The Travelling Feet

When you plan to go on a food trip in the historic town of Angkor temples and have no idea where to hang out in Siem Reap, you should consider going to the ever famous Pub Street for different food choices. In there, you’ll get a taste of authentic Khmer cuisine among other international food cuisines. However, there’s also one restaurant in Siem Reap that you shouldn’t miss – that’s if you are into buffet meals and unlimited ice cream all rolled into one affordable eat-all-you-can meal.

Just when you make that right to turn to Sivatha Road when travelling from the National Highway in Siem Reap, you’ll probably notice Lucky Mall, a 3-story building on the right side of the road. Hidden on its third floor is a restaurant called Lucky Shabu House, which serves Japanese, Thai and Khmer cuisine among others.

What’s so special about this place is that for $6.50 you get to dine buffet style and get access to the unlimited supply of all the food and drinks in the restaurant, not including bottled drinks you’ll see in the fridge though.

Once you get inside the Lucky Shabu House, you’d immediately see a a long stretch of moving plates like those you see in Japanese sushi restaurants with conveyor belts. Feel free to seat wherever you want. There’s a singles hot pot where you can mix your own shabu-shabu food. There are also tables good for 4 heads where you can share each other’s version of cooked shabu meals.

Angel & I showing off our shabu shabu ingredients; Ed getting a facial steam bath; us playing w/chopsticks

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese variant of hot pot. The name shabu-shabu is derived from the “swish swish” sound of cooking the meat in the pot. The dish is related to sukiyaki in style, in that both use thinly sliced meat and vegetables and are usually served with dipping sauces, but it is considered to be more savory and less sweet than sukiyaki. It is considered a winter dish, but is eaten year-round.

This Khmer style shabu shabu hot pot has a different taste from other shabu-shabu meals because of the presence of different spices and seasoning that you add on your hot pot. Once you reach your seats, the staff will immediately ask you what broth flavor you want. Bland, sweet and spicy are your options.

Once the broth arrives, you can start swish swishing your food ingredients into the pot, add flavoring, wait for a couple of minutes for the meat and veggies to get cooked and dig in. When the staff sees that you are almost out of broth, they won’t hesitate to refill your hot pot.

Lucky Shabu House also serves different kinds of maki, few sushi variants, some vegetable salads and appetizers. There’s also a few Thai looking Khmer cuisines but I never got the chance to ask what those were since my mouth got busy eating them all. hehehe. There’s also unlimited soda, iced tea and lemon/orange juice available.

Some cheapskates (like me) might find the $6.50 a little bit expensive for an eat-all-you-can shabu-shabu buffet but my friend, Ed, thinks otherwise. And he got me convinced on this one too all because of their ice cream.

Are you an ice cream addict? Well if you happen to travel to Siem Reap, a scoop of ice cream will cost you $1-$2. Buying a pint or those bigger ones will cost you more since ice cream is kinda expensive in this side of town. However, in this shabu shabu restaurant in Siem Reap, you’d get unlimited supply of ice cream! So when we crave for one, or when we feel the need to reward ourselves after a week-long fasting/diet, or perhaps when there’s something that needs celebrating, we dine at Lucky Shabu House. And when we do, we make sure we get to eat as much ice cream as the rest of the food available in there.

Ed, eating out his 15th scoop of ice cream; Angel enjoying his yummy chocolate flavored ice cream

Reminders when eating at Lucky Shabu House:

• You don’t have to dress fancy to eat there.
• You have to eat everything or else you’d be fined $1 (I think). But you can always hide/drop your leftovers in the hotpot. Just make sure it still has broth in it. hehe
• Taking photos is not allowed and there are signs plastered all over the wall to remind you of this but you can politely ask their staff to take your solo/group photo. As for souvenir shots of the place, you can always sneak out.
• There are 3 flavors of Nestle ice cream – chocolate, vanilla and taro.
• If you decide to dine eat-all-you-can style in there with ice cream as your number one priority, be sure to ask if they have stocks of ice cream first coz sometimes they ran out of it.
• On our last pig out there, we were reminded that we only had 20 minutes more to stay in the restaurant. I didn’t know they had that kind of policy after eating there a couple of times. I guess they got threatened by our countless trips to the ice cream fridge.

I could no longer count the number of times I dined at the Lucky Shabu Housem, which is located inside the Lucky Mall Plaza in Siem Reap. On our last food trip, our good friend Angel of Lakwatsero.com came to visit us. We really had a blast enjoying the shabu2x meal and all the good food Siem Reap had to offer including where to buy cakes at 50% off. Will tell you bout that next time.

