Sights of Siem Reap - what to see

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In addition to the temples of the Angkor Archaeological Park, which are discussed separately (see Angkor City Guide), there are several other interesting places in and near Siem Reap that are worth visiting. Among them are the National Museum of Angkor, a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake, a crocodile farm, and many small temples in the city itself Siem Reap.

There is not much entertainment directly in the city during the daytime. You can only take a walk in the Royal park (Royal Gardens), visit the Lucky Mall shopping center, wander through many markets, sit in one of the cafes. There are not too many shopping opportunities in Siem Reap, even despite the presence of the Lucky Mall shopping center. Although the shopping center is large, there is not much to see there, and the prices are not democratic in any way. Well, if you have plenty of time in Siem Reap at all, you can take cooking classes, ceramics Classes, and even a golf course.

In the evening, when tourists return from trips to the temples, a real holiday begins on the streets. The streets in the center, next to the night market and Pub Street, are filled with tourists. On Pub Street itself, there is literally no place to sit in bars, and there is a brisk souvenir trade in the markets. Massage parlors invite passers-by with traditional massage and fish massage. In general, the evening in Siem Reap is quite interesting and fun.

Angkor National Museum

One of the halls in the National Museum

The museum tells about the history of Khmer culture and civilization, shows the history of the temples of Angkor. It is very modern and interactive, equipped with the latest technology. The museum is huge and consists of eight galleries, each of which is dedicated to a separate topic: Khmer civilization; religion; great Khmer kings; Angkor; Angkor Tom; history of stone; ancient costumes; hall of a thousand Buddhas. If you are not at all familiar with the history and culture of the Khmer state of the Angkor period, then you should not miss this museum in any case.

🕐 Working hours: daily from 8:30 to 18:00.

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: $12. When booking tickets on the museum's website http://www.angkornationalmuseum.com/ you can get a discount.

🚶 How to get there: The National Museum is located at 968 Charles De Gaulle Boulevard. National Museum on the map of Siem Reap.

Museum of anti-personnel mines (Landmine Museum)

This museum was founded by a former Khmer Rouge soldier named Aki Ra, who later became a sapper. With the help of exhibits, which are de-mined bombs and mines, the museum tells about the problem and the great danger of anti-personnel mines, which in large numbers remained in the lands Cambodia after the civil war. You can also watch a short film about the life of Aki Ra.

Maybe you shouldn't go so far (the museum is located 31 kilometers from Siem Reap) just for the sake of the museum, but if you drive by (on the way to the Banteay Srei temple complex and Phnom Kulen), why not stop by and donate a couple of dollars to help the victims of anti-personnel mines.

🕐 Working hours: Daily from 7:30 to 17:30.

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: admission is free. Donations that you can leave at the museum will go to help victims of anti-personnel mines.

🚶 How to get there: In 2007, the museum moved to a new location, and is now located 31 kilometers from Siem Reap. Museum of anti-personnel mines on the map of Siem Reap.

Tonle Sap Lake and Floating Village

Tonle Sap Lake

Tonle Sap Lake is the largest lake in Cambodia and the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. Due to the large amount of silt, the water in the lake always has a yellow-brown color. The lake is home to a huge number of fish. Life is constantly in full swing here: fishermen catch fish, and whole villages live on floating platforms in thatched houses.

Local residents began to create floating villages due to the fact that due to the constant change in the water level in the lake throughout the year (due to the rainy season and the dry season), the coastline changes significantly. In order to always be near the water and at the same time not move their houses, and the idea arose to move the villages directly to the water.

It is also interesting that the Tonle Sap River, which flows into the lake, changes the direction of the current twice a year.

There are boat or boat excursions from Siem Reap to the lake, but you can organize an excursion for yourself and on your own by taking a tuk-tuk or taxi to the pier and hiring a boat there. During excursions it is worth visiting one of the floating villages, the most popular of which is Chong Khneas. Do not think that the inhabitants of this village live the century before last. And they have electricity (generators), television, school, police. In general, everything is like in any other village on land. In the village of Chong Khneas there is even something like a mini-museum Gecko Environment Centre, which tells about the local flora and fauna, about life around and on the lake.

