Angkor Guide
 

I do regret starting this thread--but I can't find the reference to a guide in Angkor called Pon Heary. Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm guessing you may have see her on Fodor's BB, and not here. [email protected]

I actually came across Pon Heary in an FT thread which I can no longer find. Regardless, I emailed her based on the recommendation of others. She was not available on the dates we were travelling, but recommended me to her brother, Dara. She still arranged everything for us, and Dara and his driver turned out to be excellent. We briefly met Pon Heary as well. I would highly recommend either Pon Heary or her brother if you are headed to Angkor!

Thats good to hear about having good guides in Cambodia. Be careful if you go, it seems just about anyone could claim to be a "guide" there, and some of them just suck, but on a different point of view, I guess they need money, but sometimes they are so pestering! Argh Even little kids. (Don't take this comment offensive as I am Cambodian too, and only speak from experience)

And if anyone has a semi large group, up to 15 people and need a driver, I have a really great recommendation, he is based in Phnom Pehn, but he can take you all through out Cambodia, and we just heard he got a new van to drive. =D

Here is a thought...
 

I have been to Siem Reap....Spent 4 nights at the Ankor Village and did some touring....Knowing what I know now I would do the power tour thing. On the first flight and back on the last via a tour group and I HATE tour groups.
Spend alot of time doing transit, maby 2 days in time out of 4 days there. Siem Reap is a dusty place in the old town. Out near the airport is a newer section but no culture...there has been alot fo money from Japan to mnake it a tourist place etc. The tours are very oranized and time efficient. I'm very comfortable in strange places in Asia and found Siem Reap to be boring and the Temple to be a bit repetative....Too much talking etc.
If you have lots of time and like to waste money go for a few days....I'm glad I went but would rather have done more efficient thing. Cambodai is years behind thailand and I would have thought it were many many years ago except for the MOBILE is everywhere.

I did the "classic" Angkor experience back 12 years ago, before Bangkok Airways flew the route and started the ruin of the place. It included the boat ride in the unsafe, overloaded boat across the Tonle Sap, leading to the pier where you'd get mobbed (literally) by guesthouse touts. Just getting transit without guesthouse stickiness was tough, and I went for a pricey $4/night one with fans and mosquito nets. Competition for the moto-driver business (paid $6/day) was fierce and usually the guesthouse owner would be aggressive in "helping" you take care of that need with someone who probably was a family member. He'd take you between sites but would sleep in the hammock when there and didn't double as a guide. Kids with precocious English skills would eagerly volunteer, but the Lonely Planet Guide was a good reference and really helped.

You didn't see much in the way of crowds at most places, and a few backpackers on the grounds of the main temple would be smoking funny cigarettes. Going to Banteay Srey required an armed escort.

The Khmer Rouge even briefly held the area in an uprising later in the year, back in the days when they were still operating.

Am glad I got to see Angkor before it was overrun, though. Saw it again in 2000 and crowds were noticeably heavier, though probably nothing like they are now.

Siem Reap - Tour Guide recommendation
 

Recommendation for guide posted by spammer; restored with redactions to preserve thread.

Thanks for the tip. Noted you made a similar post back in July :http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12018945-post7.html

From the reviews I read and my e-mail exchanges, I expected Kim San would be a good guide. He was very patient with me trying to tweak my itinerary over several e-mails over a week and he replied promptly.

I'd like to give my full recommendation for Kim San. He speaks excellent English and is very knowledgeable. He was constantly pointing out areas of interest as we were driving. He helped us understand the history of the temples and told us some stories about growing up during the civil war. He pointed out the good areas for pictures and was happy to snap photos for my mother and I. He made a big effort to help my mom. She's in her 70's and recently had a knee problem so it was hard for her to walk steps. He helped her up the stairs and through the more difficult areas. Of course, I tried to do that myself, but it was nice that he was so helpful. Finally, he went the extra distance with service in general. He insisted on carrying our umbrellas for us. He had cool towels and cold water ready in the car after each temple stop. Having a cooler was nice touch. We had just finished a two week tour in Vietnam. They had bottled water for us there every stop but none of them had a cooler for us. Oh, he even bought me a Diet coke one day. I inquired about how much a can was and I didn't want to pay $1 for it. The next thing I know, he surprises me later with a Diet Coke.

If you do decide to hire him, and really want to make his day, please pay in $2 bills. I remember reading a Conde next article that was linked here on flyertalk saying people love the $2 bills in Cambodia. It's so true. I paid him in all $2 bills and he loved it. He says he now has neat gifts for his relatives and can spend them and make the vendors and clerks happy. Anytime I paid in Cambodia or in Vietnam with $2 bills, the clerks were trying to change the money out so they could have the bills or people were asking me if I could change some $2 bills with them. The tailor in Hoi An, Vietnam wanted to buy $100 worth off of me, but I only gave him $50 as I wanted to save the build of my $2's for Cambodia.

We are using him in Jan for 4 days. Seems like a great guy and very responsive and helpful with all queries.

Thx. That's nice to know.

A perhaps oddball chocie, but for a guidebook I liked using:

THE MONUMENTS OF THE ANGKOR GROUP
by Maurice Glaize

(A translation from the 4th French edition).

