Of all the places I visited during my Southeast Asia trip, Siem Reap stole my heart. Exploring the Angkor temple ruins was truly an unforgettable experience and one outside of my comfort zone. Personally, I prefer concrete jungles to green ones and often don’t take the time to enjoy nature. Siem Reap though, was breathtaking. Despite blazing sun and the possibility of poisonous snakes, each temple we visited wowed me with their architecture and engineering. I also enjoyed learning about the Khmer empire and seeing the shift from Hinduism to Buddhism in the temples.

The Hubby and I spent 2 and a half days temple hopping in Angkor Archaeological Park with our certified guide and private driver. Other transport options include by tuk-tuk or bicycle. I would highly recommend hiring a guide from the Cambodia Tourist Guide Association. Licenses guides had a uniform and have spent time training with UNESCO and the Ministry of Tourism. Our guide was friendly, soft spoken and very knowledgeable. I won’t go into the history of the Khmer empire because it’s not my specialty. I did find skimming through the Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Empire) page helpful before visiting each country to get a sense of the history and culture.

Tips

• – Bring plenty of water, a hat and if necessary a UV umbrella. Many of the temple sites were cleared of trees and the sun can be intense.
• – For some temples (including the upper level of Angkor Wat), visitors need to have covered shoulders and knees. For us, I had a white, light knit cardigan and we bought two pairs of the pants being sold at any street vendor. This was a good cheap, easy solution as we hadn’t packed any long pants for the trip.
• – Take your time and make a list, there are literally hundreds of temples to see in the 400m2 park.
• – Go early, the park opens at sunrise and to avoid the tour buses of tourists, try to visit the more popular parks in the morning and aim to be back at your hotel by 2pm to rest and avoid the hottest hours of the day.
• – Hire a guide, they’re well trained and I learned so much about Khmer history. At only ~ $20 USD/day, our guide added so much to our time in Siem Reap.
• – Be respectful. Some of the temples are still active and in use by Buddhist monks.
• – Don’t wander off, stick to the path unless your guide tells you it’s ok. Some more remote temples have only recently been cleared of landmines.

These are the temples we visited:
Rolous Temples – Made up of 3 structures, Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei. Built in the late 9th century
Banteay Srei – Built in the 10th Century, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.
Angkor Thom City – Capital city of the Khmer empire, 4 elaborate entrances into the city from each cardinal direction.
Bayon Temple – Built the late 12th or early 13th century, most well-known for the many depictions of smiling Buddha of all sizes. Located inside Angkor Thom
Angkor Wat – Siem Reap’s most well-known temple, the largest religious monument in the world and almost entirely intact/restored. Built in the 12th century.
Ta Prohm – Built the late 12th or early 13th century. Trees have grown back over the temple and around the stone bricks. This was the temple featured in the Tomb Raider movies with Angelina Jolie.
Beng Mealea Temple – Still much restoration work to be completed, much of the temple is still collapsed. Fewer tourists visit this temple and it was very scenic and calm.

Needless to say, my love of eating out can be taxing financially, especially when it comes to fine dining. While planning my trip to South East Asia my main focus was delicious, cheap street food and local cuisine, but then I started wondering about “finer” restaurants. This led me to discovering Cuisine Wat Damnak. Located in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Cuisine Wat Damnak was listed at #50 on San Pellegrino’s list of Asia’s Top Restaurants and offered a 6 course set menu for only $28 USD ($35 CAD). This was an amazing value. Another key selling point for me was that the restaurant focused on traditional Cambodian flavours and ingredients, and sourced locally. Exactly what I look for in every meal when travelling.

Atmosphere: The restaurant was located in a beautiful, open two storey house, far from the neon lights of Pub Street in Siem Reap. Tables were available outside in the garden, upstairs decorated with influences from traditional Cambodian houses, or inside on the more modern first floor with air conditioning. The Hubby and I opted for a table inside. The dining room was refined yet relaxed and comfortable with diners spaced out for privacy. Conversations were soft spoken and I could feel the excitement at each table as courses was served.

Service: We arrived after a 10 minute TukTuk ride from our hotel and was greeted by the hostess, Chef Riviere’s partner Carole Salmon. All of the servers were local Cambodian residents, who took wonderful care of us throughout dinner. Wine and water glasses were tended to, crumbs cleared and each dish served with a detailed explanation. At the end of our meal, Chef Rivière came by the table to serve a selection of local fruits. He described each fruit in detail and chatted with us about our meal, a wonderful personal touch.

