At the beginning of planning a 2 weeks trip to cambodia

Your itinerary looks do-able. You might want more time in Angkor Wat. There are dozens of temples. And yes, the lake is worth seeing. It is incredibly filthy but amazing just the same. Look for the plastic bags forty feet up in the trees and you will get an idea of how much the lake rises and falls. You can spend three days in PP easily. I would suggest Killing Fields, Tuol Sleng, Russian Market and Wat Phnom in one day. You can book a tuktuk for all of this for about $20 at the Central Market if you negotiate well. Wat Ounalom is worth wandering through, the monks are interesting to chat with and if you have time there are twenty or so buildings on the grounds in addition to the main Wat. The main area is open in the evening. Do the National Museum, Palace and Silver Pagoda on a second day, maybe Central Market in the afternoon or evening. Eat dinner on the waterfront...great place to people watch. There are a couple of smaller markets just behind the waterfront that are interesting to wander through. Have you used this website: canbypublications.com. Excellent resource. PM me if you want more info.

So, that would be three days for Angkor, plus an extra day to do beng melea/ta prohm (seems similar) ?
Did you get a guide for the temples when you were there? I read some threads saying that you could do it easily on your own with a guidebook sold within the park.
I am thinking 1 day for small circuit and 1 day for large circuit. If I add an extra day for the park, it would probably be about temples of particular interest away from the park center.

There are just so many things I want to do in such limited time.

Btw, is it mad to bring a suitcase (some of you might be rolling your eyes now) to Cambodia, considering the possibility of facing wet muddy road? I have always traveled with a suitcase because I find it so much easier. If needed, I can buy a 60L backpack for this trip though.

Yes, that itinerary sounds good. The hotel we stayed at booked it all for us. We had a guide and it was worth every cent. They know so much info. Yes you can do it on your own but only if you want to spend the whole time reading your guide book and dodging the touts. We had a great guide that I would highly recommend. Not sure if I am allowed to mention names on here so if you want his name or the hotel (which was cheap and very nice) send me a message. He fit in a visit to Tonle Sap and the stilt village on our third day. We ended up with a private boat, much nicer than the group tours.

I took a suitcase and it was no problem. A pack might have been lighter.

I could make many suggestions but you are limited in time so I will not add to your problems by suggesting more. I agree that 3 full days for the temples are ideal. As for guides remember you will need transport as they are very spread out so a good tuk tuk driver who speaks english could be a good investment especially for the outer temples.

Rather than try and find a village from PP might be much better to venture out around Kep because the real problem is trying to find one that is accessible and interesting or perhaps stop at a small town between Siem Reap and PP. Don't get me wrong I am not saying that they are not there and another idea might be to have a look on the way from PP to Kep for somewhere you might like to stop on the way back to PP

Personally rucksack not suitcase - much easier to carry especially on unmade roads and tracks

While in PP we did a day trip with a guide who took us to Oudong (one time capital), the Buddhist study centre (very interesting and beautiful buildings) and to a silver village where we watched local silversmiths at work and were able to buy silver items. We didn't see another tourist all day! The cost was very reasonable and well worth it if you want to get out to the rural areas. We did an excellent bike tour from PP to the outlying islands, stopped in several villages, rode the ferries with locals (the school kids were fascinated with us). Riding through the traffic in PP was an experience in itself!

If you go to Tonle Sap with a guide while in Siem Reap you will travel through several small villages and can stop at the stilt village to wander and take pictures.

There are lots of opportunities to see small villages in your travels. (You don't need to keep aside a separate day to do this.)

you can easily get the local bus to Udong from the main bus station and nice trip

Thanks for the wonder info. I agree that with a guide/ tuk tuk driver daily would be ideal though it might be a bit expansive. I will look into it for sure.
For SR, now I will stay for 6 nights.

1. arrival from HK hopefully at early afternoon. Get things sorted and walk the streets a bit. (sunset angkor if I could)
2. Angkor
3. Angkor
4. Beng melea or Ta Prohm. Probably would stumble into some villiages
5. Angkor
6. Tonal Sap

It is a bit embarrassing to say it has taken such a long time for me to finally travel in S. Asia when I live a few hours of flight from those wonderful countries.

You are so lucky. For us it took 27 hours to get there! Lots of stopovers and waits to change planes. Enjoy your trip. Don't miss the markets in Siem Reap when you are there. Lots of the, downtown and so many good places to eat. If you have a free evening, do a cooking course. Even if you don't usually cook it was so much fun and a great way to eat dinner...after you made it! Cheap too, not much more than the cost of dinner. And a lot better than the buffet at the Apsera show. Let me know if you want a suggestion for a good place to do this.

If you go with a guide, you can do Sonle Tap on the same day as the far temples. He and your driver will take you there by car and you can have a private boat trip. Your guide will get you better prices and you will have a private boat so the boat driver can stop wherever, not jus at the tourist spots...floating village is quite amazing, crocodile place is ok, you can get him to stop and get close to places for photos. Then you can actually walk through the stilt village and see just how much water there can be in that area!

I'll definitely explore the city at night since I will be spending most of my daytime in the temples/sights, supposing safety isn't a big issue.
I always appreciate good food so yes, please, I would like to know more about that course :)

I think I will end up spending a lot of money if I go with a guide everywhere. Thank you for the suggestion though.
Gonna keep that in mind for now and see what happens there. Some of the best places I went weren't possible without a guide since I wont know about that spot.