Guest beachlover Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Here's what I gathered from a few days' stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia recently. If you choose to visit Siem Reap - and you should - I hope these tips on getting the most out of it make your visit more fruitful and rewarding! Here's my gay Phnom Penh report: http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/any-other-country-f15/phnom-penh-cambodia-trip-report-t20485.html Why visit Siem Reap? Siem Reap is Cambodia's second largest city and offers the opportunity to explore one of the great wonders of the world and a great chilled-out atmosphere with fantastic eating and drinking. Angkor Wat is one of the most spectacular ancient ruins in the world. Over two million visitors a year visit Siem Reap to explore the breathtaking ruins towering out of the jungle. Angkor was the centre of the Khmer Empire and was the largest preindustrial urban centre in the world, housing up to one million people at its peak. After its population abandoned it (for reasons uncertain), the ruins lay largely hidden and unheard of in the jungle until they were discovered a few decades ago. A large percentage of visitors to Cambodia come via Thailand so when Thailand's tourism sneezes, Cambodian tourism catches a cold. They've had a pretty rough year this year, so head over and spend some money there if you can. It has a lot to offer. Plus, it seems gay entrepreneurs have opened dozens of very creative and chic businesses in Siem Reap, from spas to boutique hotels and bars, all well designed. Where to Stay Within the Old Market Area, Pub Street is the restaurant and nightlife centre of Siem Reap with dozens of great eateries, pubs and bars. Try to stay as close to this street as possible. Siem Reap has some of the nicest boutique hotels around. Most of them are fairly new and many of them have very nice touches like outdoor rain showers and baths and chic, sensual design. Avoid staying in any of the hotels lining the road to the airport. This is where a lot of tour agencies dump their hordes of sheep. You'll be a long way from the centre of town and probably won't get to enjoy it as much. Golden Banana Resort: I recommend this place hands down. It's fantastic. There are three establishments in this group: (1) Golden Banana Resort (recommended) http://www.goldenbanana.info/html/resort.php (2) Golden Banana Hotel (ok, but resort is better): http://www.goldenbanana.info/html/hotel.php and (3) Golden Banana B&B (cheap, no frills): http://www.golden-banana.com/ I recommend staying in the resort: http://www.goldenbanana.info/html/resort.php - Rates are USD$65 to $100 depending on the time of the year - Suites/villas are fantastic, sun-drenched in natural light from windows on 2-3 sides (interesting how they've managed to achieve this), good WiFi internet connection, a balcony with an open-air shower, stone bathtub (sexy LOL) and lounger, sturdy desk, and a nice bathroom. - Service is incredibly genuine and warm. You really feel welcome at the place and the staff are terrific. The place is gay-owned but attracts an equal number of straight people. It's staffed entirely by cute, smiling young Cambodian men (got the feeling all or a lot of them are gay but there's a strict policy prohibiting sexual relations with guests) who continually look to do anything they can to help you. This is probably the biggest upside of the place. It's incredibly friendly and warm. Loved it. - Delicious breakfast served until 12-midday included. One of the best breakfasts I've had in any mid-tier hotel in Asia. Well done on this. - The restaurant/bar is also fantastic. Great food and drinks menu and service. - Nice pool for lounging around. Not real big though. - The location was probably the only slight downside. It's not right in the middle of town, but the Pub Street centre of town is only a 2 min tuk tuk ride or 10-15 min walk away. The resort is a really nice compound to come back to so I didn't mind the location being a slightly out of the way at all. MENS Resort http://www.mens-resort.com is a newly-opened men-only gay resort. Rates are $49 to $90/night. This place is great in so many ways except one - location. Its location is a big let down. It really is out in the middle of no where, smack bang in a residential neighbourhood with absolutely nothing in the surrounding streets. It takes 15 to 20 mins to get to Pub Street (centre of town) in a tuk tuk. Going back to the resort, your tuk tuk or bike will need to go up a rough, 200-300 metre unsealed road. I don't know what they were thinking building it here. However, it has a few pluses. Rooms are fairly nice and facilities are excellent. It has a big pool and a very nice sun deck. There's a well-equipped gym and the place is actually a gay sauna, so outsiders can pay to come in and use the facilities. There's also a good on-site massage service, which is quite good. Internally, it's