Siem Reap for Digital Nomads
The perfect digital nomad city doesn't exis…
My only previous visit to Siem Reap came in 2012 and I hated it. I was reluctant to even come back this time but I needed to spend a month in Cambodia on my way back to Thailand so that my Thai visa would last me until the UK summer, and as I'd already had a month in Phnom Penh, I somewhat flippantly opted to come here instead. I'm glad I did because it ranks right up there among my favourite places in the world now.
Eleven years ago when I came here I was a backpacker, staying in hostel dorms and living on the tightest budget possible, only having a few days in each place I go. That alone would have given me a very different experience to coming here as a digital nomad, but the world has changed a lot since then and Siem Reap has changed with it.
2012 was two years before I got my first smartphone. I still navigated with a map and compass. When I say that to people now, particularly younger people, they laugh, but that was the world back then. The transformation of Siem Reap has been just as stark. In many ways it's become a thoroughly modern and enigmatic city in South-East Asia.
Without wanting to offend the locals, it's a city that exists for tourism. Angkor Wat is closer to the city centre than the airport is, and Siem Reap is here to milk that cash cow for all it's worth. The problem that Cambodia (and Laos) have is that they aren't destinations. Very few tourists in this region come here to go to Cambodia. They come to either Thailand or Vietnam, and then seeing as Cambodia's right next door, why not? Which means that Cambodia's tourism numbers are directly dependent on those of its neighbouring countries, and as both Thailand and Vietnam are doing a shambolic job of attracting tourists again post-pandemic, tourist-dependent cities in Cambodia like Siem Reap are, as I heard many times, empty.
It didn't feel empty to me, it felt pleasant. However as so many businesses here are dependent on tourists, I'm sure that numbers were insufficient to keep them all financially healthy. I feel bad for them, but from my perspective it meant Siem Reap was an amazing place to be.
It has been developed to, in some small regards, become the most forward-thinking place I've been to in South-East Asia. For example, many of the pavements have been built to be wheelchair accessible, and are marked as such. This is probably the only city I've been to in the region that you could come to in a wheelchair and not have any problems getting around.
I didn't see anyone in a wheelchair here, and that's no surprise. When cities like Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh are hard enough to get around walking, let alone in a wheelchair, I wouldn't come to this region if I was wheelchair-bound. Somewhere's got to start though, and in things like that, and in things like cycle lanes, Siem Reap has taken the lead.
The roads are of more than ample size for the traffic here, and the pavements are flat and wide, so walking around the city is joy; again an anomaly amoung major cities in this region.
I will add the caveat that there is very little here resembling Khmer culture. People will speak to you in English, you will go to restaurants and the menus will be in English, the Khmer food you're served will be western adaptations, you will be eating around other foreigners. I actually don't know if local people eat food, because I never saw any in the restaurants. If you can make peace with that lack of authenticity, then it's a joyous place to be. It's just a fun, happy place.
Siem Reap has an extensive network of wheelchair friendly pavements and cycle lanes.
Where I stayed
Modern Furnished Apartment In Siem Reap Center
| Room | £511.00 GBP |
| Service fee | £65.11 GBP |
| Total |
£576.11 GBP
(£20.58 GBP per night)
|
The perfect Airbnb doesn't exis…
Alright, I'll stop doing that now, but in all seriousness this was both the cheapest and best place I've stayed as a digital nomad. First off, the room is freaking huge. I guess technically it's a studio because it is just one big room, but it's significantly bigger than some one-bedroom apartments I've lived in, and when you're here alone, what's the point in rooms? Walls just get in the way. The large space of this room meant I had all the space I needed to jump around and do yoga and other exercise. It's also a place where they've just thought of everything.
You have a washing machine, and out the front of the room you have a rack with loads of hangers to dry your clothes, shampoo and other basic toiletries are provided, as is unlimited free filtered water. There's a table downstairs full or 5 litre and 20 litre water bottles that you can take as needed. It is, I believe, a building purpose-built to be used for Airbnb, so if this specific room is unavailable, check Chhay's other listings as she has several, because the location is awesome.
It's away from the city centre, 200m down a soi next to a school, so you're well away from all the tourists, but still a very comfortable walk to everywhere you want to go to. The best supermarket in Siem Reap is about a ten-minute walk away, and there are a couple of huge, very well-equipped gyms not much farther. The furnishings are really excellent too.
As a digital nomad who wants to work as little as possible, I stay in pretty low budget rooms, so I'm used to working at cheap and uncomfortable desks. This is the opposite. The sofa was so comfortable that I spent way too long lying in front of the TV, and the dining table and chairs was another place that you could comfortably sit all day and work.
There's a huge amount of storage space here. For me to unpack all my stuff took less than half of one of the floor-to-ceiling cupboards that are next to the bed. Even if you're a couple travelling with way too much stuff, you'll be able to unpack here with space leftover. It has a full-size fridge-freezer, a good TV, strong AC and multiple Internet routers.
I found the Internet to be slightly unreliable, but what I found was that if one router was waivering, if I switched to another one it always worked, so there was no point that I didn't have Internet, I just had to switch routers occasionally. The connection was fast and I could comfortably do video calls.
