Angkor Wat

So, Cambodia time! Yay! I'm super excited to start blogging about our holiday. It was so much fun and it was literally one of the best holidays I've ever been on. It was a bit of a spontaneous decision to visit Siem Reap - neither of us had been to Cambodia before - put simply, we felt like going on a holiday, had a bit of annual leave up our sleeves, and Air Asia was having a sale on flights. Siem Reap seemed to offer a good mix of culture, food and relaxation. To be honest, at first I was on the fence about going overseas at all... but after some googling I realised that you could get five hours of spa treatments for less than $200. I was in!

As the title of this post suggests, our holiday was made up of seven days in Siem Reap. Apparently most people stay for shorter periods of time and visit as part of a larger trip through Cambodia / South East Asia, but I'm really glad we decided to spend the whole holiday in the one spot - it gave us a chance to get to know the city and see lots of tourist sites without getting overwhelmed or exhausted.

We stayed at Shinta Mani Club, which was centrally located in the French Quarter, and quite close to Pub Street and the Old Market. We totally loved the hotel! It was beautiful, the rooms were very comfortable, the in-house restaurant was very impressive (especially the breakfasts!), and they had a fantastic spa. Most importantly, the service was amazing, really conscientious and thoughtful. Full post to come.

The pool at Shinta Mani Club

The main tourist attraction in Siem Reap is the collection of incredible ancient temples of Angkor. The Angkor Archaeological Park is considered one of the most significant sites in South East Asia, and contains the remains of the different temples of the Khmer Empire, built from the 9th to 15th centuries.

Bayon Temple

We were very organised and planned out all the different temples we wanted to see prior to arriving... we devoted a solid two days to temple trekking and saw sixteen temples in that time, and visited two more on two separate days. Phew! Apparently visiting eighteen temples is quite a lot - according to our tour guide and the hotel staff, most people only see the major ones. Either way, I found the temple visits incredibly interesting and we took loads of photos - full blog post to come including temple travel tips!

Baphuon Temple

We were primarily interested in the temples, but there are, of course, other activities for tourists - we found it quite interesting to visit Artisans d'Angkor, a craft workshop whose aim is to preserve traditional Khmer arts and crafts whilst providing professional skills and training to communities with limited educational opportunities.

Workshops at Artisans d'Angkor

They offer guided tours through the craft and silk workshops (the tours are free but you can tip the guide if you like), and of course there is a large gift shop where you can purchase the crafts they make. They had lots of great stuff, but we didn't buy anything at the time because we were worried about suitcase weight, and then really regretted it. So when we flew out, we were thrilled to discover that they sell Artisans d'Angkor goods at Siem Reap airport, and we happily bought a stone Buddha to bring home. Yay!

Workshops at Artisans d'Angkor

We also liked shopping in the Old Market and the Night Market in the centre of town. The markets kinda reminds me of Vic Market here in Melbourne - there are lots of stalls selling knick-knacks and souvenirs to tourists (silk scarves, bags, bowls, jewellery, I Love Cambodia tees, incredibly comfortable elephant pants...)

The Night Market

The Night Market

...but there were also lots of stalls that were geared towards locals - fresh food, kitchenware, even hair salons!

Noodle shop, Old Market

Old Market