Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat. It is where you base yourself for various excursions to the nearby historical sights. The most popular way of getting around is to engage a tuk-tuk and driver on a daily rate. Locally, tuk-tuks are known as remorques, and are usually made up of a carriage towed by a motorbike. Siem Reap (translating as ‘Thailand defeated’) has embraced tourism, with a dedicated night-life area (Pub Street), and all manner of restaurants and coffee shops. The outer tree-lined boulevards are very regal, with grand hotels and government buildings. The town also sits next to Tonle Sap; fed by the Mekong River, this huge inland waterway is the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia. 

APOPO is a Dutch acronym, the English being, ‘Anti-personnel landmines detection product development’. The APOPO centre in Siem Reap trains African Giant Pouched rats to sniff out landmines in the heavily mined countryside. You can watch a demo and get to hold one of the rats at the centre if you are up for it. 

Ten kms south of Siem Reap is the hill, Phnom Krom, a popular spot to watch the sun set over Tonle Sap on one side and paddy fields on the other. The houses at the water's edge are built on stilts, but there are also floating villages better equipped to cope with the water level of about 1.5m in the dry season and 10m in the wet season.