fantastic. You just have to put up with the nuisance of a 15-20 drive anytime you want to go anywhere. If you want to stay right in the centre of town near Pub Street, try these two places: http://www.ei8htrooms.com (budget but ok) and http://www.hotelbeangkor.com (rates $100-$200/night but located right on Pub Street and very nice rooms!). Some other places, which look really nice but are slightly out of the way are http://www.viroth-hotel.com, http://www.residencedangkor.com, http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com and http://www.fcccambodia.com/angkor/boutique-hotel.php There are tonnes of nice boutique hotels in Siem Reap so look around. Cambodian Cuisine Few places in the world offer Cambodian cuisine so this may be the first time you taste it. It's absolutely delicious. I was blown away how nice their food is - right up there with Thai, Malay and Vietnamese cooking. Make sure you try a dish called, "Amok". They say it's the food the Kings used to eat. It's a tasty mild yellow curry you can have with fish or chicken and wrapped in leaves. Really delicious. Other dishes you should try are beef lok lak and green mango beef salad. Dining is incredibly cheap in Siem Reap. Casual fine dining restaurants are $2.50 to $4 for mains and casual/pub style dining tend to charge $1 to $2 for mains. Go to Pub Street for a huge selection of places. Have a glass of wine or a cocktail with every meal - it's cheap. Khmer Noodle Restaurant (serves a lot more than noodles) is in an alley running parallel to Pub St on its South Side, same alley as Linga Bar. Food and wine are top notch and it has an air conditioned section upstairs. Temple Bar is a nice place to sit for lunch. Nightlife I didn't check out the nightlife in Siem Reap every night and wasn't looking out for gay nightlife so much, but here's what I gathered: Linga Bar is the main "gay bar" in Siem Reap. It has a lot of moneyboys there every night. I only dropped by for a quick drink as it wasn't very busy, only 4-5 patrons and about 8 hopeful moneyboys LOL. I'm guessing you can find paid company here if no where else. Miss Wong is a fantastic little cocktail bar near Pub Street. It's gay-owned and attracts some straight and a lot of gay patrons. You probably won't find any Cambodian boys here but it's really worth having a drink here. I had some interesting conversations with some of the expats. They make, probably some of the best martinis I've had anywhere in the word. Highly recommend it. I wish there were places like this elsewhere. There's a nice review here: http://travel.nytimes.com//2010/03/21/travel/21next-1.html Temple Bar on Pub Street is a mixed bar with mainly straights but some gays too. The crowd is mainly backpackers and locals and I had a lot of fun here. There's a dance floor and pool tables. If you want to join in a game, pick and table and write your name on the wall beside the table to be next in line. I've heard a lot of the gay boys go to Pyramid Disco and there's a show. Didn't get there myself. Cambodian Moneyboys There's a dance club opposite Miss Wongs. I forget the name now. I think it was either called "MIA" (Missing in Action) or "Heart Rock". Anyway, I went in there one night and the crowd was almost entirely Cambodian. There was a dance floor. The music was kind of strange. But there was a distinctly gay corner (lots of same-sex couples). A boy invited me to his table for a drink. Soon as he spoke, I knew he was a money boy but I thought I'd have a chat with him to learn something anyway. Here's what you need to know about Cambodian moneyboys. They're not subtle! About 10 minutes into the conversation he was talking about how he came from a good family, had never done manual labour work ("look at my hands very soft") and was a good boy and went to university. At 15 minutes he proclaimed he wanted to come to Australia with me. And at 20 minutes I made my excuses and fled LOL. Visiting the ruins Spend a minimum of two days and ideally three to four days exploring the Angkor Ruins. There's heaps of info on Wikitravel about this so I won't go into detail but will offer a few good tips: 1. Visit the Angkor National Museum before you go to the ruins. This is a world-class museum, which tells the history of the area in an impressively concise and vivid way. For $5, a tuk tuk driver will take you there, wait for you and then take you back to your hotel. I spent 1 hr there but you may want to spend 2-3 hrs. 2. Don't take a coach tour or group tour. These tour guides herd their masses of tourists straight in through the front gate of every attraction with little care and often little flexibility. You'll get so much out of it if you hire your own guide. A guide means you can go as quick or as slow as you want. You can tackle the more precarious ruins if you want or give them a miss. I tended to go a lot quicker and covered a lot more places. You start/finish each ruin at your own pace. You don't wait for others or need to hurry up. You don't spend time stopping listening to group lectures. They'll tell you as much or as little as you want to know. They'll help you avoid the crowds and take you through the best entrances where you can avoid anything unappealing like the restoration work being done on the front of the main temple. 