28 January 2024
Our sleeper bus from Phnom Penh arrived in Siem Reap (which literally means “Siamese defeated”, referring to the victory of the Khmer Empire over the army of the Thai kingdom in the 17th century) at 4am in the morning.
As our room at the splendid Metta Residence (a peaceful oasis with pool and free cocktails at the bar from 5-7pm daily) on the outskirts of town) was not yet available, we went on an early morning walk around the town – through a park, a temple, a primary school and the central market. Our first impressions were very positive; we discovered a laid-back, peaceful river town with genial residents.
A friendly Frenchman gave us the low down on the town. He explained that a decade ago, Siem Reap was the place where you stayed, ate and grabbed a beer or two between explorations of Angkor Wat, just 6km away. It was because of this proximity to the Angkorian ruins that Siem Reap has boomed. Huge, expensive hotels have sprung up everywhere and budget hotels have mushroomed. Property values have soared to European levels and tourism has become a vast, lucrative industry.
He admitted that some of the town's previous ramshackle charm may have been lost due to the developments of the last few years that have brought livelihoods, if not significant wealth, to a good number of its citizens. This has been at a cost to the underprivileged people living within and beyond the town's limits that now pay inflated prices at the central markets and continue to survive on poorly paid subsistence farming and fishing.
If Cambodia is a country of contrasts Siem Reap is the embodiment of those contrasts. Despite the massive shift in its economic fortunes, Siem Reap was in our opinion still a safe, friendly and pleasant town. So much so, that we could even imagine ourselves living there.
But for now, our goal was to visit the Angkor Wat complex. This was the reason we had come to Cambodia. We arranged a tuk-tuk driver to bring us there, bought our tickets on the way and found a guide on site to explain to us the fascinating history of what we could only describe as one of the truly great wonders of the world.
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