What to Do in Siem Reap Besides Angkor Wat, From a Local Guide
After a few days of temples most people are done with old stone. Here is where a local takes them next: the floating village, the mountain, and the ride out into the countryside that is the real Siem Reap.
When people ask me what to do in Siem Reap besides Angkor Wat, I tell them to go and see how we live now.
By the third day, most people are done with temples. I see it on almost every trip. On the first morning at Angkor Wat, everyone is wide awake and taking photos of every wall. By day 3 the same guests walk past carvings they would have stopped for on day 1. We guides have a name for it, temple fatigue.
So the one thing I'd skip is another history lesson. In town there's the Angkor National Museum, which walks you through the same era you've just spent 3 days climbing around. Some people love it. But once temple fatigue sets in, most guests would rather see how the place lives today, and that's where everything below comes in.
First, what Siem Reap does not have
I'd rather tell you this up front than have you find out on day 4. Siem Reap isn't a city stacked with things to do. Our main list of things to do in Siem Reap leans on the temples for good reason, and this guide is the other half of it.
There are a few activities, like go-karting, a couple of museums and some parks. They're fine for an afternoon. You see, this is a developing country, and those things aren't as good here as they are in other countries. If a big museum, a theme park or a night out is the trip you're after, come to Siem Reap for the temples and go somewhere else for that. I mean that in the nicest way.
What we do have is a way of life sitting right next to the ruins, and you only have to go out and look at it.
The floating village, life on the water
Once the temples are done, the floating village is the first place I take people. It looks nothing like the temples, and nothing like home either.
People live their whole lives on the Tonle Sap. The houses sit up on stilts or float on the water, and everything from how they're built to how a family gets food and supplies in from outside works differently from what most visitors grew up with. That's the part most guests find interesting, watching people get on with a normal day in a way they've never seen.
The deeper side of village life takes more time. Every meal, whether it's rice, fish or chicken, is cooked over a low open wood fire, with the firewood stacked right beside the house. You only really catch that if you slow down, talk to people or sit and eat with them. We don't run a local-meal version of the trip yet, though it's something we'd like to add. For now the boat shows you the shape of the life, and the rest comes from conversation.
Keep in mind that the floating village is one particular way people live here, out on the water. I wouldn't want you to leave thinking all of Cambodia looks like that.
You can check out one of the floating villages, Kompong Phluk, in this guide to visiting a Tonle Sap floating village. And if you'd like us to take you, that's our floating village tour.
The mountain, for water and shade
The other easy pick after temple fatigue is going up. Phnom Kulen is the national park mountain about 48km north of town. It's where the Khmer Empire was declared back in 802, so there's history if you want it, but that's not why I send tired guests up there.
You go for the nature and the water. There are waterfalls you can stand right under, and in the wet season the water comes down hard enough to sting your shoulders. After 3 days on hot open stone, a cool forest and a pool of water is exactly what a group needs. It resets everyone.
The road, the falls by season, the picnic and what things cost up there are all in my Phnom Kulen guide. If you'd rather have the logistics handled, that's our Kulen mountain tour.
Get out into the countryside
My favourite part of Siem Reap is the countryside, and the further out you go, the more of it you get.
On a day off, I head out toward Puok, west of town, and just keep going. The paved road runs out before long, as this is still a developing country, and the unpaved stretches are where it gets good. You pass small villages one after another, and there are a lot of them. There are cows on the road, children walking home from school and people picking up food from the local shop, our version of a mom-and-pop store. It's just the day happening around you.
You can do it a couple of ways. If you're comfortable on the roads, a bicycle or an electric bike will get you out there, and that's the legal way. Siem Reap is the one province in the country where foreigners aren't meant to rent a motorbike, even if the shops rent them anyway. If riding through Cambodian traffic doesn't sound like fun, this is exactly the kind of day a guide is for. Someone else drives, you watch it all go past, and when something catches your eye you can stop, get down and talk to the people who live there. That last bit is the reason to go.
When you're ready to do it that way, that's what we do.
Back in town, eat
One more, closer to your hotel. I'd skip Pub Street and head for the markets and the morning food, the porridge and noodle soup the city runs on. It's all inside town, so it's the easy one to fit around everything else. Where I go and what I order is in where locals eat in Siem Reap, and if you'd like someone to walk you through it, that's our Siem Reap food tour.
So, besides the temples?
The floating village shows you a life you've never seen, the mountain gives you water and shade, the countryside is the best of it, and the markets are how we eat. That's the second half of a good Siem Reap trip, and for a lot of my guests it's the half they end up talking about.
If you'd like a hand planning those days, come and meet your guide. And if you're still working out how long to stay, here's how many days Siem Reap really needs.