The Best of Cambodia & Laos

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SIEM REAP
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SIEM REAP ATTRACTIONS
These trips are best in rainy season because the mangrove swamps are dried up at other
times. The birds at the bird sanctuary are best viewed from December to April. The Tonle
Sap basin is lush and green when the water recedes in the dry season, but the water is so
low that getting around on the lake, which drops from 12m (39 ft.) down to 4m (13 ft.)
in depth, and falls to a third of its rainy-season size, is quite difficult.
If you’re connecting onward with Siem Reap or Battambang by boat, you’ll get a
glimpse of life along the aquatic byways of Cambodia. The road heading south to the
lake follows the Siem Reap River and gives you a glimpse into communities of precarious
stilt houses that look ready to totter any second, and farmers herding groups of domesticated
ducks along canals. Getting to the boat, you’ll follow a long dirt causeway lined
with shanty houses and elbow among trucks overloaded with minnows and small fish
caught in the lake, squishing and leaking and bouncing precariously. Once out on the
open water on the speedboat to or from Phnom Penh, it’s just hot sun and blue water—
not an especially picturesque ride, but fun when the water is high in the rainy season.
IN SIEM REAP TOWN
Angkor National Museum This brand-new museum beckons visitors from the
main road to the temples. It houses an impressive collection of artifacts from Angkor,
many of which are on loan from the National Museum and the Conservation d’Angkor,
a treasure-trove that was heretofore closed to the public. Highlights include a room displaying
1,000 Buddhas and an Angkor Wat exhibition with a model of the famed temple.
It’s a good place to see carvings and statue details up close and with decent explanations
on hand. But only visit if it is pouring rain or you need a respite from walking around in
the blistering heat; otherwise your time and money are better spent at the temples. Historians
and conservationists have criticized the lack of history (most of the “1,000 Buddhas”
date from the 20th c. only), and local Cambodians are smarting at the fact that the
private Thai company behind the museum (to be fair, it has agreed to transfer control to
the Cambodian government after 30 years) appears to be profiting from national treasures—the
museum is unfortunately housed in a sterile retail mall that looks like it was
beamed in from the suburbs of America.
968 Vithei Charles de Gaulle, Khrum 6. & 063/966-601. Admission $15. Daily 8:30am–6:30pm.
SPAS & MASSAGE
After a day of scrambling, sweating, and climbing the temples, there’s nothing like a bit
of pampering to round things out, and with the tidal-wave rise in tourism in Siem Reap,
all kinds of services are popping up. On the high end of the scale, contact the Sofitel
Hotel (on the way to the temples on Vithei Charles de Gaulle; & 063/964-600), the
Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor (at the very town center; & 063/963-888), and the
Angkor Palace (& 063/760-511).
In town, try Visaya Spa at the plush FCC complex (Pokambor Ave. just north of the
post office; & 063/760-814), which has three stylish treatment rooms and a roster of
high-end services including body scrubs, wraps, facials, aqua therapy, and massages, all
at high prices for this part of the world (a 90-min. massage is $40) but worth it. Contact
them to make a reservation or just stop in. Open daily from 10am to 10pm.
Frangipani, a small storefront spa just down a little alley opposite the Blue Pumpkin
in the area north of the Old Market, offers a fine roster of treatments, from facials and
aromatherapy to oil massage and traditional massage. A good, little find with a professional
staff offering services starting at just $18 per hour for a traditional massage. For
booking, call & 012/982-062.