There are two opinions about visiting the lake and the floating village: the first is that it is not worth visiting, because it is not interesting here, it is sheer poverty and just a divorce of tourists for money; the second is that it is worth visiting and seeing the real life of Cambodians outside the city. Indeed, there are cases of tricky divorce of tourists for money, including using children, and the price of organized excursions from Siem Reap is unreasonably high. But still, this place is quite interesting and exotic, and our opinion is that it is better to organize your own route by hiring a boat yourself, and try not to agree to all the suggestions of the "captain" to visit this or that place, but to sail much more like yourself. In addition, it will be much cheaper than buying an excursion at a travel agency. Learn more about Tonle Sap Lake here...

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: depending on how you will organize your trip to the lake, the cost will range from $ 19 to $ 60. The cheapest way is to join a group excursion by arriving on your own (by taxi or tuk–tuk) at the pier of the lake, the so-called port of Chong Khneas. You can hire a boat for $ 5 after bargaining.

🚶 How to get there:Location of Chong Khneas village on Tonle Sap Lake.

Crocodile Farm

The Siem Reap Crocodile Farm is home to more than 1,000 crocodiles. You won't see any shows with crocodiles like Thai ones here, but if you've never seen live crocodiles, it's worth a visit. You can also buy crocodile, cow and other animal skin products here at prices lower than in Thailand.

🕐 Working hours: from 7:00 to 19:00.

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: $3

🚶 How to get there: The farm is located on the road to Tonle Sap Lake.

Phnom Kulen Park

Phnom Kulen Waterfall

This place is also called the mountain and the waterfall Phnom Kulen. But in fact it is a huge national park, in which there is a mountain from which the river flows, on which the 30-meter waterfall Phnom Kulen is located.

The mountain has historical significance: here in 802, King Jayavarman II declared the country's independence, marking the beginning of modern Cambodia. The river is called the "River of a thousand lingams". Lingams are phallic symbols carved on the bottom of the river. You can swim in the river.

There is also a temple with an 8-meter reclining Buddha, gazebos, a restaurant, and shops. This place is very popular among Cambodians who come here for weekends and holidays to relax or pay tribute to a sacred place. This place is not very popular among tourists.

Given the rather high cost of visiting Phnom Kulen and its remoteness, it may not be necessary to include it in your program.

🕐 Working hours: When visiting, please note that the road to Phnom Kulen is open before lunch in the direction there, and after lunch back. Therefore, you should go to the park in the morning, and return only after lunch.

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: visiting Phnom Kulen Park for foreigners – $ 20. The cost of an organized excursion from Siem Reap will be about $ 50 per person. Passes to the Angkor Temple complex are not valid here.

🚶 How to get there: Phnom Kulen is located 50 kilometers from Siem Reap. See Phnom Kulen on the map.

Military Museum (Siem Reap War Museum)

Military Museum

There is a military museum on the way from Siem Reap to the airport. Large samples of military equipment that participated in real combat operations are exhibited in the open air, and many small exhibits are collected inside the museum. In the collection of large equipment there are helicopters, airplanes and tanks, including Soviet-made, but, unfortunately, everything is in very poor condition. Some of the equipment, apparently, was transferred here directly from the battlefields after they were hit. Some of the exhibits are overgrown with grass. In general, the impression of the museum is that it is abandoned and no one cares for it.

The museum is interesting enough to visit. But if you are not a fan of military equipment and history, most likely you will be disappointed after visiting.

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: $ 3.

🚶 How to get there: The museum is located a few kilometers from Siem Reap on the way to the airport. Museum on the map.

Cultural Village of Cambodia (Cambodia Cultural Village)

Wax figure in the cultural village of Cambodia

In this theme park-museum you can get acquainted with the way of life and culture of numerous peoples of Cambodia. In fact, there are as many as 11 unique villages located on a fairly extensive territory of the park, belonging to various cultures living on the territory of the kingdom. In each of the villages, in addition to exhibits, you will be able to watch traditional shows and performances, including wedding ceremonies, acrobatic and circus performances, games, dance shows, elephant shows and more. Here you can see the traditional Apsara dance. It even has its own wax museum, telling about historical events and prominent personalities from ancient times to the present. Of course, there is a traditional restaurant in the village.