3. Get your hotel to recommend a good guide. They'll only recommend good guides who've serviced their customers well. Guides are usually USD$25/day. Tip, $5 or $10. 4. You'll probably need a car and driver too. I recommend a car over getting a tuk tuk. You'll get to places a lot faster. Most roads are unsealed so you'll be more comfortable. After clambering over the enormous ruins under the hot sun you'll be glad to get back in an air-conditioned vehicle. In some ruins you'll enter on one end and your guide will get the car to meet you both on the other side. Cars/driver is usually $25-$30 for in and around the main Angkor Wat ruins. To go further out to the more remote ruins like Beng Melea you pay $55. 5. It's worth checking out Beng Melea. This is a more remote and overgrown ruin about 1 hr North of Siem Reap. You could spend hours clambering over this badly deteriorated structure Tomb Raider style. Get a massage I had a massage at MENS Resort and it was very good. I highly recommend it. Having the pool and sauna facilities there was also great. I had a body scrub and massage at Linga Spa opposite Linga Bar near Pub Street. This was ok. The skill of the therapist was good but not fantastic. Getting around Tuk tuks are everywhere. Short rides across town should only be $1. Apparently they usually charge tourists $2 but if you're a local or look like a savvy foreigner they'll give it to you for $1 so be sure to bargain with them. I didn't know about this double pricing until a local got in a tuk tuk with me and was surprised to hear I wasn't paying the tourist price LOL. For much longer rides, like coming from MENS Resort, you'll need to pay $2. Getting in and out Lots of info on getting in and out in my Phnom Penh Report: http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/any-other-country-f15/phnom-penh-cambodia-trip-report-t20485.html There are direct flights from Siem Reap, Bangkok (expensive route), KL, Singapore, Vietnam and more. Gay Map of Siem Reap Hope this helps! Siem Reap is just a fantastic, little chilled out town, but with plenty of life. It felt a bit like Chiang Mai but smaller. The food and dining there were a big highlight for me. Even though I've seen the ruins, I think I'll drop by there again for a few days just to chill out. There's heaps of info on gay Siem Reap here: http://www.utopia-asia.com/camsiem.htm There's a great Google Map with a lot of these places marked out here: http://www.utopia-asia.com/map/siem.htm Enjoy! Quote
Guest voldemar Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Thanks for the nice report. Do any of SR hotels accept credit cards or you need to carry around a lot of cash. If they use Dollars, I presume there are no ATM machines? Quote
Guest Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 If travelling at this time of year, I would go for the Tuk Tuk over the car. The weather is likely to be good and you feel more "connected" tiding a tuk tuk. Getting to places slowly has it's advantages too, you see more on the way. If travelling in the summer, maybe the attraction of aircon might swing it in favour of the taxi. I found the Tuk Tuk drivers take care of the navigating and itinerary, so a guide is very much an optional extra, rather than essential. Quote
ceejay Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Do any of SR hotels accept credit cards or you need to carry around a lot of cash. If they use Dollars, I presume there are no ATM machines? US dollars are pretty well the main currency. Take plenty of small notes - ones and fives. You'll get small change in Cambodian Rial - get rid of this before you leave because it is not convertible. There are ATM's but they usually pay out in twenties and fifties, so you need to take a couple of hundred in small money with you. The one I used in Siem Reap (because it is off the street, so you can't be seen taking a load of money out) is in the You Care Pharmacy, which is near the middle of street that connects on to Old Market Bridgeand runs diagonally across this map: http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/somrmapmain.htm That Canby publications website has, by the way, some of the best online maps for Cambodia. Quote
PeterRS Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Thanks for the nice report. Love to see some of your photos. Quote