Before staying here I messaged Chhay to ask about cooking facilities, which were listed on Airbnb but that I couldn't see in any of the pictures. Without elaborating, she assured me that there were cooking facilities. It turns out that these facilities are a portable gas stove. Initially I was a little skeptical about this, but I actually grew to really like it. I was provided with two gas canisters on arrival, and despite cooking several times, didn't even get through one of them. And while it might not look so glamorous, I loved that I could put the cooker away in the cupboard when I wasn't using it. It just meant I had loads more surface space, so even this turned out to be a positive. As long as you can make peace with that, the kitchen is really well equipped with plates, bowls, different-sized pans, a couple of knives, a chopping board, two sinks and lots more, so it's a very good place to do some cooking.
All jokes aside, this really is the perfect place from a digital nomad perspective. I have absolutely no doubt that I'll stay here again if I'm even back in Siem Reap. I absolutely loved it and would have stayed a lot longer had my visa allowed.
I guess that technically it's a studio, but the room is absolutely huge.
Where to get vegan food in Siem Reap
Whenever I go somewhere new I'll look up loads of restaurants that I want to go to. Inevitably I'll go to a just few of them, and then keep going back to the ones I've already been to that I like, telling myself that I'll try a new one tomorrow. Then I'll leave having only been to a few of the restaurants that I wanted to and really regret it.
On coming to Siem Reap, as usual I made a list of places I wanted to eat at. There were 21 different restaurants on my list, except this time I promised myself that I wouldn't go back to any of them, until I'd been to each of them once. That turned into a massive pain because I found myself having to go to restaurants miles away that I'd never been to, when there were places close by that I knew that I liked. I stuck to it though, so got a pretty good perspective of the vegan food on offer in Siem Reap. And it's really good.
Of these 21 restaurants, I'd gladly recommend 16 of them. However I want to keep this article at least somewhat concise, so I've narrowed it down to my three favourites (and a supermarket).
HeyBong - The Healthy Secrets
At the time of writing there was precisely one vegan restaurant in Siem Reap. HeyBong is Siem Reap's only vegan restaurant, so I couldn't discount it from my list.
It's a garden restaurant that has a giant face in. That bit's a bit weird. Everything else here makes it a really nice place to come.
The menu's a mix of Asian and Western food, and everything is health-focussed, which is always big for me. Anywhere I can get a good fruit smoothie and a vegan burger is going to be a place I like, and this place has a large choice of smoothies, smoothie bowls and burgers, so I was like a pig in shit. The food is really high quality and the garden is a really nice place to sit, even though it feels like someone's staring at you.
The unmeat burger will cost you $6.50. Don't eat the flower.
New Leaf Eatery
Half of the restaurants in Siem Reap seem to contribute charitably to the local area. I'm not saying that to diminish the value of their work, rather that in other cities, it can be a big reason I go to eat somewhere. Seeing as it's true for almost every restaurant here, it doesn't hold the same value, however New Leaf Eatery is one of those places that tries to be ethical, envioronmentally friendly, and that donates profits to local education.
It became my go-to place in Siem Reap; I loved it. It serves meat, but there are loads of vegan choices on the menu. It's maybe 50% vegan, and has some good options that you will struggle to find elsewhere. Vegan breakfast muffin? Chips and vegan gravy? Vegan sausage rolls? It has them, and it's all really good. I didn't have a meal here I didn't love.
I had these vegan sausage rolls with chips, beans and curry sauce on a couple of occasions. It's perfect British junk food, and costs $5.75.
The Little Red Fox Espresso
I would normally want a much bigger selection of vegan options in order to recommend a place. Discounting drinks and baked goods, it only has five vegan choices on the menu. The food here was so good that I just couldn't leave it out.
From the outside it looks quite a small place, but the majority of its seating is upstairs, so don't get disheartened if you can't see any available space from outside. It does get full; I did see people come here and be unable to get a table, but it's with good reason that it's so popular. The funguy and temp-tress plate was genuinely one of the best vegan meals I've ever had. It had tastes I've never had anywhere else in vegan food.
It's kind of a hipster place, but I'm willing to look past that when the food's this good.
The funguy and temp-tress plate. I'm not too sure about the name, but this was genuinely one of the best vegan dishes I've ever had. I don't know how they cooked the tempeh, but I know I liked it. Costs $4.50.
Angkor Market
This is one for those in self-catering. It might be slightly strange to include a supermarket in this list, but I found some of the supermarkets in Siem Reap to be pretty dire. As this branch of Angkor Market is a little outside the town centre, it's unlikely to be a place that you're going to come accidentally, and as it has the best selection of vegan self-catering food I found, it might be useful to someone.
It doesn't have the kind of selection of vegan foodstuffs that you'll find in a modern western supermarket; not even close, but it does have things like Violife vegan cheese; the first time I've seen vegan cheese available in an Asian supermarket anywhere.
