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Angkor Wat Journals

Advice for Angkor Wat

A July 2000 trip to Angkor Wat by Quraishi

Quote: The most amazing thing is the lack of supervision. No guards, no ropes, no rails (well, except for those steep temples). You don't need to be interested in archaelology or history to be awestruck by the magnificence and feeling of mystery this place inspires.
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Advice for Angkor Wat Best of IgoUgo

Overview

Quote:
The temples! These will take up most of your time while you are here, especially if you want to make the most of your expensive tickets. Also, without a doubt, visit the Land Mine Museum, run by a man who (I think this is how the story goes) was orphaned when the Khmer Rouge killed his parents, then taken by them and made to set land mines, then taken prisoner by the Vietnames and made to set land mines for them. Now he runs this museum that displays different types of weapons with a very detailed history about each one and information about land mines and the campaign to eliminate them from use.Quick Tips: I bought the three day pass for . This gave me enough time to see all the temples ...Read More

Smiley's Guesthouse Best of IgoUgo

Hotel | "Smiley Guesthouse"

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Smiley Guesthouse was a nice place with very nice people running it. They had a good laundry service and excellent food. Some dishes included American favorites that I kind of missed, like a hamburger, and pumpkin soup that was delicious, as well as the usual rice and noodle and curry dishes. It was a good place to hang out at night. Within walking distance of the market and town center. They sent a van to pick us up where the riverboat landed, very helpful because it is quite far. They also arranged my trip back to Thailand (the boat ride, actually). Also very clean with mosquito nets, but no warm water.

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 28, 2001

Smiley's Guesthouse
SiemReap
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Restaurants Best of IgoUgo

Restaurant | "Eating at Angkor"

Quote:
In Siem Reap I would stick to the guesthouse's menu. When I ventured for some "authentic" Khmer food, I ended up at the night market with a bowl of some sort of cold, curried, noodle and leg-or-animal soup. If somebody tries to give you something like this, don't eat it. There is also a pizza place called Happy Pizza, which seems to be a chain because there is one in Phnom Penh as well. This isn't your basic Pizza Hut or Little Caeser's, though. No, this place has a special ingredient. They are famous among travelers in Cambodia for adding marijuana to the dough before they make the pizza. This makes people happy. I didn't eat there myself, but I saw it, and they have shirts for sale, which is...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on June 28, 2001

Angkor Restaurants
In Town
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Land Mine Museum Best of IgoUgo

Attraction

Quote:
There will come a time when you want to take a break from the temple scene. Head to the Land Mine Museum, your motorbike driver will know where it is. The museum is outdoors on a small, enclosed property. There is a hut sort of shelter that houses all sorts of land mine and bomb shells, each of which has had the explosives removed. Alongside the piles of ammunition are descriptions of how they functioned and their history and uses. There are also some big guns and rifles in another smaller shelter. There is a "garden" type display, roped off, which displays all the different types of mines as they would look on the ground as they were set. This is pretty interesting, but it is difficult ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 28, 2001

Land Mine Museum
Siem Reap
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Temples Best of IgoUgo

Attraction | "The Temples!"

Quote:
The temples are why you come here in the first place. There are so many that you won't possibly be able to, or want to, see them all in one trip. Luckily, they are varied enough for you to see several and then be able to see more of your favorite type. There are the ones you have to see, like the huge Angkor Wat, there are the ones that have been overgrown by the jungle and have half crumbled to pieces, and then there are the ones that escaped, for the most part, the looting that degraded some of the other temples.

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 28, 2001

Temples
Near Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Quote:
I came from Phnom Penh in the south. I definitely recommend seeing Phnom Penh either before or after Siem Reap. For one thing, you get to see Phnom Penh, which is very much worth it. Of course, you only have to travel that hellish road between Siem Reap and Thailand once. From Phnom Penh take a bus to Sihanoukville and then a boat to the Thai border at Koh Kong. From Phnom Penh take the riverboat up the river to Siem Reap. This is safe, and you can even sit on the roof and watch the scenery, and it only got rough when we reached Cambodia's huge lake, Tonle Sap. The guesthouse manager in Phnom Penh will tell you how to get there. Many of the guesthouses in one city have an affiliation with...Read More