Siem Reap is above all the city of temples. The temples of Angkor are world famous and this set of temples is magical.

Visiting the temples allows you to confront the mystic. Even if we are not religious, these temples impress and transport in a very particular universe. We are seized by the solemnity of the place, we struggle to imagine the construction and maintenance of these temples, but we ask for more. I spent 3 days visiting the temples, but it’s a magical place where I’ll come back if I can. And starting from Siem Reap, I felt the need to read a lot about these temples, their construction, the civilisation that imagined and built them.

Each temple is different, in design, architecture and also in the deities to which it is dedicated, and the objective of the one who had it built.

What is also very impressive in Angkor is the environment. The nature that surrounds these temples is just as grandiose as the temples themselves, the gigantic trees, the jungle reinforce the solemnity of the place.

So Siem Reap is the city of temples. But Siem Reap is much more. The temples are outside the city, they can be accessed by Tuktuk, minibus, bicycle or scooter.

But the city hides many other treasures. Temples still, obviously much more recent, museums, picturesque neighbourhoods like the old French Quarter with its beautiful houses, but also many modest neighbourhoods, very lively markets in which we would like to buy everything, and the essential animation of Pub Street, the street of trendy bars and restaurants, a kind of miniature version of Pattaya, which lives all night until dawn.

Siem Rap is a very endearing city to which I will probably return. It is one of the cities where I could live in the long term, a mixture of tranquillity and animation. I doubt that we can get bored there.

There are also 2 golf courses near the city, which I did not have time to test during this too short stay in Cambodia.

Cambodian food, although less varied than in Thailand, is tasty and cheap. Very strangely, it is on the other hand an often a little bland cuisine that we want to spice up more.

A peculiarity of Siem Reap and Cambodia in general is that there are no taxis, at least not in the form of a car.

While in Thailand, the many tuktuks are more for tourists than for the daily use of Thais who prefer public transport or taxis, in Cambodia the tuktuk is the preferred means of locomotion for all.