Tag Archives: cambodia

Getting Around Angkor

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One consideration you need to make when planning a visit to the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is how you will get around the area during your visit. With around 400 square kilometres with many points of interests to visit, you need to plan out your transportation option ahead of time to make the best use of your time there.

Since there is no lodging option available within the Park, most visitors stay in one of the lodging options in the city of Siem Reap (about six kilometres south of Angkor Wat). You can find transportation options quite easily in the city. Travelers typically visit the temples either by buses for large tour groups, or by vans, cars, tuk-tuks, motorcycles, or bicycles for independent travelers. What you need to consider is the distance of your travel/route, the cost, the time you have, and the weather conditions. If you’re going to one of the remote temples, you may want to make sure that you have a way to get back or go to your next destination (i.e., it may not be easy to get public transportation from there). Also, depending on the time of the day or the season of the year when you’re traveling, it might be very hot during the middle of the day or it might be raining. And negotiating transportation for the whole day may be cheaper than getting transportation from point to point.

For our visit to Siem Reap, we had a tour company arrange our transportation, so we had a driver with air-conditioned van and a tour guide ready for our day trips there. Even then, we had to make plan adjustment on the first day. Initially, we were thinking of ‘going healthy’ and spend our first afternoon touring the area in bicycles. Sounded like a good idea, until we found out the reality that afternoon that a) we were pretty tired after our trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap in the morning, and b) it was hot and humid outside. Our tour guide suggested that we went by air-conditioned van instead, though if we still insisted to go by bicycle, he was ready for that too. We followed his advice, and that turned out to be the right thing to do. We were able to spend more time at Angkor Wat and Phnom Bakheng that afternoon, and reserved our energy for a longer day trip the following day. Our driver also had a cooler full of cold bottled water, which was very nice to have especially as we walked around the temple area in the heat of the day.

The photo below was taken from our van on our second day as we’re about to enter Angkor Thom. You can see some modes of transportation that others took: by tuk-tuk, on foot, by bicycle, and — in some areas — on an elephant.

Angkor transportation

Angkor Archaeological Park

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The Angkor Archaeological Park is an area stretching over 400 square kilometres near Siem Reap, Cambodia, that contains many remains of what was the capital area of the Khmer Empire during the 9th to 15th century. It included one of the largest pre-industrial city in the world (the ancient city at its height was more than ten times the size of modern-day Manhattan borough of New York City). Today visitors come to the area especially to visit one of the finest ancient monuments in the world, Angkor Wat.

To visit the Angkor Archaeological Park area, if you’re not a local Cambodian, you would need to get a visitor pass that is valid for either one day, three days, or the whole week (we got the three-day pass, which cost USD$40 per person). You need to stop at the front gate, pay the fee, and get your photograph taken to get the pass. You will then need to carry the pass with you at all times. At the entrance of the temples, typically there is someone checking for the pass before you can enter. The pass has your photo on it, so you would have to carry your own to enter the temples.

Angkor Wat is the most popular temple in the Park, but there are others that are equally unique and worth visiting. There is Phnom Bakheng, a temple on top of a hill that provides a nice vantage point of the surrounding area especially around sunset time. You can also visit the ancient city of Angkor Thom with its temples inside. Or you can go to Ta Prohm, a temple ruin consumed by the forest trees that was made famous by the movie Tomb Raider.

The French did a lot to preserve the Angkor temples when they colonized Cambodia. Today two of the main routes for visiting the Angkor Archaeological Park, known as the Little Circuit and the Big Circuit, were routes that were established by the French to visit these temples.

The photo below was taken near the entrance gate while I was waiting to get my entrance pass processed. It’s an illustrated map of the Angkor region, showing the landmarks around that one can explore while visiting the Park.

Angkor map

Siem Reap

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Siem Reap is the capital city of the Siem Reap Province in Cambodia. Its name means ‘the defeat of Siam,’ commemorating the victory of the Khmer people over the invading Siam (Thai) people in the 1500s. Today the city is fast growing because of the booming tourism / hospitality business. The city is located very close to the site of the ancient city of Angkor, which was the seat of the Khmer Empire that ruled a large part of Southeast Asia more than 1,000 years ago. Today tourists come to Siem Reap and use it as the base to explore the area that is full of temple ruins, including the famous Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat, which is still in use for worship by the locals, is the world’s largest religious monument.

We came to Siem Reap after our visit to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Our stay in Siem Reap was arranged through a local tour company called Derleng Tours. They suggested a typical itinerary for a three day, two night visit to Siem Reap, which we then customized to what we would like to see and do. During the duration of our stay, we had a private tour guide and driver with air-conditioned van that accompanied us to places around Siem Reap that we wanted to visit.