Food: Chef Joannès Rivière was born in a small town in France and has been living in Cambodia since 2003. After working as the executive chef for one of Siem Reap’s most acclaimed hotels, Chef Riviere opened Cuisine Wat Damnak with his partner in 2011. The couple both speak fluent Khmer and the restaurant reflected their passion and appreciation of Cambodian cuisine and culture. Featuring a tasting menu that changes bi-weekly and only locally sourced or foraged produce, Cuisine Wat Damnak combined the best of local flavours and French cooking techniques.

The night we visited, there were two tasting menus available with 5 or 6 courses. One featured more seafood while the other land animals. I chose the seafood-centric 6 course menu, while The Hubby chose the other. What blew me away with each course was how rich and aromatic the flavours were. Just the hint of lime used was more fragrant than a bag of limes I can find at the grocery store. Each dish was also balanced with aspects to sweetness and acidity.

Our tasting menus consisted of:
1. Amuse-bouche of a refreshing cucumber salad
2. Prawn and tiger eggplant salad with herbs, prahok and peanut emulsion
3. Angkor stout braised beef roll
4. Caramelized palm sugar and star anise slow cooked pork, crispy shank, lotus root, stem and seeds
5. Pan fried Sanday fish, pumpkin and coconut tree heart stew, moringa, toasted rice and coconut puree
6. Honey cured Bantey Srey cantaloupe with tapioca pearls, lemon basil sorbet and Phnom Kulen vanilla meringue

1. Amuse-bouche of a refreshing cucumber salad
2. Pomelo and wild ginger leaves salad, candied pomelo skin pickled chicken
3. Rice wine steamed Mekong langoustine with Kurata pepper, Makassar fruit salsa
4. Blue crab clear curry with Chhlang fish, water lily stem and pounded feroniella
5. Stir fried boneless frog legs with wild mushrooms, homemade oyster sauce and holy basil
6. Cambodian cinnamon and darks chocolate light ganache, caramelized cashew nuts and puffed rice

Both menus had stronger and weaker dishes. I loved my pomelo salad, The Hubby’s Beef rolls, my Langoustine, his Slow Cooked Pork and my Frog Legs. We both really enjoyed my wonderfully chocolaty dessert with the crispy, airy puffed rice.

If visiting Siem Reap, I’d highly recommend making dinner reservations at Cuisine Wat Damnak for a world class dining experience at an amazing price. Later on during our trip, we also had dinner at Nahm in Bangkok (#22 World’s Best Restaurant) for double the price and frankly, I enjoyed our meal at Cuisine Wat Damnak more.

Of all the cities I visited in South East Asia, Siem Reap in Cambodia was my favourite. We spent our days exploring ruined temples of the Khmer empire, some hidden in jungles and others restored to their former glory. At night, we wandered around Pub Street, munching on street food, souvenir shopping at Old Market and getting foot massages.

Siem Reap was a small and compact town. Our hotel was located halfway between “downtown” and the Angkor Archaeological Park. To get around, our primary mode of transportation was hiring Tuk-Tuks. Most of the drivers were friendly and understood some English. We always ended up where we wanted to go and only ran into one pushy driver who inflated his price. There shouldn’t be any surcharges based on time of day.

Pub Street, was a lively area filled with spas, restaurants and bars, and clearly meant for tourists. I liked visiting before sunset to snack on street food and wander around before settling at a restaurant for dinner. Two street food stalls I really enjoyed was one selling fried glutinous rice patties filled with chives and another making fried pearl noodles.

For dinner, I was drawn to the table top BBQ at Easy Speaking Restaurant, right along Pub Street next to bars and clubs. We sat at a table outside to people watch and met a very friendly street (hopefully clean) cat. To be honest, the restaurant was kind of a tourist trap, but that’s the atmosphere we were looking for that night. English menus were available, beers were cheap, ($0.50 – $1.00/glass) and the nightclub next door provided a lively background. Service and food though ranged from meh to not good. We had to be aggressive in getting a server’s attention. An older couple next to us sat for a solid 30 minutes before anyone even came by to take their order.

We tried the set bbq that included vegetables and 5 meats. At this point in our trip, I was trying to get as many vegetables into my diet as possible. The meats included chicken, frog, crocodile, snake and kangaroo. I’d tried all the animals except Kangaroo before, which was lean and mild in flavour. Our server set up the grill and we were left to cook the rest ourselves, similar to Korean BBQs.

Dinner was interesting, fun and included cats (by the end of our meal, our table had attracted 3 cats who napped under our table, patiently waiting for scraps). Not amazing in terms of taste but perfect for a touristy night out in Siem Reap.

On our way home, The Hubby and I were also fascinated by the colony of bats that lived in tall trees, basically in the middle of town. Our tour guide explained the bats have always lived there and were a part of the scenery. He seemed quite perplexed by how long we spent taking photos of them and staring.