One of the best
trips I’ve ever taken was to Cambodia. This was only a few years ago, and I went there with my wife to explore Angkor
Wat and also to pay a visit to Phnom Penh. The temples at Angkor were mind-blowing. You generally stay in the
town of Siem reap, which is, I might add, growing like kudzu, with huge new hotels springing up like toadstools, and
then hire a guide to take you in to the ruins. It’s expensive to get into the ruins…I forget what I paid, but i was
like $30 a day or something. Still, it’s totally worth it. The ruins just appear at the end of a dreary little road,
rising out of the early morning mist like something out of a story by the Brothers Grimm. It takes days to explore them
fully. And it took even longer for me, because I was very busy shooting panoramic
photos of several of the temple buildings and this always takes a while.
The whole area is now getting
so built up and touristed that I hate to think about what it will look like in a couple of years. But for now, I think
it still manages to hold onto its charm and exoticness.
Anyway, as I say, this was one of the more marvelous
trips I’ve ever taken, and memories of the trip were rekindled as I read through and explored the fine coverage
provided by Conde Nast’s Conceierge.com site. We’re
talking Conde Nast here, so this is more or less higher end stuff. The recommendations are for the more expensive hotels and restaurants, but they still
give a nice lowdown on the best things to do and
see, as well as features on eating and
nightlife, which is definitely happening in Siem reap. Me, I recommend going to the Khmer Kitchen, and then stopping in for a full body
massage at one of the local massage parlors. These are not “sexual” massages, mind you. These people are
professionals and you leave feeling perfectly relaxed so that when you hit your hotel, you are ready to sleep and prep
your brain for the vigorous next day of temple exploring that lies ahead.