Siem Reap
Top Few Things To Do In Siem Reap
1) Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a must go when you visit Siem Reap unless you are not interested in ruins and exotic places, then I would question why did you land up in Siem Reap in the first place. The architecture was out of the world beautiful with lots of different carvings on the walls. The one thing you must do in the Angkor Wat would be to wake up early enough to catch the sunrise so that you can find a good spot with lesser humans to take a good time lapse or just sit back and relax watching the beautiful view. If you are going to do the temple hopping in the entire area, it is strongly recommended to bring lots of water so that you do not die from the heat.
If you love shopping and can't live without it, or you just want to check out how different night markets culture is like, it would be a good visit to these night markets located in Siem Reap. If not mistake there is about 3-4 night markets and all of them are located near each other (Within walking distance). There are lots of different stores with similar things but if you walk around enough and compare enough, you will realise that the materials are different but the prices are nearly the same. One thing which I did not really enjoy during the walk around in the market was how they loved using sad stories to make you purchase items from them, especially when all the stories are similar and they will portray their unhappiness when you do not make a purchase. However, it is understood that this might be part of the culture and how they strategise to create sales.
3) Fish Spa
When we talk about fish spa, we think of those tiny little fishes that feeds onto your dead skin. Trust me, that was the top of my mind thought when I first saw the sign board along the streets. Until I saw the fishes, I thought I might lose my feet if I were to ever put my feet into the tank. The picture below were the smaller sized fishes. Some of the stalls had fishes so huge it seems like they can be ate for a meal. It was a similar experience from other fish spas, but the dare is if you have the guts to put your feet into bigger fishes.
4) Pub Street
Nightlife exploration is a must for me, pub street was insanely good, cheap and fun. HH beer was only priced at 50centsUSD/pint and non HH $1USD/pint. You can get drunk with 20 SGD unless you are 1000 cups no drunk (Direct translate from Mandarin). You can bar hop like mad and meet different people and find good food along this cross junctions of streets. I highly doubt you can finish the whole place in a single night, it is something similar to Khao San street but you will have more walking space as it is not a single street. You will find the street evolving as the night grows, from a bistro bar into a club with small bites. There are also some places that have dance floor as well. If you needed something more/extra than just plain old alcohol, you can look for the tuk tuk drives as they are not just a form of transport but also like a convenience store if you get what I mean [No I did not try].
5) Shelby Tree House (Closed)
It was one of the most exotic places I have ever stayed in my whole life. Wish I can find a tree house in Singapore to stay in. It was really cool to be able to stay in such a place and yes please do not worry as they have air conditioner and fan, so even if you are made of ice it is alright.
Travelling in Siem Reap
I was only in Siem Reap for 3D2N therefor I did not travel to other locations. It was just a short trip for me to experience the culture. One thing that really surprised me was the Khmer language sounded like a mix of Viet and Thai to me.
Ease while travelling: It was easy to move around in Siem Reap as most of the drivers knew how to speak english and some are nice enough to assist you to recommend you places to go. Else if the location is within walking distance you can just use google maps and it will show an accurate location. There were tons of places to choose food from which really helped a lot as they have food from all over the world.
Difficulties faced: As I have mentioned previously with regards to shopping, it was one of the experience did I did not really like while travelling in Siem Reap. However, the one thing I found really difficult was the usage of 2 different currencies especially when anything is less than a dollar or if there were to be denomination lower than a dollar you will receive change in Cambodian riel which can get quite complicated in my opinion.