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So, as the title say's - and cutting to the chase :-) what's the current going rate for some over night company in Siem Reap these days, heading there in a few weeks perhaps and as I haven't been there for a while I forget and wouldn't like to short change anyone ( or end up with a knife in the back for being a cheap charlie lol ) :-)
Have fun in Siem Reap NIrish Guy.
I would be interested in hearing on how the journey from Pattaya to Siem Reap went for you - thinking of doing it myself.
Siem Reap...has one gay bar, maximum 3 ugly Cambodian guys. Seems to draw many pedos NGO's and police have a good business; other than Anchor Wat, forget it, go to Phenom Phen, cruzy park around royal palace and good bar "Blue Chilli".
When I was there, in 2008, US $20, but that may have changed by now. There was nothing commercial then - all the guys in Linga bar were freelancers.
Linga is the one gay bar in town. It's actually mixed - you'll see breeders at the tables outside. If you go inside, the bar is straight ahead of you. Sitting at the bar, chatting to the staff is where the freelancers are. Whether they are good looking or not - well, that's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Linga also have a massage place, over the street from the bar. Linga is in an alley called "The Passage" which is pretty close to the centre of this map:
http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/s ... -large.htm
(Incidentally, this Canby website is an excellent resource for general Cambodia info)
The U-Care pharmacy (about halfway up the street that runs on from old Market Bridge) has a US $ ATM. They always have an English speaking pharmacist on duty, if you need one.
Flying to Siem Reap is quite expensive, as Bangkok Air have a monopoly. If you are going to fly, then book now. They do sell out. If you are going to fly back, then remember you need $25 in cash for a departure tax.
If you are going to go by land, then this is helpful as far as the Aranyapraphet/Poipet/Siem Reap section goes:
http://www.angkorholidays.com/bangkoksiemreap.html
They guy who runs this company, Mr Tee, is a very pleasant and accommodating man. If you are going to book your own taxi from the border, or for a day or two tours around the temples, he is reliable. I recommended him to a friend a couple of years after I was there - heard nothing but good about him. If you are just going to the nearby temples, which are very close to town, you can just hire a tuk-tuk for the day for less.
I stayed in the Golden Banana boutique hotel. I liked the place - you get a split level room with the bedroom above, with a small balcony, and a sitting are below. No problem with guests. It's on the bottom right hand corner of the map, just over the old market bridge. You can walk into town in 10 minutes - the area covered by the map is quite small.
http://goldenbanana.info/nomobi/js/home/
There are a couple of other things to see apart from the temples. If you want to pick up some souvenirs, gifts for the family etc. then Artisans D'Angkor (bottom left of the map) is worth a visit. It's a training school for craftsmen - stone and wood carving, silk screen printing etc. with a shop attached.
There is also the War Museum. Off the map, but any tuk-tuk driver will take you there. It's a private collection of stuff that the owner just picked up lying around the country where it had been abandoned - everything from heavy artillery and tanks to landmines, small arms and old Khmer Rouge uniforms and flags.
In the end, it's all down to what you want. Pattaya it isn't - but Siem Reap is a very pleasant place to chill out for a few days.
I went there in 2010 and found the only place for any pick ups was the Linga Bar.
I stayed at the Mens Resort which had lots of cute staff but none were actually gay.
There is a gay sauna at the Mens Resort and a few locals visit but depends what you are after.
I found a good selection of guys at the Linga who come up and chat to you and are all willing to come back to your hotel.
I gave them $25 and had no complaints.
I did not see (or want, I hasten to add) any underage and all hotels ask to see the id of any guest you bring back..
Not sure what the scene is like now though but if you combine your social life with the beauty of the temples at Siem Reap you can have the best of both worlds...
You can get a lot of info from this website I think it tremendousQuote:
Originally Posted by RonanTheBarbarian
http://www.seat61.com/Cambodia.htm
seat61 is a world-wide train-promoting site-somehow it seems to me that many Brits are so fond of those iron roosters they consider any possible negative (whcih there must be-it would be unreal if there were not) as life-threatening assault.
canbypublications is a general Khmer adverstisng site, but somehow is very good on transport/ation.
the best site for an uptodate review of how to go overland TH->KH is talesofasia.com, run by a US guesthse owner in SR, married to a Thai wife.
As per 1/7 coming, there will be direct buslines TH-KH, untill now you always have to change and go by foor over border.
It used to be-as quoted, that 20US$ was the general KH tip for shorttime. As seems to be usual for any tip-advice, there are always people who make a fuss about it and say its too low, etc. A lot of last yrs reports said it was 30. A working boy was quoted, who exlaliend that boss had told them to accept anything from 20 and up without fuss. In the distant past there was a kind of night-curfew in KH, so boys would be quite happy to stay overnight, but that has definitely changed.
DO read up about the habits of Khmer boys-here are now also on this site various reports.
I was there last August, didnt see any breeders sitting outside Linga Bar which was where I sat, bar staff very cute and friendly, money boys started turning up around 8pm or later, would have preferred any of the bar staff to any of the money boys, on my last evening chatted to a money boy who asked for $50 so I let the silence descend on that offer, as Oscar Wilde said "He wasnt that pretty" and not cute enough I was prepared to bargain, went back to my guesthoise alone, plenty of massage places and I got a $7 massage from a Khmer boy who automatically assumed I wanted a happy ending and was very frisky and very happy with a small tip and then came to my guesthouse the next day for more of the same, not sure how you can say it's not commercial when there are boys selling themselves in the bar, thought the Linga massage prices a rip-off at Bonny Massage prices, Soi Twilight it's not, did get one of the kids who sell books and postcards up and down that alley offer himself for $100 along the lines of "postcards, books or me" but he was joking or at least he gave a good impression of joking. Why are all the Khmer kids so fluent in English from a young age and the Thais so hopeless?