Moses Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Very good report, thank you Since in 2010 I have been in Siem reap 5 times already, I will put here few "fixes" coz Siem Reap changes very quickly 1. Golden Banana since July has 4 parts - new one is new part of B&B - with chic rooms and pool. If count price\quality ratio - now it is the best part of Golden Banana. IMHO resort in GB is overpriced. Staff in GB mainly straights, but they are extremely friendly, guests are allowed in GB for free (1$ for extra towel). Food in GB's restaurant is so-so, but their Lemon Ice Tea is the best in Siem Reap. Walking time from GB to Pub Street is about 5-7 min. 2. Men's resort. It is men only hotel. No womans allowed to enter in Hotel. MR is best place if you come to SR for Angkor AND for "adventures" coz every evening (6PM-10PM) sauna in MR is filled with local boys and they aren't moneyboys. Sauna has "Turkish\steam" and "Sweden\dry steam" sauna-rooms, dark labyrinth with private rooms - each with door, fan and dimmed light, paper towels. As well complex has big jacuzzi (for about 12-14 persons), pool with sea water. Entrance fee for locals is only 4$, for tourists 7$, for guests of hotel - free. In MR guests are allowed, free. Hotel has very good bar near pool. Since one of owners is from France french meals in MR are very good. In MR resort they offer only oil massage (good) for 18$. There are no sport\thai\khmer\foot massage. MR has own tuk tuk and car. Time to Pub Street by tuk tuk is 10 min, price 2$. 3. Temple bar\disco has very small dance floor - just about 3x4 m so it is VERY crowded every time. Just behind Temple (and Pub street) at next very small street is local disco (formely name "Hard Rock"). 4. Linga bar is one only officially gay bar in SR since Miss Wong is "gayfriendly". Crowded every evening with moneyboys Linga bar is interesting only for to watch queer-show by Saturday evenings, you cannot find there local boys who is waiting for some meetings "for free". 5. Best place to eat native khmer food is "Khmer Soup" restaurant at Pub Street (about 10$ per evening\per person\with alcohol and tips). More simple but VERY popular with locals is "Karo" - just 50 m from Pub Street, close to Night market (about 5$ per person) 6. Almost all hotels and "touristic" restaurants in SR accept bank cards (add 3-4% to rate) Few "IMHO": 1. Since Siem Reap is very small city (3x4 km) it isn't so important "where to stay for gay life" - if you will stay close to Pub Street then you will need visit Men's "for actions". If you will stay in Men's then you will visit Pub Street for dancing. In both cases you will have the same distance to Angkor (about 5 km to Park's entrance). 2. Do not forget to include to program of visit Tonle Sap - biggest lake in Cambodia with floating villages (after rain season lake takes about 5% of Cambodia's territory), 15$ per boat +15$ for car, 4 hours, best time to visit is before sunset (to watch from lake). 3. Normal hotels in SR not like in Thailand mainly not allowed to your guests overnight stay - check before booking if hotel is gayfriendly, some (few) hotels will offer for 2 men only twin rooms. But there are a lot of gayfriendly hotels in SR, don't worry (all mentioned in first post are GF). Quote
Guest beachlover Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Thanks for the nice report. Do any of SR hotels accept credit cards or you need to carry around a lot of cash. If they use Dollars, I presume there are no ATM machines? Credit cards are no problem at most decent sized merchants in Cambodia. I'm pretty sure all the hotels I mentioned would accept a credit card. GB certainly does. I found the Tuk Tuk drivers take care of the navigating and itinerary, so a guide is very much an optional extra, rather than essential. That's true. There are tuk tuk drivers who act as a driver and guide and this will cut your cost by half or more (instead of hiring a guide and a driver/car) but I found good value in having a good guide who would get out and walk about with me. Personally, with the heat and the distances traveled (I went out to some of the more remote ruins as well) a car was best for me. I saw tourists going about slowly in these poxy little tuk tuks and was glad I got a car. Thanks for the nice report. Love to see some of your photos. I've never been arsed to post photos before... Might think about posting a few. Since in 2010 I have been in Siem reap 5 times already Five times! I thought I liked Siem Reap... evidently someone likes it more! Thanks for your comments Moses. Great to learn more about the place. I did check out as much as I would've liked. Golden Banana since July has 4 parts - new one is new part of B&B - with chic rooms and pool. If count price\quality ratio - now it is the best part of Golden Banana. IMHO resort in GB is overpriced. Ah yes. They hadn't added the fourth bit (though it just looks like an extension to their B&B) when I booked. I wouldn't really consider the B&B unless I was purely on holidays as I need a decent room with a good desk to handle client/business stuff if it comes up. Only exception is if I actually plan to be offline or travel during my shut down period. Personally, I