The photo below was taken in downtown Siem Reap on a street called the Pub Street. This place is a popular hangout place for foreign visitors. The particular place on the photo is a pub/restaurant called The Red Piano. It became famous because it was visited by Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie when she came to the area to film Tomb Raider.

Red Piano

Derleng Tours

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Derleng Tours is a local tour company in Cambodia based out of Siem Reap. We found out about Derleng when we were about to book a room at the Kool Hotel for our stay in Siem Reap. They had an option for a three day, two nights package that included the lodging at the Kool Hotel and private tour guide and car touring the Siem Reap/Angkor area. I was very impressed and thankful for the excellent service they provided during our visit to Cambodia. Below is an excerpt of what I wrote about them in my review on TripAdvisor — the least I could do to thank them.

During the planning stage few months before the trip, I contacted Derleng Tours via email. They were very responsive and helpful in arranging our trip. When I also asked for information regarding transportation and tour guide for Phnom Penh, they responded with a customized package that included the transportation in Phnom Penh added. What I appreciate was that they gave us the option for a tour guide as we requested, but actually recommended that we wouldn’t take up that option. The reason was because their primary operation was in Siem Reap, and they didn’t have tour guide that they could recommend for in Phnom Penh. If we had insisted to get a tour guide, they could arrange one to come from Siem Reap to guide us in Phnom Penh, but the guide wouldn’t be as knowledgeable about Phnom Penh that they didn’t want to risk not meeting our expectations. I found this very customer focused, and gave the feeling that they’re looking out for our best interests and not trying to take advantage of the situation to up sell their service.

The drivers we had in Phnom Penh were very courteous and knew their way around. We had a little mishap during the start of our full day trip in Phnom Penh, but Derleng folks managed to resolve it when we called them very early in the morning. The day ended up to be memorable, and we had lunch with our driver that was a unique experience in itself.

Derleng also helped us arrange our transportation from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. We had wanted to travel by bus and I also asked if they could arrange our transit from the hotel to the bus station in Phnom Penh and from the bus station to hotel in Siem Reap. They responded with an offer to arrange the whole travel (I think pretty much at cost). They also suggested that we would go by van rather than bus; pretty much same pricing, but typically faster because vans are more nimble than buses in navigating the highway traffic. Again, they gave us the suggestion without being pushy, and we took up their suggestion (this was the experience I wrote about in several posts last week about the trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap).

The Siem Reap part of the trip was organized and executed flawlessly. Our tour guide, Chea Vanna, was very friendly and knowledgeable about the places we visited during our three-day stay in Siem Reap. I particularly enjoyed having discussions with him learning about Cambodian culture and what life is like there, and sharing about American and Indonesia culture and life in comparison. By the end of the three day excursion, we pretty much considered him and our driver as our new friends, more than just our tour guide and driver.

In the end, we had a wonderful experience visiting Cambodia, and Derleng Tours had a big part in making our trip smooth and memorable. I definitely would recommend them to anyone planning on going to Cambodia.

The photo below was taken on New Year’s morning at Angkor Wat. It was me, Kristi, and our guide Vanna.

New Year's morning at Angkor Wat

The Kool Hotel

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The Kool Hotel is a boutique hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia, area located about 15-minute drive from downtown Siem Reap. We picked this hotel as our place to stay based on the reviews on TripAdvisor. We ended up booking our stay as part of a tour package arranged with Derleng Tours (which was located at The Kool Hotel itself).

The hotel is located on a quiet residential street off the main highway in Siem Reap. It’s far enough that you can enjoy quiet retreat if you need a break from the activities in and around the town, but close enough that you can get to the the market / Pub street area within minutes on the complimentary shuttle van or by tuk-tuk.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were welcomed by the front desk staff, and as our room was being prepared, we were served cool and refreshing pandan-infused ice tea, and warm towels to refresh ourselves after a long trip from Phnom Penh. We were escorted to our room not long after that. The room was nice and clean, though we found ours a bit small in size. But since we spent most of the time out and about, this wasn’t issue.

We also went to the on-site restaurant for lunch. It was pretty nice. They served both Khmer and western dishes. The food was quite tasty, and the staff was attentive. Near the restaurant area, there was a swimming pool. We didn’t use the facility, but during the day time we saw families with kids enjoying the pool.

The photo below was taken just outside or room. You can see the nice shade outside the rooms with trees and landscaping around. It provided nice oasis especially after you go out in the sun during the day.

The Kool Hotel