also need to present your Cambodian Immigration Card at the border. This card is to be kept with your passport until you leave the country.
Visas are valid for 30 days but can be extended once only for tourist visas.
If you are applying for an e-visa make sure you submit your application at least 4 days before you travel.
For up to date visa information check out the UK Foreign Office advice here.
Pay attention to the date you need to leave Cambodia as overstaying a visa is expensive and overall a terrible idea!
The Cambodian Immigration Card can be filled out at the border, but lots of transport companies will give you this to fill out in advance. If you don’t have one, they are available just before you queue up at the Cambodia passport check.
Cambodia e-arrival app
Cambodia is trialling the run of the e-arrival app. Using the app you can apply for an e-visa on arrival in advance as well as filling out your immigration arrival card online.
We used the app for the arrival card (not the e-visa) but were not asked to display it at any point. It maybe that it was linked to our passports or us filling in the physical Cambodian Immigration Card was enough. The app states that using it is mandatory but we did not see anyone else using it.
Let us know in the comments if the app becomes more widely adopted and make sure to check the entry requirements before you travel.
Poipet Border tips
The border is listed as being open everyday from 6am to 10pm. If you’ve booked a through ticket (i.e. your booked journey doesn’t end at one side of the border) it should be safe to assume that you’ll be crossing during the open hours. If you’re booking your own crossing (i.e. arranging your own transport) you’ll need to bear the opening times in mind.
When you arrive at the Thai side of the border (Aranyaprathet Gate) make sure your passport is stamped with a Thai exit stamp. This applies in reverse when exiting Cambodia via Poipet. This is one of the more common horror stories we’ve heard where travellers are stuck in limbo between the two borders and have to pay a “fee” for the correction. However this could all be exaggerated, as in our experience everything was handled easily and professionally.
For those travelling to Cambodia, make sure you have printed two copies of your e-visa and present them with your passport and immigration card to the border guards.
For those travelling into Thailand (UK nationals) you do not need to apply for a visa. There is a visa waiver on arrival. Check out the UK Foreign Advice Office for the most up to date visa information for Thailand. Also be aware that there is a limit to the number of times you can enter Thailand by land each year and it is a different limit to the number of times you can enter by air. Again check out the entry requirements before travelling to Thailand.
Another story we’ve heard (again we can’t say how common or accurate this is) is that as a foreigner, you don’t want to be in the first batch to cross the border first thing in the morning. A story circulating online was that an eager beaver tried to cross first thing in the morning and that being the only foreigner was subjected to a raft of surprise “fees, fines and charges”. Always try and go through in the midst of a group so you cannot be singled out.
Most issues reported from the Poipet border seem to come from people attempting a “border run” i.e extending their time in Thailand by briefly exiting and re-entering the country on a new visa. Border runs are understandably looked down on as an abuse of the system and if the officials suspect you of it, they can deny you re-entry or generally make your time more difficult. The solution is - don’t border run. Go and see Cambodia, honestly just spend time there! Later on you can return to Thailand legitimately and not abuse their generous entry policies.
Thailand and Cambodia have different rules for drugs etc. Make sure you are not breaking any of them. It would be a really stupid way to get an international drugs smuggling charge!
We see a lot of people at the border who seem more dressed for a day at the beach than an official meeting to enter the country. Everything always goes smoother if you’re demonstrating respect for the countries you’re entering or exiting. You don’t need to wear a three-piece suit and a top hat but maybe forgo the Chang singlet!
If you’re coming by bus, like we were, and the minibus has an onward journey e.g. to Battambang or Siem Reap then check with the driver where they want you to meet them on the other side of the border. There’s no waiting for vehicles immediately outside either border gate so you will have to walk and find your minivan. On the Thai side there is a large car park near the Star Plaza mall. This car park is surrounded by offices for most of the major tour operators and is the logical meeting point. On the Cambodian side if you continue walking straight up the road, away from the border gate you come to a roundabout which is again surrounded by car parks for the various tour operators. On our transfer we kept the same minivan and did not have to unload our bags. The minivan and our luggage crossed the border without us and met back up with us on the other side. For many tour operators this will not be the case. You will have to take your luggage with you through the border and meet up with a different driver / bus on the other side. Check this with your operator so you know what to expect.
Both sides of the border have plenty of accommodation choices. Check out the Thai choices here and the Cambodian options here. Staying at or near the border would be a good idea if you’re not coming in from Bangkok / Siem Reap / Battambang and need to stagger your journey around the border opening times.
There are plenty of food and drink options at the border and there are toilets inside the border offices and in the surrounding areas.
Both Thailand and Cambodia are in the same time zone so no need to adjust your watches on crossing.
ATMs are available at each side of the border. Remember in Cambodia you can use and withdraw both US dollars and Cambodian riel. For Thailand you will need to withdraw Thai baht. Unfortunately both Thailand and Cambodia charge a fee for using the ATMs. Thailand typically charges 220 baht and Cambodia varies between $4 and $7 per withdrawal.
We hope this guide to crossing the Poipet border has demystified and reassured you. Land border crossings are always a little stressful and border towns always a little strange. We wrote this article as we wanted reassurance before we journeyed to Cambodia and after a good travel day we thought we’d leave this here to reassure someone else!
Have a great time wherever you’re heading.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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Hostels can be a backpacker's best friend or worst enemy. A great hostel is a hub for travellers exploring and making the most of a new place. Karma Traders of Kampot is a perfect example of an amazing hostel. Social and fun whilst being relaxed and unforced, read our article to find out why a four day stay turned into a weeklong love affair!