thought the resort was great value. I actually only paid about USD$60/night from memory, and no deposit required. The rooms were fantastic - windows with natural light on three sides! Staff in GB mainly straights Ok, I know the staff at MENS are straight (or so I was told). I know the bar staff at Linga (one of the bar tenders is really handsome!) and Miss Wong are straight. I have a terrible Gaydar. But the staff at GB felt as gay as anything to me. Are you sure about this? On that note, the boy who took care of my arrival and showed me to my room at Golden Banana Resort was very new to the job. When we got to my room, he stood there nervously, then took a deep breath and gave a speech (introducing me to the room, facilities etc.) you could tell he had been practicing in English a lot! So cute LOL. Normal hotels in SR not like in Thailand mainly not allowed to your guests overnight stay - check before booking if hotel is gayfriendly, some (few) hotels will offer for 2 men only twin rooms. But there are a lot of gayfriendly hotels in SR, don't worry (all mentioned in first post are GF). Really? Thanks for the warning. That's great to know. There are SO many gay friendly hotels started and owned by gay people in Siem Reap... I wonder how that came to be... Quote
Guest CambodiaOut Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 These are great articles. If you would like more information, please check out a great Cambodia GLBT website. http://www.cambodiaout.com Here's what I gathered from a few days' stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia recently. If you choose to visit Siem Reap - and you should - I hope these tips on getting the most out of it make your visit more fruitful and rewarding! Here's my gay Phnom Penh report: http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/any-other-country-f15/phnom-penh-cambodia-trip-report-t20485.html Why visit Siem Reap? Siem Reap is Cambodia's second largest city and offers the opportunity to explore one of the great wonders of the world and a great chilled-out atmosphere with fantastic eating and drinking. Angkor Wat is one of the most spectacular ancient ruins in the world. Over two million visitors a year visit Siem Reap to explore the breathtaking ruins towering out of the jungle. Angkor was the centre of the Khmer Empire and was the largest preindustrial urban centre in the world, housing up to one million people at its peak. After its population abandoned it (for reasons uncertain), the ruins lay largely hidden and unheard of in the jungle until they were discovered a few decades ago. A large percentage of visitors to Cambodia come via Thailand so when Thailand's tourism sneezes, Cambodian tourism catches a cold. They've had a pretty rough year this year, so head over and spend some money there if you can. It has a lot to offer. Plus, it seems gay entrepreneurs have opened dozens of very creative and chic businesses in Siem Reap, from spas to boutique hotels and bars, all well designed. Where to Stay Within the Old Market Area, Pub Street is the restaurant and nightlife centre of Siem Reap with dozens of great eateries, pubs and bars. Try to stay as close to this street as possible. Siem Reap has some of the nicest boutique hotels around. Most of them are fairly new and many of them have very nice touches like outdoor rain showers and baths and chic, sensual design. Avoid staying in any of the hotels lining the road to the airport. This is where a lot of tour agencies dump their hordes of sheep. You'll be a long way from the centre of town and probably won't get to enjoy it as much. Golden Banana Resort: I recommend this place hands down. It's fantastic. There are three establishments in this group: (1) Golden Banana Resort (recommended) http://www.goldenbanana.info/html/resort.php (2) Golden Banana Hotel (ok, but resort is better): http://www.goldenbanana.info/html/hotel.php and (3) Golden Banana B&B (cheap, no frills): http://www.golden-banana.com/ I recommend staying in the resort: http://www.goldenbanana.info/html/resort.php - Rates are USD$65 to $100 depending on the time of the year - Suites/villas are fantastic, sun-drenched in natural light from windows on 2-3 sides (interesting how they've managed to achieve this), good WiFi internet connection, a balcony with an open-air shower, stone bathtub (sexy LOL) and lounger, sturdy desk, and a nice bathroom. - Service is incredibly genuine and warm. You really feel welcome at the place and the staff are terrific. The place is gay-owned but attracts an equal number of straight people. It's staffed entirely by cute, smiling young Cambodian men (got the feeling all or a lot of them are gay but there's a strict policy prohibiting sexual relations with guests) who continually look to do anything they can to help you. This is probably the biggest upside of the place. It's incredibly friendly and warm. Loved it. - Delicious breakfast served until 12-midday included. One