Things to do in Cambodia
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TOP SELLER
Cambodia Adventure
12 days (Bangkok)
by Intrepid
Bargain like a local in Bangkok's markets, Explore the epic temples at Angkor , Delve into Khmer history in Phnom Penh, Experience rural village life at a…Not LP reviewed
from USD$865 - All things to do
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Friends
The delightful Friends restaurant is run by the Mith Samlanh Friends NGO. Staffed by street youths training for the hospitality industry, it offers healthy international dishes and delicious fruit cocktails.
reviewed
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Tuol Sleng Museum
S-21 has been turned into the Tuol Sleng Museum, which serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Entry is on the western side of St 113.
reviewed
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Samatoa
If you find yourself in need of a party frock, this designer dress shop offers original threads in silk, with the option of a tailored fit in 48 hours. Samatoa promotes fair trade.
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Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm is as seductive as Lara Croft. The site of some of her cinematic adventures, it is a series of dark galleries and pillars held hostage under the iron clasp of gigantic roots. The walls are decorated with carvings of sensuous celestial nymphs with smaller roots crawling across them like a rash.
Built in AD 1186 by King Jayavarman VII, the temple was dedicated to his mother. In its prime it was a holy trunk of great treasures. According to the Sanskrit inscriptions on the walls, the temple held thousands of pearls, precious stones and golden dishes weighting more than 500kg.
reviewed
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Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Rising above the 129 mass graves in the Killing Fields is a blinding white stupa (religious monument, often containing Buddha relics) that serves as a memorial to the approximately 17,000 men, women and children who were executed here by the Khmer Rouge between mid-1975 and December 1978.
Encased inside the stupa are almost 9000 human skulls found during excavations here in 1980. Many of these skulls still bear witness to the fact that they were bludgeoned to death for the sake of saving precious bullets.
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Taj Mahal Restaurant
This halal restaurant may not look much from the outside, but while it lacks in design, it packs in flavour. Northern Indian cuisine is the speciality.
reviewed
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Irrawaddy Dolpin Watching
The main activity that draws visitors to Kratie is the chance to spot the elusive Irrawaddy river dolphin. Before the civil war, locals say, Cambodia was home to as many as 1000 dolphins. However, during the Pol Pot regime, many were hunted for their oils and their numbers have plummeted. Locals and experts alike believe there may be as few as 75 Irrawaddy dolphins left in the Mekong between Kratie and the Lao border near Don Khone.
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Koh Ta Kiev
There are quite a few islands dotting the gulf within day-trip distance of Sihanoukville. For snorkelling, Koh Ta Kiev is one of the best.
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Equinox Bar
Acoustic jam sessions are held every Thursday and Saturday night in this animated bar. Happy hour 17:00 to 20:00.
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Beng Mealea
Visitors to Beng Mealea are confronted with a mass of ruins half devoured by a ravenous jungle. The temple's abandoned stones lie like forgotten jewels swathed in lichen and its temple complex strangled by ivy and vines. Brought to you by the same man who built Angkor Wat, King Suryavarman II, it is similar in style to his later effort but receives only a fraction of the guests.
Beng Mealea is 70km northeast of Siem Reap on a sealed private road. You can get there in a chartered taxi.
reviewed
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Blue Pumpkin
Downstairs it could be just another café, albeit with a delightful selection of cakes, breads, pastries and homemade ice cream. But head upstairs to find an old-school Starck (Philippe that is) interior, another world of white minimalist expression, with day beds that drain you of all will to leave. Light bites, filling specials, ice-cream creations and divine shakes – what more can you ask for? OK, there’s also free wi-fi.
reviewed
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Banteay Srei
This 'Citadel of Women' dedicated to Shiva, is a stunning tour de force of classical art and the most ornate of all of the temples. Though it is relatively tiny in size compared to its mammoth counterparts, it has the most intricate carvings and is believed to be the instigator of the Khmer art movement. The detail is astounding and each doorway, each lintel and every wall is a masterpiece.
reviewed
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Psar Tuol Tom Pong
Haggling at this market requires peering over mounds and mounds of clothing and quality kramas (chequered silk scarf worn around the necks, shoulders and waists of nearly every Khmer). It is often referred to as the Russian Market, as back in the 1980s it was the Russians' retail outlet of choice. It is the best place for souvenir T-shirts, CDs, DVDs and miniature carvings.
