Off the beaten path ways to explore Cambodia and Angkor Wat?

Cambodia is generally a very easy country to travel in as a budget independent traveller. You can travel from one town to the next on public buses, which are safe and reliable and then find accomodation in each town for $10-20.
Using the town as a base, you can hire a motorcycle, bicycle or tuk-tuk and driver and get out out into the countryside very easily, to meet local people and have a look at their day to day life. From my experience that is the very best, most cost effective way to explore Cambodia and it is a world away from the tour group experience.

You cannot officially hire a motorbike in Siem Reap.

There are a few companies that offer more unusual trips but they do not come cheap. As for Angkor Wat: no way to get off the beaten path, you are 15 years too late for that. When are you going?

If you want visit rural Cambodia, you would do better to arrange your own tour. This will involve a lot of research on your part, but that should just whet your appetite. Tour agencies generally follow the banana pancake trail and help to expand it by making forays into places that used to be "untouched." To help you get started I suggest you have a look at a list of home stays at http://cambodianhomestays.webs.com/ jiust go to the links section. I especially recommend Chi Pat(pronounced Gee Pat) and The Mekong Discovery Trail. Also, not to be ignored are Mondulkiri and Rantanakiri I have a good contact for the former, a man who works with the indigenous people and will put you in contact with their guides and he doesn't get a cent. It is always a pleasure to help those want to see the Cambodia that most tourists never visit or at best only fleetingly so. Enjoy your stay in rural Cambodia. As for being "15 years too late" it is true that it is difficult to find "never visited" places, but you can find places less frequently visited. The vast majority of tourists, see Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh and Seam Reap and think they've "done" Cambodia. The rural areas most certainly deserve a visit. Please send me a private message if you have any questions.

Agree with the guy's comments. Do it solo. As you didn't state how long you had in country, I'm not sure if the suggestion is of any use, however: Phnom Penh, then loop the lake using local transport, stopping at Kompong Chhanang, - Battambang and or Pursat. Pursat - Sisophon. From Sisophon you could head north, Samraong - Anlong Veng from where you can either head down to the Reap, and continue the "loop" when you've done the temples, or Visit Preah Vihear and rejoin the "loop" .at Kompong Thom, although that would mean backtracking to the Reap. Options from Kompong Thom are north, via Kompong Cham, to Ratanakiri and Laos, east to Mondulkiri, or south to Phnom Penh and beyond. Hope you have a good trip.

agree with the above do it yourself and very easy. I too am a great fan of Chi Phat but note that they are putting a new web site up and links to the old one on the site Sanity mentions may not work so try this:

www.chi-phat.org.

Sanity you might wish to add the link to your favourites if you are going to recommend Chi Phat although hopefully they will manage to get a redirection going.

One thing that is very easy to organise is motos or tuk tuks to take you on personalised tours so as suggested do some homework and you will have a great times. Head to some of the smaller towns like Pailin, Takeo, Kampong Tom Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhang which are a bit off the tourist track as well as places like Kratie and Kampot

Thanks fellow travellers! After reading through your answers and doing some research on my own I decided to go with Cambodia Jeep Tours](http://cambodianhomestays.webs.com/ ) and using Cambodian Homestays. For Angkor Wat they have a 1 day circuit tour that looks pretty cool (http://www.cambodiajeep.com/our-tours/11-day-tour-angkor-small-circuit).

For the other cities I'll probably use Tuk Tuks to get around as it looks fairly easy.

Thanks!

Jessica

Thanks for that link bigal 1; it is certainly better than the old one I was using. In the past there were complaints that they were slow answering their g.d. emails. Do you know if that situation has cleared up?
Cheers, sanity.

I m not so sure I would like to get too much of the beaten track in many areas, particularly those closer to the borders and formerly KR dominated spots. De-mining has made good progress but Cambodia is not necessarily the best place to head off on your own to remote locations without precise knowledge of the area. We see much less mine-field warnings now but that does not mean that the areas are entirely safe. Even on the Thai side of the borders mines were still around as of 2003 (from personal experience and having luck). I also had some calls with snakes at Preah Khan which at the time was several hours distant from the next hospital. Villagers were very aware of the snakes in the area and within the ruins. In other words, caution is advised and if observed all should work out nicely.

Hi Sanityclause,

Yes a lot of work went in to the new pages by Martin and his people in Chi Phat and I was able to help a little by providing both my perspective as a visitor and from discussions with other guests as well as from my experience in Marketing communications as the site was being developed. For the first time it is now easy to get an idea of all the activities that are available and I think it includes virtually all the info that potential visitors require - let me know by PM if you have any ideas and I will forward them on

With regards to the answers to their emails I know Martin is aware of the problem and it was on his list of priorities but I do not know what the current situation is - fingers crossed!