of the best breakfasts I've had in any mid-tier hotel in Asia. Well done on this. - The restaurant/bar is also fantastic. Great food and drinks menu and service. - Nice pool for lounging around. Not real big though. - The location was probably the only slight downside. It's not right in the middle of town, but the Pub Street centre of town is only a 2 min tuk tuk ride or 10-15 min walk away. The resort is a really nice compound to come back to so I didn't mind the location being a slightly out of the way at all. MENS Resort http://www.mens-resort.com is a newly-opened men-only gay resort. Rates are $49 to $90/night. This place is great in so many ways except one - location. Its location is a big let down. It really is out in the middle of no where, smack bang in a residential neighbourhood with absolutely nothing in the surrounding streets. It takes 15 to 20 mins to get to Pub Street (centre of town) in a tuk tuk. Going back to the resort, your tuk tuk or bike will need to go up a rough, 200-300 metre unsealed road. I don't know what they were thinking building it here. However, it has a few pluses. Rooms are fairly nice and facilities are excellent. It has a big pool and a very nice sun deck. There's a well-equipped gym and the place is actually a gay sauna, so outsiders can pay to come in and use the facilities. There's also a good on-site massage service, which is quite good. Internally, it's fantastic. You just have to put up with the nuisance of a 15-20 drive anytime you want to go anywhere. If you want to stay right in the centre of town near Pub Street, try these two places: http://www.ei8htrooms.com (budget but ok) and http://www.hotelbeangkor.com (rates $100-$200/night but located right on Pub Street and very nice rooms!). Some other places, which look really nice but are slightly out of the way are http://www.viroth-hotel.com, http://www.residencedangkor.com, http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com and http://www.fcccambodia.com/angkor/boutique-hotel.php There are tonnes of nice boutique hotels in Siem Reap so look around. Cambodian Cuisine Few places in the world offer Cambodian cuisine so this may be the first time you taste it. It's absolutely delicious. I was blown away how nice their food is - right up there with Thai, Malay and Vietnamese cooking. Make sure you try a dish called, "Amok". They say it's the food the Kings used to eat. It's a tasty mild yellow curry you can have with fish or chicken and wrapped in leaves. Really delicious. Other dishes you should try are beef lok lak and green mango beef salad. Dining is incredibly cheap in Siem Reap. Casual fine dining restaurants are $2.50 to $4 for mains and casual/pub style dining tend to charge $1 to $2 for mains. Go to Pub Street for a huge selection of places. Have a glass of wine or a cocktail with every meal - it's cheap. Khmer Noodle Restaurant (serves a lot more than noodles) is in an alley running parallel to Pub St on its South Side, same alley as Linga Bar. Food and wine are top notch and it has an air conditioned section upstairs. Temple Bar is a nice place to sit for lunch. Nightlife I didn't check out the nightlife in Siem Reap every night and wasn't looking out for gay nightlife so much, but here's what I gathered: Linga Bar is the main "gay bar" in Siem Reap. It has a lot of moneyboys there every night. I only dropped by for a quick drink as it wasn't very busy, only 4-5 patrons and about 8 hopeful moneyboys LOL. I'm guessing you can find paid company here if no where else. Miss Wong is a fantastic little cocktail bar near Pub Street. It's gay-owned and attracts some straight and a lot of gay patrons. You probably won't find any Cambodian boys here but it's really worth having a drink here. I had some interesting conversations with some of the expats. They make, probably some of the best martinis I've had anywhere in the word. Highly recommend it. I wish there were places like this elsewhere. There's a nice review here: http://travel.nytimes.com//2010/03/21/travel/21next-1.html Temple Bar on Pub Street is a mixed bar with mainly straights but some gays too. The crowd is mainly backpackers and locals and I had a lot of fun here. There's a dance floor and pool tables. If you want to join in a game, pick and table and write your name on the wall beside the table to be next in line. I've heard a lot of the gay boys go to Pyramid Disco and there's a show. Didn't get there myself. Cambodian Moneyboys There's a dance club opposite Miss Wongs. I forget the name now. I think it was either called "MIA" (Missing in Action) or "Heart Rock". Anyway, I went in there one night and the crowd was almost entirely Cambodian. There was a dance floor. The music was kind of strange. But there was a distinctly gay corner (lots of same-sex couples). A boy invited me to his table for a drink. Soon as he spoke, I knew he was a money boy but I thought I'd have a chat with him to learn something anyway. Here's