As for the Shabu Shabu meal, try it out if you have all the time to explore Siem Reap and better go there with friends for an enjoybale dining experience.

Lucky Shabu House is not open all day long but I’m sure they open at 6pm to cater to their evening diners.

(click on map to enlarge)

When you travel to Siem Reap, the first indication that you are near the town is when you start seeing big hotels from both sides of the road. Know that you are passing by the national highway of this famous tourist town in Cambodia. If you think booking on those huge hotels along the national highway gets you closer to town, then I’m sorry to burst your bubble. You’d have to travel approximately 2 kilometers more to reach the town center where you can hang out and find cheap places to eat in Siem Reap. If you have cash to burn, then by all means, stay on those posh hotels and spend your money paying for tuktuk rides or bike rentals. Although Siem Reap is a really really small town, it would be best to get closer to the town center as it will be more convenient for you to discover places on where to hang out in Siem Reap’s numerous restaurants along Pub Street.

Pub Street is basically where everyone goes to have a great time after spending the day doing Angkor tours. So if you are headed to Siem Reap, go to google and make sure you find accommodations within a 1-2 kilometer radius from that street, which is also near the Old Market.

At day time, Pub Street, the famous street in Siem Reap, will look like any ordinary establishment in the area except for the presence of tourists who get their daily dose of meals. Some of restaurant’s regular patrons are either expats who got stuck in Siem Reap or those travellers who travel around the globe and have listed Siem Reap in their bucket list of must-see places because of the historical Angkor Wat temples.

Once darkness envelops the entire town, the whole area transforms into a different place. It comes to life at night and you will see the entire stretch of buildings lit up brightly as if telling you to stop by and check them out.

During my stay in Siem Reap, I met different travellers, including Pinoys. Some were just passing through while others really intended to travel to this place to visit the Angkor temples. Some were businessmen and engineers back home and chose to drop by Siem Reap. One was a diabolo performer while another one played poker games online. And every time they ask for cheap places to eat in Siem Reap, my travel buddy and I bring them to Pub Street. We already know some of the best restaurants in Siem Reap and most of them are found in Pub Street.

Alley West, a tamer side of Pub Street

Most of the time, this street gets loud and rowdy so for those who want a more subdued location, you can head over to Alley West for your dinner and grab cheap beers along Pub Street after. Alley West is the artsy area in the area, which is on the back side back of Pub Street (depending on where you are standing. hehe). In there, you can enjoy your Khmer dinner peacefully and practice your people watching skills before you get wasted.

Aside from finding the best Khmer cuisines in Pub Street, book lovers can drop by at bookshops within the area. The night market is also nearby, where you can continue your last minute shopping.

For beer lovers, Pub Street is your paradise as you’d have access to dirt cheap beers. Some restaurants or bars offer Angkor Draft beer as cheap as $0.50 and $1.50 for cocktails (others offer the buy-1-take-1 cocktail deals) so be sure to look for those establishments. Normally, you’d see a signage indicating each restaurant’s deals. Otherwise, don’t hesitate to ask their crew before you seat comfortably.

If you are a fan of Angelina Jolie, don’t miss out the Red Piano bar. They offer the Tomb Raider Cocktail, a drink which they claim as Angelina Jolie’s favorite drink at the Red Piano bar. It’s just a mixture of Cointreau, lime juice and tonic all for $3.50. Spell expensive! And I have to admit that that price tag didn’t prevent my curiosity from trying out the drink. #facepalm

The Pub Street is one of the best places where to find good food in Siem Reap. You can also catch an Aspara dance, Cambodia’s traditional dance, at Temple Club.

So in case you are still wondering where to hang out in Siem Reap, Pub Street is the place to be!

View Larger Map

When I travelled from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville, I had to stop over at Phnom Penh to switch to a different bus. I had to wait for 30 minutes for the other bus to arrive.

While waiting, I saw this vendor carrying a basket on her head. She approached the bus station and started selling food to us and to the employees of the bus station.

I couldn’t help admire the colorful array of food that greeted my eyes. Most of the food items sold were fruits and appetizers. I was so tempted to buy the mango. Its colors were deliciously tempting but I had to contain myself. I hadn’t had a decent meal since midnight when I embarked on my solo trip to Sihanoukville and I couldn’t afford to ruin my tummy at that time. I just settled to taking pictures of those delectable treats instead.

I love how colorful all those food looked!

When the vendor finished selling her food to the bus station employees, she placed the wide basked on top of her head, carried a small stool and walked away from the area. Bye bye foodie!