This is a 1944 edition with nice black and white illustrations.
You may be able to find a free pdf downlaod without much trouble.

edit: go to this page:
http://www.theangkorguide.com/download.htm

right click, "save target as" on the link there.
7 mb

Many thanks, Mr H!!

All good information here - just curious what these guides would charge for 2 or 3 days touring at the temples, for 4 people? Is it appropriate to ask them via email prior to arrival?

Definitely appropriate to discuss fees in advance.

Remember, a guide is a guide, and a driver is a driver. Not the same thing.

I would expect to pay US$25-30 a day for a guide, and the same for a car with driver, or maybe about US$15 a day for a tuk-tuk.

Remember admission to the Angkor park, last year was US$40 for 3-day pass.

But, yes, definitely ask about fees prior to arrival. It is expected.

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

As Pon Heary was mentioned early on... it's actually Ponheary Ly and her Ponheary Ly Foundation is supported by FlyerTalk (Community Buzz! Forum has extensive information). She offers guide services, lodging and of course, operates her foundation.

Searching for keyword Ponheary will reveal other threads (one person was unhappy s/he got caught in a booking mess, but most have been quite happy and appreciate the oppirtunity to give something back to the children of a country as hammered by the Khmer Rouge and continued corruption as Cambodia.)

Talking about booking messes, I referred Kim San to a colleague of mine. He switched out with another tourguide without letting my colleague know. While I know this can happen anywhere and with anyone, it's extremely poor form for not informing the client. :td:

Ponheary Ly
 

Just wanted to clarify that Ponheary Ly is NOT associated with any of these "Amazing Race" phony posts. I had read about her and the foundation she started. When I was planning a visit to Siem Reap last year I contacted her for her for guide services and a visit to one of the schools she supports. She was professional, warm and friendly, and she does fantastic work supporting more than 2000 Cambodian children, especially in some of the more rural areas. I was so moved that I nomimated her as a CNN Hero. You can read more about her at the link below...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/06/18...dia/index.html

Sounds like distemper to me. That this thread has blatant promotional posts is not much of a surprise to people who have been there more than once. Crass commercialism is alive and well, just not quite so refined as in other places.

Ponheary Ly is in another league altogether and deserves our support. There is so much misery in the area and so much residue of the wars. Anybody who devotes herself to improving education and general welfare of children there is to be applauded.

Further her guide services and accommodation arrangements work well fro nearly everyone, it seems. Count me in with her fans. If this be blatant commercialism, so be it.

Original Post in this thread:
 

Anyone who would like Ponheary's current email is welcome to PM me.

After internally debating weather or not to bring this up my decision is, at the moment, obvious.

While Ly and other NGOs have a desire to help people they also maintain the status quo politically, enrich the established uncaring gov/elite folks, and potentially create as many detriments, long term, to the people as they attempt to alleviate social ills.

You can praise these people all you want, and I'm not trying to demean Ly, I'm sure her intentions are great, but there are potentially sinister unforseen effects from all these NGOs plying their trade in Cambodia (and elsewhere).

I feel I must jump in here, as I have personally met Ponheary Ly and after some research, specifically signed her up for a mission to Ko Ker (school visit focus). I think she is the real deal, and I would not lump her efforts in with the "other NGO's." Her efforts are local, small-scale, pretty focused, I saw little to nothing spent on maintaining a classic (expensive) NGO systems apparatus. (I'm sure any questions on that could be put to the US woman who moved to Siem Reap, set up and presumably administers the Ponheary Ly Foundation.) I didn't see how what she is doing does much to maintain political status quos or enrich the elite. Although I do generally agree with your comments on NGO's and that they can be a mixed blessing (or a curse), I'm not sure that really applies here. She is a Cambodian local, focused on educational projects that have a future multiplier effect...I'm reminded of the old "teach a person to fish rather than give them a fish" saying. Of course, over time mission diversion or outright corruption can creep into even small organizations, and publicity can have negative effects, but until I get clear signs of this either personally or from people whose opinion I trust and who have also dealt with her, I'm inclined to give Ponheary a thumbs up and a recommendation.

To my knowledge, she isn't into self-promotion on forums like this, so most mentions you see of her here are likely to be from FT'ers who have used her either for Angkor guide services, or for non-tourism mission-specific visits.

There is an odd situation here on FlyerTalk because we prohibit commercial promotions but have approved charitable activities such as the one we're discussing, Kiva and others. The reconciliation is fairly simple, IMO. The rules don't apply touting our own vested commercial interests. The do not appear to prohibit charitable activities.

No person who has seen many NGO's in action can avoid healthy distrust. No responsible person can either dismiss all of them because some are venal, inefficient or ineffective.

I am reminded of the Meryl Streep character Sister Aloysius in "Doubt" who when faced with a ringing lack of evidence for her position said "But I have my certainty!".

I've never met Ponheary Ly and I indicated my intent not to demean her. Perhaps lumping her in with others was a mistake, but as jbcarioca points out, NGOs in general garner a "healthy distrust".

I think we have demeaned you quite enough on this issue. We are probably not so far apart, just defending one of those we believe in.