Money Exchange
You can use the US dollar at Siem reap, I exchanged Japanese yen for 200 US dollars at Narita airport. $1 was 106.17 yen on 3rd March 2008. At Bangkok airport, I exchanged 5,000 yen for 1570 Thai baht for taxis, meals, and others. At Siem reap, I needed US dollars and I exchanged them at a bank and money exchange booth. At Cambodia Asia Bank, I exchanged 2,000 yen for $18 and 2,000 riels. At a money exchange booth, the rate was bad, I got only $17 and 2,000 riel.
At Siem reap, you can use us dollars. Riel is for use of less than one dollar, it’s the same as a cent in the US. You don’t need to exchange your dollar or yen for riel.
Hotel at Siem reap – Molly Malone’s –
Single room is like this.
A pub on the first floor is like this. Very noisy at the night.
As described on the “Preparing for travel” page, I selected Molly Malone’s from budget class guesthouses. I didn’t know that 1F is an Irish pub. Later I found it on restaurant pages of “Arukikata” (guidebook) and described as “it also drives a guesthouse”
I stayed there for 3 nights. The location is very good. There are many restaurants near there and convenience stores. There are massage shops, Internet cafes, and travel agents. You can go to an Old Market easily.
They have transport service from/to the airport. I ask them for transportation. When I went outside the airport, I could find a man who had a signboard written my name. I had expected there to be many people who tried to take me to their hotels, but very few people ask to go with them. I guessed that the man was an employee of Molly Malone’s, but it’s not. He is a taxi driver.
Anyway, He took me to the guesthouse and I asked him to pick me up at 3 o’clock to go to Angkor Wat.
The room was a single room, which means the room has only one bed, and it seemed smaller than the picture of the twin room on their WEB site. It was like a Japanese business hotel. It cost $20 per night.
A big reason to select this guest house was free WiFi. I didn’t like to bring a laptop, but I had a PDA with WiFi and it was enough to read emails. I tried to connect to WiFi. It’s easy to find the access point, but I couldn’t connect to it. I went downstairs and ask how to connect to WiFi. I needed a password to connect and I got it. OK. It’s easy to connect with the password. It’s very convenient to use the Internet.
Meals at Siem Reap
Chicken curry at Khmer Kitchen
Soup at Khmer Kitchen
Meat-ball noodle at Soup Dragon
Pork noodle at Soup Dragon
Beef noodle at Soup Dragon
Herbs and spices
Stir-fried beef and mashroom
Fried-rice with meat
Spring roll
AMOK
The first night, I went to a street near a Pub street. There are many new trendy stylish restaurants. Many travelers had been coming to the street.
I walked around the street to look for a restaurant that seemed to be good. It was early time and most restaurants were empty, but Khmer Kitchen was crowded with tourists. It’s a famous restaurant not only in Japanese “Arukikata” but also in other languages guide books recommend this restaurant.
I ordered chicken curry, vegetable soup, and Anchor beer. Curry was so good, but the soup was not to my taste. It’s hot, and tastes spice I don’t like.
The next morning, I took a noodle at Soup Dragon which is located on the same street as the guest house. You have two choices of noodles, one is Cambodian style and the other is Vietnamese. Herb and spices box is served with noodles to adjust the taste as you like.
This restaurant is crowded in the morning. It’s a very delicious noodle, so I took all breakfast here while I stay Siem reap.
I had lunch on the 2nd and 3rd days at restaurants near the ruins which the taxi driver took me. On the 2nd day, I went to the restaurant located between Pre Rup and Ta Prohm, which is for tourists. It takes $6 for stir-fried beef with mushroom, rice, and a soft drink. On the 3rd day, I went to a restaurant inside Angkor Tom, it takes $3 for fried rice with meat.
On the second day, I booked a dinner with the Apsara Dance show. I told some names of a restaurant from guide book to a driver, but he recommended Jasmin Angkor which is located near the guest house and took me there.
The dinner was buffet-style, it’s so nice. The charge was $12, and I order Angkor beer, it’s $1. The show took an hour, I had fun, but not so great one. I guess this kind of culture had also been destroyed and started from zero.
On the third day, I went to Khmer Traditional Food which was located on the street near Pub street for dinner. The restaurants on this street were not so crowded except for Khmer kitchen, but most of them were brand new, you should try these restaurants. Khmer Kitchen was popular because of its reasonable price.
I ordered spring rolls and AMOK which was Cambodian traditional food. It’s more delicious than Khmer Kitchen. I drank a jug of beer, but the total cost was less than $10. AMOK was very delicious.
I found some good restaurants, but I guess the Cambodian restaurant business is not so mature, because the dishes of the food court in Bangkok were better than Siem Reap restaurants. It’s a very high level of food business in Bangkok.
Shopping in Siem Reap
Krama(Cambodian scarf)
I bought two kramas. I paid too much, it was $6 for two.