Friday Foodies

By the way, I am starting this new segment on this site where I will feature different foods on my journey, thus, giving birth to my Friday Foodies edition

Why Friday? Because everyone wants to thank God for Friday as it is the end of the weekday and people like me can skip dieting and declare Friday as the start of their cheat day. LOL

Happy Eating everyone! ^_^

After travelling from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville by bus for 12 hours, I arrived in Cambodia’s coastal town without a clue as to where I would go. I normally research where I would stay when I travel to a certain place. But on this instance, I didn’t. Partly because I know that as a backpacker, I know I’d get by. I was also confident that I could find a cheap place to stay in Sihanoukville. So when I arrived in the area and tried to look for a cheap hostel, I ended up renting a place in the town center instead.

The good thing was my friends offered to help me look for a place to stay near the beach area of Sihanoukville when they learned that I was in town. So after finding a cheap room to stay and after having an early dinner, my friends asked me if I was up to grabbing a few drinks while enjoying the sunset at Serendipity Beach. I immediately agreed since I didn’t have anything to do at that time.

I’ve heard that Sihanoukville is Cambodia’s gateway to its island hopping tour destinations. One only needs to look for that boat that offers island hopping tours to enjoy their stay in Sihanoukville. There are those who do not need island tours though. For the shoreline of Serendipity Beach, among other beaches in this town, would delight any beach lover.

Serendipity Beach

Serendipity Beach is one of the beaches that surround the coastal town of Sihanoukville. Normally, those people who travel to Cambodia to visit Phonm Penh and Siem Reap end up staying in Sihanoukville because of its beaches. If you were to ask me, I think there’s really nothing special about the beaches in this region though since it’s just like any of the beaches in Thailand – touristy. But beach lovers, like me, wouldn’t think twice in checking out the place. In fact, one of the passengers on the bus that I took to get to Sihanoukville kept saying that he can’t wait to see the beach area of Cambodia. He was templed out after touring the temples of Angkor Wat. I think he mentioned that there were these turkey all inclusive holidays that he went to prior to his Cambodia trip and he just missed the beach after spending his vacation in Turkey that he had to find the nearest beach in the region of Cambodia. I guess he’s looking forward to having a great time in the beaches of Sihanoukville. I know for a fact that those beaches in Turkey looks like they have a great atmosphere – relaxed, beautiful scenery and lots of options for activities. I once saw a photo of the beaches of Turkey and the waters look clear and inviting. I wonder if the sea-life there is similar to what you would see when one goes snorkelling around Serendipity beach.

Just before the sun sets, you will witness a line of circular chairs that are covered with comfy foams lining up the entire coast of Serendipity Beach. Behind each of those chairs lies restaurants that offer different food selections.

Tourists would start to arrive when it’s about to get dark. If you would want to get the best spot, better arrive early. And since we already had dinner, we ordered beer instead. A mug of the famous Angkor draft beer is sold 2 for a dollar in certain establishments. That’s how cheap beer is in Sihanoukville.

By night time, the place transforms into a festive area. Candles are lighted on every table. You will also hear music coming from establishments, some of which might be too loud or noisy for you.

Peddlers will start roaming around the area. They sell assorted stuff – from food, souvenir items, fireworks, and more.

You will also see fire dancers showing off their skills. All you have to do is enjoy the view while lounging in your comfy chairs.

And just as you are about to conclude that this is the perfect place for you to chill and relax while listening to the sound of the waves, you’ll be interrupted by the sound of fireworks from a distance for everyday is fireworks display day at Serendipity Beach or any of the beaches of Sihanoukville.

During my previous posts, I have discussed the 6 ways to travel from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet border if you are doing a Bangkok to Siem Reap overland border crossing via Bangkok to Poipet. I have also mentioned that once you have determined what mode of land transportation you will choose to reach the border in Aranyaprathet, Thailand, you simply follow the instructions I provided on how to cross borders from Aranyaprathet to Poipet. Once you remembered those tips on how to do the overland border crossing from Bangkok to Poipet, you now need to know how to travel from Poipet to Siem Reap [on your own].

This article aims to help you follow a do-it-yourself guide so that you don’t have to spend too much when travelling from Poipet to Siem Reap. Booking for a Bangkok to Siem Reap trip from a travel agency is too expensive. I would suggest that you travel to the border on your own, unless you have a lot of money to burn. No worries, it’s not really difficult. Promise.

If you have read my article on how to cross the Thailand-Cambodia borders, you will remember about the touts I mentioned.

