Meet our friends in Siem Reap - So much more than Angkor Wat!

Yes, we are back in Siem Reap! This is or favorite town in Cambodia, and through the next few episodes I think you are going to understand why. This whole town is built around Angkor Wat as a tourist attraction, and so there are many expats living in Siem Reap, working in the tourist industry, just like our friends Katrine and Simen.

Many tourists that come to Siem Reap will stay 3 or 4 days to see the temples, have a walk through town, the old market and pup street. There are so many more things to do here that we would have never known about if it werent for Simen and Katrine.

The first time we came to Siem Reap was in 2023. We had a plan to stay a few days to see the temples and we didnt really have more of a plan than that, apart form visiting some Norwegians we got a tip was running a guesthouse there. It was fully booked when we planned on visiting, so we booked another hotel and went over to visit. We were greeted with open arms and we became very good friends in just a few minutes! So much so, that Katrine invited us to go to Nesat with them a few days later. And so we did!

We had so much fun together that we simply dropped Vietnam from our itinerary and just stayed in Cambodia! We got to see so many cool things that we never would have experienced if it hadnt been for Katrine and Simen, and that is exactly why we found it so easy to book tickets to go back and have some more fun, less than a year later! In the next few episodes we’ll show you the life in Siem Reap and take you along on a bunch of the tours available at the Babel Hotels and you’ll also get a peak into the environmental work being done by Babel and their many collaborators.

We visited Tonle Sap, West Baraj, Koh Ker and we also got to go on a village tour with Joy, one of Babels wonderful tuktuk drivers. Excursions like this really lets you see how the people are living and what they are struggling with, what they enjoy and how their culture shapes their lives. As a bonus, we got to see a bunch of cool cars passing through Siem Reap and we’ll be posting videos from each and every one of these, so remember to subscribe to our channel, if you dont want to miss out!

Thank you so much for watching:)

Eyvind, Barbro, Ask and Ylva

Links:
Babel Website - https://www.babelsiemreap.com/
Babel Guesthouse Youtube - ‪@babelsiemreapguesthouse1368‬
Babel Guesthouse Instagram - ‪@babelguesthousesiemreap2942‬
Babel Boutique Instagram - @babelboutiquehotel