I have been thinking about heading to Siem Reap next week. I hadn't done any prior research. I am totally unprepared. Will local currency be of any use or just dollars? Crucial to have a guide? Are ATMs plentiful?

1. Dollars. You may get riel in change.
2. Not crucial, but inexpensive and good value.
3. Enough ATMs that it is not a concern.

The first time I saw Angkor, it was without a guide, and I have seen it since with one. This is my subjective opinion, but it worked for me to wander around the first time, then go back and have it put into perspective by an expert. Travelfish has a good Angkor iPhone app and there are a ton of guidebooks.

If it were the one and only time I was going to see Angkor, I might want to use a guide.

But what Hiyo is saying is that the change received may be in local currency.

That was our experience. Dollars in, Riel out. 1 USD = 4180 KHR.

Pretty currency, and uniformly in crisp condition. One of the funnier moment of my trip was when one of the shop keepers relied on her 8- or 9-year-old daughter to inspect the condition of the US bills we were trying to pay with. Only bills in good condition were accepted!

Yosithezet, how did you handle your visa? E-visa? Any effort to make you pay more than 20 USD at Immigration?

Safe Travels, and post a trip report if you are of a mind to do so!

Did the e-visa online and there was no attempt to get more money. Simply headed to the e-visa immigration line. The guy was having a heck of a time getting his computer to bring up my visa. He figured that pounding on the mouse button harder would work. It took about 10 tries of him typing in the number to finally bring up the visa. I imagine poor internet and old computer at work.

Hi all,

Just a quick note on my experience with Kim San in Angkor last month. He is very kind and knowledgeable and everything that has been said in this and other threads on flyertalk is true...

However, and I think it's important to point that out, I do not think one should go out of his way to book him. During the three days he guided us through the temples, we've seen many other guides at work, and I've heard guides giving way better description and explanations of the bas-reliefs and other aspect of the temples.

I found that Kim San repeated himself quiet a lot over the course of our trip, even though I pressed him for more details on some of the temples, I sometimes found myself listening to other guides to catch more information... Moreover, he was a bit "lazy" at times : he didn't want to go up Angkor Wat with us so we visited the upper floor on our own (and again, we were left to listen to other guides who went up there), same for a couple of other temples...

And the last day, he asked if we could finish at 2pm (we started the day at 7am), which were fine by us, but he ended up trying to do everything super fast and we were back at the hotel at 12pm!

Oh and when I sent him a mail, he said it would be $30/day for the guide and $30 for the driver... He never mentioned that he was both guide AND driver (it's okay I guess, but we were a bit surprised when he showed up by himself the first day) ;-)

Maybe he was just having a bad week (it was super super hot) or maybe he had other things in mind, but I don't think I'll recommend it to my friends or family. If you stay at the Meridien, like we did, no need to book a guide in advance, go through the Concierge and book a guide on a daily basis.

Overall, Kim San was very flexible in setting up our trip, and provided a good service so we did not regret having him as our guide. But we found that he was a bit "overrated" compared to other very nice guides we met during our trip.

Hope this help some people ;-)

Just came back from a trip to REP using Kim San for 2 days.

We booked him via internet. During the 1st go-round, he suggested an itin that included a stop at the local tourist shop place. We suggested to go somewhere else instead - and that was met without complaint or problems.

Overall, no complaints. Unlike Lebadaud's experience, Kim San was ready to go the whole day with us.

Being a private tour, it was extremely flexible and we decided to take a couple of hours rest in the afternoon of the 1st day due to the heat. On the 2nd day, he was ready to go the whole day but we decided to cut it short ourselves - again, because of the heat.

Kim San uses a fairly new Toyota Highlander and seems to get along with a lot of the other tour guides/officials/etc. This came in handy on the 1st day - the last climb up to the top of the temples at Angkor were being closed early by the local folks. They were turning away everyone. After a few minutes with Kim San talking to them, they made an exception for us.

Sure, he may repeat a few things, but a lot of the temples have stuff that repeats.

Overall, we felt he was quite competent but, more importantly, felt quite safe with him around.

Personally, I'd have no trouble recommending Kim San.

Below is the website for my guide. He was really excellent - very good English speaker, congenial, had a knack for getting you to the sites when they were uncrowded (e.g., going into Angkor Wat through the rear entrance; except for my photos of that temple from the front, there are almost no people in any of my pictures):

http://www.angkor-guidecelebrity.com/

I finally have my trip coming up in January and have yet to book flights (to/from KUL/SIN or even SGN). How much time should I spent in the area? I am thinking about three to four days depending flight times.
Two days at the main site and one day to see something 'off the beaten track' (if there is such a thing). Any recommendations? On other forums I've seen trips from less than two days to two weeks.

For me, 2 full days was perfect. That's even after taking some afternoon breaks. I got to see pretty much all the ruins.

Reminds me of Europe. After a certain amount of time, all the cathedrals look alike. ;)

Generally agree. I would go for 2.5 days/3 nights -- arrive in the morning or mid-day; catch a sunset on the first night; do two full days at the temples; and then fly out the next morning. If you're interested in the surrounding countryside and doing some non-historical sightseeing, you couldn't go wrong with doing one more day and night.

Just read through here and got the distinct feel that some posters are here for no other reason than reckless promotion (perhaps themselves).

Ah well, with no one I'm convinced to contact I'll just talk with the hotel.

personal recommendation from trip last week...
 

DSquared,

I'm in Phuket at the moment (it's raining :confused:) as part of the second leg of our two-week trip to SE Asia.

We flew here from REP (Via KL) and we used Chem (http://www.angkor-guidecelebrity.com/ ) as recommended above by Yahtzee.

I will post more detail either here or on TripAdvisor as soon as I get home but in summary I would have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending Chem.

I made arrangements well in advance with Chem and he met us at the airport when our flight landed the first day. He took care of us until we left, there was NO mention of visiting any shops or other such scams, he was upfront with us about the fact that he contracts with another tour company most of the time and that 'celebrity guides' is a new web venture which is in fact him alone (I was not in any way put out by that and would be far happier dealing 'direct' than paying a proportion of my fee to a western 'agent')

He also managed to get us in back doors and at quiet times into temples which meant we avoided crowds (a blessing) .... and the cocktails he supplied by surprise out of the car on the first evening as we sat overlooking the moat around Angkor were just the absolute perfect touch!.

Highly recommended.

Yes - I stayed at Residence d'Angkor and arranged my tour through them. It was pretty expensive but I'm sure Chem did not get a big piece of the action. So, I hope this venture works.

I can see where dsquared is coming from in reading this thread -- but I think people go to Siem Reap, see people working hard there who have been good to them but are not making a lot of $ and want to repay that in some way by getting the word out to others.

After over 100 trips to Bangkok (business) and feeling guilty about never visiting Angkor Wat, I did last month. Got a guide - disappointing because he steered me to an overpriced hotel and was a bit disinterested. Let him go within first 4 hours (but paid for two days as agreed).

Will go back, but next time will get a bicycle at the Le Meridien and do it on my own.

Interesting the Cambodian obsession with the $US