These Khmer touts normally wear black slacks with light colored long sleeves. My take is that they wear this kind of “uniform” in order to look presentable and professional to tourists when they approach them to offer their services – whether a tour package to see the temples of Angkor Wat, taxi ride, translator service, or your regular customer service aide. If you want to get some questions answered as to where you need to go once you exit the immigration office in Poipet, feel free to ask those Khmer locals at the waiting area. However, be prepared for they might attempt at offering their services to you. Simply decline their offers politely if you want to. Rememer the golden rule. If you are rude to them, you’d probably get the same treatment from them. However, if it gets to the point where they get annoying, then better do something about it, k? The best tip I can give you on how to deal with them is by using the silent treatment. Simply stop yourself from finding the urge to speak to them even though you are already imagining how you’d cut their tongues to keep them shut. They’ll eventually leave you if you don’t respond to their questions.

How to Travel from Poipet to Siem Reap?

There are different ways to go to Siem Reap from Poipet. However, since Poipet does not have an airport, you will have to endure travelling by land for 2.5 hours up to 3.5 hours. In here, I will list down 4 ways that you can choose on where you need to find your mode of transportation if you want to travel from Poipet to Siem Reap.

1. Government Passenger Terminal

The most widely used mode of transportation is via the transportation available at the government bus terminal. Once you exit the doors of the immigration office in Poipet, just walk forward till you see the covered area as shown on the photo on top. Just so you’d know, there are 2 “Government” bus terminals in Poipet. One only takes roughly 5 minutes to travel from the immigration office. You’ll reach the other one after 15 minutes. The trip to both terminals is free. A bus will be waiting for you when you leave the immigration office but you will not know what terminal the driver will bring you and the other travellers. Do not panic. You will reach the terminal. If there are no available buses that will bring you to the terminals, there’s an area where you can sit and wait. There’s also a store there where you can buy drinks to quench your thirst.

both white and red buses offers free rides to reach the Poipet Government Bus Terminal

the Poipet Bus Terminal 5 minutes away from the border

Once you are in the terminal, you will be asked where you need to go and what mode of transportation you will choose.

If you are on your way to Siem Reap, here’s what you need to consider:

Poipet to Siem Reap by Taxi – $12/pax
Poipet to Siem Reap by Bus – $9/pax

The taxi is good for 4 heads. If you are travelling alone and want a solo trip, you can hire the taxi and pay $48 for the special trip. Otherwise, it is best to approach other travellers so that you can share the ride. Travel time will take 3 hours. You’ll save 30 minutes of travel time if your driver drives like a maniac.

If you decide to go by bus, travel time will probably take 3.5 hours. The bus will leave when it’s almost full. So unless you are in a hurry, feel free to choose this option.

Poipet Tourist Passenger International Terminal, 15 minutes away from the border

When there are no buses available and your travel party can fit inside a van, there’s a high probability that you will be seated in a van along with other travellers. You still need to pay $12/head though. Travel time is approximately 3 hours.

Before you leave the terminal, someone will ask you what country you are from and where you will stay. Most likely, they will drop you off in your hotel.

For those who does not have any hotel reservation, they’ll probably take you to one of the hotels they partner with or drop you off 2 kilometers from the main city. When this happens, tell them you will look for your own hotel. And find your own tuktuk. It only costs $1 to hire a tuktuk driver. $2 if you are farther from the city area. However, certain tuktuk drivers offer free rides to help you find a hotel/hostel provided you hire them the next day to see the temples of Angkor Wat. Remember that it only costs $12-$15 to hire a tuktuk to view the temples in one day.

2. Taxi

There are two places where you can hire a taxi and pay a cheaper rate to bring you to Siem Reap aside from the taxis waiting for you at Option#1.

Taxi near the immigration office

If you are travelling in a group of 3-5, you can attempt to discuss with a tout or immediately look for a taxi driver that will take you to Siem Reap. The good thing with this option is that you do not have to go to the Passenger Terminal. You simply discuss your price with the taxi driver. If you have great haggling skills, start haggling at $30 for the trip. Maximum should be $40-$45, ok?

To the right side of this roundabout, just a few meters after the waiting area where you wait for the free bus ride, you will see parked taxis. You can immediately go there and look for a taxi driver and start haggling.

Note: When I tried to do a visa run, I joined 4 Filipinos on our way back to Siem Reap. One of them speaks Khmer and he made a no-sweat deal with the driver to bring us from Poipet to Siem Reap for only $30. That’s just $6 per head!