what you need to know about Cambodian moneyboys. They're not subtle! About 10 minutes into the conversation he was talking about how he came from a good family, had never done manual labour work ("look at my hands very soft") and was a good boy and went to university. At 15 minutes he proclaimed he wanted to come to Australia with me. And at 20 minutes I made my excuses and fled LOL. Visiting the ruins Spend a minimum of two days and ideally three to four days exploring the Angkor Ruins. There's heaps of info on Wikitravel about this so I won't go into detail but will offer a few good tips: 1. Visit the Angkor National Museum before you go to the ruins. This is a world-class museum, which tells the history of the area in an impressively concise and vivid way. For $5, a tuk tuk driver will take you there, wait for you and then take you back to your hotel. I spent 1 hr there but you may want to spend 2-3 hrs. 2. Don't take a coach tour or group tour. These tour guides herd their masses of tourists straight in through the front gate of every attraction with little care and often little flexibility. You'll get so much out of it if you hire your own guide. A guide means you can go as quick or as slow as you want. You can tackle the more precarious ruins if you want or give them a miss. I tended to go a lot quicker and covered a lot more places. You start/finish each ruin at your own pace. You don't wait for others or need to hurry up. You don't spend time stopping listening to group lectures. They'll tell you as much or as little as you want to know. They'll help you avoid the crowds and take you through the best entrances where you can avoid anything unappealing like the restoration work being done on the front of the main temple. 3. Get your hotel to recommend a good guide. They'll only recommend good guides who've serviced their customers well. Guides are usually USD$25/day. Tip, $5 or $10. 4. You'll probably need a car and driver too. I recommend a car over getting a tuk tuk. You'll get to places a lot faster. Most roads are unsealed so you'll be more comfortable. After clambering over the enormous ruins under the hot sun you'll be glad to get back in an air-conditioned vehicle. In some ruins you'll enter on one end and your guide will get the car to meet you both on the other side. Cars/driver is usually $25-$30 for in and around the main Angkor Wat ruins. To go further out to the more remote ruins like Beng Melea you pay $55. 5. It's worth checking out Beng Melea. This is a more remote and overgrown ruin about 1 hr North of Siem Reap. You could spend hours clambering over this badly deteriorated structure Tomb Raider style. Get a massage I had a massage at MENS Resort and it was very good. I highly recommend it. Having the pool and sauna facilities there was also great. I had a body scrub and massage at Linga Spa opposite Linga Bar near Pub Street. This was ok. The skill of the therapist was good but not fantastic. Getting around Tuk tuks are everywhere. Short rides across town should only be $1. Apparently they usually charge tourists $2 but if you're a local or look like a savvy foreigner they'll give it to you for $1 so be sure to bargain with them. I didn't know about this double pricing until a local got in a tuk tuk with me and was surprised to hear I wasn't paying the tourist price LOL. For much longer rides, like coming from MENS Resort, you'll need to pay $2. Getting in and out Lots of info on getting in and out in my Phnom Penh Report: http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/any-other-country-f15/phnom-penh-cambodia-trip-report-t20485.html There are direct flights from Siem Reap, Bangkok (expensive route), KL, Singapore, Vietnam and more. Gay Map of Siem Reap Hope this helps! Siem Reap is just a fantastic, little chilled out town, but with plenty of life. It felt a bit like Chiang Mai but smaller. The food and dining there were a big highlight for me. Even though I've seen the ruins, I think I'll drop by there again for a few days just to chill out. There's heaps of info on gay Siem Reap here: http://www.utopia-asia.com/camsiem.htm There's a great Google Map with a lot of these places marked out here: http://www.utopia-asia.com/map/siem.htm Enjoy! Quote
Moses Posted December 18, 2010 Posted December 18, 2010 Ok, I know the staff at MENS are straight (or so I was told). I know the bar staff at Linga (one of the bar tenders is really handsome!) and Miss Wong are straight. I have a terrible Gaydar. But the staff at GB felt as gay as anything to me. Are you sure about this? On that note, the boy who took care of my arrival and showed me to my room at Golden Banana Resort was very new to the job. When we got to my room, he stood there nervously, then took a deep breath and gave a speech (introducing me to the room, facilities etc.) you could tell he had been practicing in English a lot! So cute LOL. Ah... Do you trust to everything what people tell you? It's easy to check - look at GayRomeo... You will found some accounts with known from MEN's faces there, but will not found anyone from GB... Staff from MEN's tell "I'm straight" coz it easy "to keep distance" with guests at this case, but profiles will tell you true And about gayfriendly hotels: yes, as I wrote - there are many gayfriendly hotels in Siem Reap, but in general cambodian people are more conservative about gays. It isn't like in Thailand where in general nobody worry about behavior. Quote