It's not cheap. I bought wholewheat pasta here, tomato sauce, chickpeas, nuts and seeds. All were noticeably more expensive than they'd be in a supermarket in London. A small block of Violife vegan cheese costs $6.90. After conversion that's more than double the price that Tesco charge in the UK. That's kind of the way it is in this region though. Unless you're buying locally produced food, you pay a premium for it. And seeing as everything else in Siem Reap is so cheap, a few dollars more on some groceries isn't going to break the bank. All supermarkets in Siem Reap have similar prices, and this one has by far the best selection of everywhere I went.
Angkor Market from the outside.
Where to run in Siem Reap
Siem Reap is something of an anomaly in major South-East Asian cities, in that you can pretty much run anywhere. There are obvious exceptions, like Pub Street in the evenings, but in the main it has wide, flat pavements, largely void of motorcycles, cars and other impediments, and very few pedestrians. The traffic isn't very dense either, meaning that firstly, crossing the road isn't a long process so it won't really interrupt your run. Secondly, the pollution from vehicles is a non-factor. And thirdly, if you do find yourself in a place without pavement, running in the road is fairly safe. So it's a great place to just run in any direction and see where you end up.
On my first run here, I decided to go east until I got to the river and then just head north. The first half of this route I was running along paving in populated areas. At some point though, the paving turned to a dirt road paralleled by fewer and fewer buildings and more and more jungle. I stopped seeing any other foreigners, and the locals that were there became fewer and farther between.
I got the feeling that they weren't used to seeing foreigners running up there. Most ignored me but some pointed, others said "hello" with a big grin on their face like it was a novelty, and one pulled his cock out of his shorts and started windmilling it in my direction. That was a bit weird. I also got chased by a pack of dogs.
My intention for this run had been to cross the river once I got to 5km and come back on the other side for a 10km run. I'd love to have a good excuse for why I didn't make it all the way back, but the truth is my fitness was dog shit by now, and when it started to hurt, I didn't have that dawg in me to push through.
I must be getting old.
For my second run in Siem Reap I went in the other direction and made a 7km loop that took me around north Siem Reap. This entire route was paved and pretty pleasant.
For my next run I again went west and decided to go as far as I needed to get to 5km before turning back, in order to make it a 10km run. On a map this might not look pleasant because you're running along a main road, but I'll reiterate that the roads here really aren't that busy. I didn't really have to wait to cross any streets and the vehicles are sparse enough that pollution wasn't an issue. The main road also has a cycle lane which I ran in for some of the route with little fear of getting run down.
I liked this route so much that I did it two more times before leaving Siem Reap. It takes you up to the turning you'd take to get to the airport, and can easily be extended for those who want a longer route.
My first run in Siem Reap, running along the riverside.
Being sociable in Siem Reap
There are a small number of organised events in Siem Reap where you can go to meet new people. In truth though, it's a city where everyone already seems rather chatty.
I really enjoyed my time here, which I'm sure helped. As I was happy the whole time, I was much more approachable and willing to approach others. I don't think it was just me though. I found that just going to a bar or a restaurant, I would find myself talking to people. I think the relaxed atmosphere here, especially compared to the cities of Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City where I'd been for the two months prior, just nurtures a more friendly and approachable vibe that everyone buys into.
It doesn't hurt that beer is so cheap. Typically you'll pay $1 for a beer in a bar, but if you search around you can get it as cheap as 50¢. Anything more than a dollar and you've gone somewhere posh.
I'm not normally a big drinker, but at that price it's rude not to, so I'd often find myself getting a beer with my meal, or I'd go and sit in a bar if I wanted to read my book, as opposed to a coffee shop where a pot of tea would cost the equivalent of four beers. And as happens, I'd go to read my book at 5pm and find myself stumbling out the bar at 7am having spent the entire night chatting to people. Bars in Siem Reap only close when they have no more customers, so staying out until daylight returns happens with worrying ease.
That being said, it can still be useful to have specific events to attend, and there was only one that I went to here.
Killer Pool at Duckbar and Minimart
Duckbar and Minimart is a convenience store/bar (don't ask) that was newly opened when I was in Siem Reap. It has a pool table in the middle of the store/bar, and a week after I arrived held the inaugural weekly killer pool tournament.
For those who aren't familiar, killer pool is a form of pool where all players get three lives. Everyone takes a turn at the table, and if you don't pot anything you lose a life. The last man standing wins. It's $1 to enter, and the winner takes the pot.
This first event attracted a couple of dozen people, either playing or watching, each getting through plenty of beer while there, so when I asked Chris, the store/bar's co-owner if it was going to be a weekly event, I don't think at that moment he'd decided for sure, but it's what it became.
Standing around a pool table with so many other players is a very easy environment to chat to people, especially as everyone's name is on a blackboard to mark the game order.
The one downside, for me at least, was that seemingly every person who came here was a heavy smoker.
It's an open store/bar, and very well ventilated, but I still found that part of it slightly unpleasant. Not enough to stop me going back again though, and this was the only regular event I attended in Siem Reap, coming back on every Saturday I was here. It's a fun event, I just wish I was a bit better at pool.
The inaugural killer pool night at Duckbar and Minimart.
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