On a next trip I made, when I travelled from Poipet to Siem Reap, I approached a Japanese couple and asked them if they want to share the taxi with me. They agreed. I haggled for $30 but since I can’t speak Khmer, the drivers were being difficult. I finally found one who agreed for $35. The couple gave an amount more than their share so I ended up paying only $9 for the trip!

If I went to the Passenger terminal, I would have paid $12 for the trip. The only inconvenience here is the haggling part.

Taxi within the city

I wanted to find out where locals find a taxi if they want to travel from Poipet to Siem Reap. I rode one where we only paid $30 for the trip. Surely there must be a cheaper taxi. So I talked to one of the locals and asked him where I can find a taxi where I only need to pay $6. He said there’s no rate like that. I insisted there must be one. He said he could take me to one where they charge $7 and I just need to pay him 20 baht for the ride. It was a done deal. He’s actually driving to bring passengers to their desired destinations. He brought me to a small office in the city center. One passenger was already waiting. I was the 2nd. We had to wait for 2 more passengers. After 1.5 hours, we left Poipet.

This mode of transportation is very inconvenient since you had to wait for the taxi to get filled. The maximum capacity of the taxi is 6 persons. Since there was a passenger who had goods with her, she paid for 1 seat and I got seated next to a couple of boxes while 2 more passengers were seated beside me. There were 2 more passengers in front of the taxi.

This mode of transportation is great for budget travellers like me. But if you are not the type of person who’d want to be inconvenienced by such and wouldn’t mind paying more, then I’d suggest going with option # 1.

3. Private bus company

I normally pay $3.50 for a one-way trip from Siem Reap to Poipet. Because of this, one of my goal when I was travelling back and forth Siem Reap was to find a similar bus company with that rate when doing the Poipet to SR route. However, I failed to find out more about this. On my last Poipet to Siem Reap trip, I attempted to find a bus company that would go back to SR after bringing passengers from SR in the morning. After searching for one, I finally gave in to riding a taxi and paid $7 again.

However, I did find out that there’s a private company that travels from Poipet to Siem Reap. I failed to inquire about the rate but the bus leaves at 8am, which I find impossible to catch since I normally arrive in Poipet (from Bangkok or SR) at around 11-12nn.

4. Travel Agency in Bangkok or the like

You can also book an overland trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap from a travel agency in Bangkok, specifically the ones near Khao San road. The only catch is that you’ll pay more than twice the rate of that taxi fare mentioned in option 1. What’s worse is that you’ll go through the same process when crossing borders if you are coming from Bangkok since there are no direct trips from Bangkok to Siem Reap.

the paved roads going to Siem Reap

Let me tell you a story:

I rode a van (option # 2 as mentioned here) from Khao San road to get to the Aranyaprathet border. Before we were brought to the border, we stopped at this small open air restaurant where Thai drivers normally bring their passengers. In there, they convinced us to take our lunch. The food were priced at 70++ baht per meal. I find the prices a bit expensive. Since I am travelling on a budget, I brought food with me and I didn’t order anything there. There’s this one Thai tout who approached everyone and told them what they need to do in securing their Cambodian visa and how to get to Siem Reap. I was half listening to him. Some of my companions already paid for their one way trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Others, like me, who do not have a ride yet from Poipet to Siem Reap were told we could join them for 700 baht. I had to stop myself from mocking the tout as I might not come out alive in that place. I told him I will travel on my own and that I will not join his recruits. He came back to me after a few minutes and asked me how much I was willing to pay to reach Siem Reap. I said 250 baht. He moved his head side ways showing his disapproval of my rate and walked away.

That Thai tout was asking me to pay 800 baht for a trip from Poipet to Siem Reap. That’s approximately $22 (~$1 = 31.50 baht). My budget was only $7. The regular rate to travel from Poipet to SR, if you take the “government” mandated taxi, is $12/head on a shared taxi of 4 peeps. The amount that the Thai tout quoted those innocent and first-time travelers was outrageous!

It really pays to know how much you need to pay when travelling to other places to avoid being scammed. Because of the famous Angkor Wat temples, there are many travellers who go to Cambodia all the time. There are a lot of scams happening both in the Thai and Cambodian borders. Even immigration officials extort money from travellers. I was one of them. It’s just sad knowing that scammers exist in those places because of us, travellers. My wish is that YOU will not be one of their victims.

Happy Safe travels you!

You might also find these articles useful:

• 6 Ways to Travel from Bangkok to the Aranyaprathet Border
• Crossing Borders: Thailand to Cambodia via Aranyaprathet to Poipet Border