Guest beachlover Posted December 18, 2010 Posted December 18, 2010 These are great articles. If you would like more information, please check out a great Cambodia GLBT website. http://www.cambodiaout.com Thanks... That's a great website. Feels like Cambodia's gay scene is really exploding. There are so many gay Westerners over there starting businesses - restaurants, hotels, resorts,bars, spas and more. It's a fantastic alternative destination to Thailand and cheaper too. Ah... Do you trust to everything what people tell you? It's easy to check - look at GayRomeo... You will found some accounts with known from MEN's faces there, but will not found anyone from GB... Staff from MEN's tell "I'm straight" coz it easy "to keep distance" with guests at this case, but profiles will tell you true Hehe... clever boy! You must be right then. I never use Gayromeo. I thought some of the MENS staff were cute (though didn't really talk to any of them) but they were a bit less enthusiastic compared to Golden Banana staff. Blows me away how they've managed to create such a great service culture in the GB accommodations. about gayfriendly hotels: yes, as I wrote - there are many gayfriendly hotels in Siem Reap, but in general cambodian people are more conservative about gays. It isn't like in Thailand where in general nobody worry about behavior. That's definitely true. Acceptance of gays in Cambodia is no where near as high as Thailand. All the boys I spoke to were either (1) in the closet with their family, (2) had come out of the closet with their family and been kicked out/estranged or (3) out of the closet and getting on ok, but know their family isn't very happy about it. In Phnom Penh I didn't stay in a "gay friendly/oriented" hotel, but had no problem inviting male guests back... though maybe that wasn't such a good thing one night LOL. Quote
KhorTose Posted December 20, 2010 Posted December 20, 2010 4. Linga bar is one only officially gay bar in SR since Miss Wong is "gayfriendly". Crowded every evening with moneyboys Linga bar is interesting only for to watch queer-show by Saturday evenings, you cannot find there local boys who is waiting for some meetings "for free". I am not sure what you mean in the last sentence. I went with a BF to the bar. I saw several boys go home with Farangs and some of the boys tried to catch my eye BF or not. To me it looked like a great place to pick up cute boys. 2. Do not forget to include to program of visit Tonle Sap - biggest lake in Cambodia with floating villages (after rain season lake takes about 5% of Cambodia's territory), 15$ per boat +15$ for car, 4 hours, best time to visit is before sunset (to watch from lake). Outstanding suggestion, and this trip easily compares in beauty to the temples themselves. A real Conrad "Heart of Darkness" feel to the whole experience. 3. Normal hotels in SR not like in Thailand mainly not allowed to your guests overnight stay - check before booking if hotel is gayfriendly, some (few) hotels will offer for 2 men only twin rooms. But there are a lot of gayfriendly hotels in SR, don't worry (all mentioned in first post are GF). I wanted to be close to town and stayed at the very gay friendly ei8htrooms. No pool, but very nice rooms, very reasonable as to price, and a very short walk to town. Quote
Moses Posted December 20, 2010 Posted December 20, 2010 I am not sure what you mean in the last sentence. I went with a BF to the bar. I saw several boys go home with Farangs and some of the boys tried to catch my eye BF or not. To me it looked like a great place to pick up cute boys. Keyword in this sentence is "for free". Linga is filled with moneyboys. You have chance to pick up for free if you are 25-30 yo and good looking. Quote
Guest beachlover Posted December 20, 2010 Posted December 20, 2010 I went with a BF to the bar [Linga Bar]. I saw several boys go home with Farangs and some of the boys tried to catch my eye BF or not. To me it looked like a great place to pick up cute boys. It's a great place to pick up money boys. No genuine/non-commercial local boys there, I think. Quote
KhorTose Posted December 20, 2010 Posted December 20, 2010 Keyword in this sentence is "for free". Linga is filled with moneyboys. You have chance to pick up for free if you are 25-30 yo and good looking. Okay, now I get it and agree. I did not try to pick up anyone as I was with someone. Free or not free, there were some real beauties Quote