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Epic Arts Café
A great place for breakfast (around US$3), home-made cakes or tea, this mellow eatery - staffed by deaf and disabled young people - can also pack a bagel lunch for a trip up to Bokor. Sometimes it hosts dance performances. Profits fund dance, music and art workshops for deaf and disabled Cambodians.
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Warehouse
A popular bolt hole for expats escaping the madness of Bar St, this ‘local’ has lured many a traveller in for table football and indie anthems. The bar food is more cosmopolitan than most and best enjoyed from the 45-degree angle of a satellite chair. Free wi-fi.
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Temple Club
As the night wears on, the only worshipping going on at this temple is ‘all hail the ale’. Loud tunes (often too loud) and some liberally minded local girls (some are actually boys) draw a dance crowd. Mad happy-hours from 10am to 10pm.
reviewed
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McDermott Gallery
This photography gallery is home to John McDermott’s striking sepia-style images of the temples. For a preview of the temples in a different light, check out his online collection.
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Bayon Market
Recently relocated to a bigger premises, Bayon Market has a good range of products, including some nice surprises that don’t turn up elsewhere in the city.
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Viva
Mexican food and frozen cocktails are served at this kerbside restaurant, bringing the colour and spirit of Mexico to Siem Reap.
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bamboo train
The bamboo train is one of the world's all-time classic rail journeys. From O Dambong, on the east bank 3.7km south of Battambang's Old Stone Bridge, the train runs southeast to O Sra Lav, via half an hour of clicks and clacks along warped, misaligned rails and vertiginous bridges left by the French.
Each bamboo train - known in Khmer as a norry (nori) - consists of a 3m-long wood frame, covered lengthwise with slats made of ultra-light bamboo, that rests on two barbell-like bogies, the aft one connected by fan belts to a 6HP gasoline engine. Pile on 10 or 15 people or up to three tonnes of rice, crank it up and you can cruise along at about 15km/h.
The genius of the…
reviewed
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Little India Restaurant
The oldest Indian in town - that's the restaurant, not the owner - the food here is consistently good, with its fair share of vegetarian options and some delicious curries. It's good value for money too.
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Romdeng
Also under the Mith Samlanh Friends NGO umbrella, the elegant Romdeng specialises in traditional food from the provinces and offers a staggering choice of traditional Khmer fare.
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Angkor Thom
From Angkor Wat, the bridge leading to the south gate of Angkor Thom has two incredible balustrades of giants handling nagas (mythical serpents, often multiheaded), an incredible first impression made only more dreamlike by the elephants plodding out of the arched entrance topped by the four enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara (the Buddha of Compassion). Angkor Thom is a walled compound bordered by a 100m wide moat. It was built by the great King Jayavarman VII (r 1181-1219) as his royal palace.
The complex has five gateways, each with double portals. Four of the gateways point to each side of the compass, while the fifth is a Victory Gateway.
Behind the 8m walls lie some of…
reviewed
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Bokor Hill Station
The eerie ruins of the old French hill station of Bokor, high atop Phnom Bokor (1080m), are known for their cool - even chilly - mountain climate and dramatic vistas of the coastal plain, one vertical kilometre below.
The road up to Bokor was built from 1917 to 1921 by Cambodian indentured labourers, many of whom perished. By the early 1920s a French holiday settlement had been established and a grand hotel-casino, the Bokor Palace, was inaugurated in 1925.
The hill station was twice abandoned: first when Vietnamese and Khmer Issarak (Free Khmer) forces overran it in the late 1940s while fighting for independence from France, and again in 1972 when the Lon Nol regime left…
reviewed
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Banteay Chhmar
Originally enclosed by a 9km-long wall, the temple housed one of the largest and most impressive Buddhist monasteries of the Angkorian period. Today, it is one of the few temples to feature the enigmatic, Bayon-style visages of Avalokiteshvara, with their mysterious - and world famous - smiles.
On the temple's east side, a huge bas-relief on a partly-toppled wall dramatically depicts naval warfare between the Khmers (on the left) and the Chams (on the right), with the dead - some being devoured by crocodiles - at the bottom. Further south (to the left) are scenes of land warfare with infantry and elephants. There are more martial bas-reliefs along the exterior of the…
reviewed