This place is definitely worth a visit. The only bad thing is that it takes at least half a day to see everything here, and there is always not enough time in Siem Reap.

🕐 Working hours: from 9:00 to 21:00. Information about the start time of the show and performances can be found on the official website of the village - http://www.cambodianculturalvillage.com

💵 Entrance fee / tickets price: the entrance fee for a standard ticket is $ 11. Free for children. Information about additional services (VIP visit, guide, taxi) can be found on the park's website - http://www.cambodianculturalvillage.com

🚶 How to get there: The village is located 3 kilometers from the city center and you can get here on foot if you wish. The position of the Cultural Village on the map of Siem Reap.

Center, Pub Street

Pub Street

This is the most fun and tourist street in Siem Reap. There are many bars and restaurants along the street, and in the evenings all tourists flock here. Often the street is so full that it is even difficult to find a free place in the bar. But it doesn't matter: if you didn't find a place, you can safely find a place to sit on the next street.

🚶 How to get there: Pub Street is considered the center of the city, although geographically it is the southern part of the city location of Pub Street on the map of Siem Reap. You can get to it on foot or for 1-2 dollars by tuk-tuk from remote hotels in the city.

Night Market

Siem Reap Night Market Actually, in Siem Reap, with the arrival of darkness (usually 18-19 hours), a huge number of markets begin to work. The range of their products is mainly intended for tourists who have returned impressed after a walk through the temples of Angkor or a trip to Tonle Sap Lake. Basically, these are cheap Chinese-made souvenirs with Angkor symbols, crafts by local craftsmen and artists (paintings, woodwork, tableware), bags, silk products, jewelry and costume jewelry, and many more interesting things. Prices are usually initially called very high, you need to bargain. The price is really to bring down 2-3 times.

🚶 How to get there: Night markets and markets can be found everywhere, especially in the center around Pub Street. One of the most interesting and cool night markets on the map.

Siem Reap Art Center (Art Center)

Siem Reap Arts Center

If you cross the pedestrian bridge from the city center to the other side of the river, you can get to the so-called Siem Reap Cultural Center. In fact, it is a market or an open-air shopping center consisting of many boutique shops. Its assortment differs little from the assortment of the night market.

🚶 How to get there:Siem Reap Cultural Center on the map.

Royal Gardens Park (Royal Gardes)

Siem Reap Park

This is a small park in the center of Siem Reap. It is impossible to say that this is an extremely beautiful place, it will be pleasant to walk here during the day, but this is one of the few places in Siem Reap itself where you can take a walk. In the park there is a fountain, a small temple and an alley with trees in the branches of which bats live or something like them.

🚶 How to get there:Park on the map.

Hmar Wat Bo

It is one of the oldest (founded in the 18th century) and very revered temples of the city. It is interesting that the main viharn of the temple is painted with unique paintings reflecting the daily life of local residents. Behind the main Buddha statue is a large collection of Buddha figurines.

🚶 How to get there:Wat Bo Temple on the map.

Wat Preah Prom Rath Temple

This large and beautiful temple is located almost in the very center of the city.

🚶 How to get there:Wat Preah Prom Rath Temple on the map.

Apsar Theatre

The Apsar Theater is a show of traditional dances with dinner. It takes place in a stylized room specially built for these purposes. Admission, including the cost of dinner, is $ 50. The show runs from 20:00 to 21:30 and it is recommended to book tickets in advance.

It is worth saying that for the price of $ 50 you get a rather modest dinner and not such an enchanting show. So if this amount is not small for you, you can refuse to visit this place and instead attend a free show at the Temple Balcony restaurant on pub Street.

🚶 How to get there: The Apsara Theater is shown at the Angkor Village hotel near the center on the opposite bank of the river Apsar Theatre on the map.

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