Quick Notes for the traveler:
- If you were looking to eat spiders, crickets and cockroaches and other “exotic” critters you will find stalls here at night around Pub St.
- Siem Reap is generally more expensive than Phnom Penh.
- ATM’s are everywhere however credit card acceptance is still not that widespread.
- Dining goes beyond just Pub St, check out the laneways that connect to other main streets. There are also well-rated restaurants just outside of the main Pub St area (within ~1-2km)
- TEMPLE is one of the largest clubs, and there is a sizable RnB club across the bridge of the river out of Pub St. Angkor What? Is a popular bar for foreigners and expats.
- Travelling alone or want to meet lots of people easily? Consider a pub crawl. It’s run by and starts from X Bar.
Advanced apology for the quality of photos in this post as well, I decided to leave my actual camera at the hotel so all photos are from my phone.
After a hard day of non-stop temples and ruins, Ric, another lone traveler I had met hit Pub St.
If you struggled to find some insects to snack on relatively cheaply this is your chance. There are various stalls around that sell spiders, snakes, crickets, cockroaches and scorpions. Prices start from $1 USD.
Couldn’t bring myself to have a huge cockroach but I did have a spider. The taste is comparable to shrimp with the legs being crunchy and the head and abdomen is something like dry bean curd in texture.
With spider bits left over and stuck in my mouth, it was time for a real dinner to get rid of it all.
Khmer BBQ is common around here and it’s like a hybrid of hot pot and Korean BBQ.
When the BBQ came out and seeing all the soup base we wondered if we had the wrong thing but after seeing two confused looking tourists the waitress came back and showed us how to work this.
Be prepared to be sweaty, sit around a hot bowl of soup base and BBQ on a hot night will definitely get to you.
Angkor What? Bar was recommended by a few people so we checked in to see what the big deal was. Angkor What? Is popular with foreigners and expats, and plays typical commercial hits. Staff are very friendly and speak good English (you will also find some foreigners working here) and happy hour goes to 6 pm with an additional special of a free t-shirt if your buy two buckets of alcohol to 9 pm.
And TEMPLE is just across the street, which plays your typical commercial EDM tracks. (sorry Trance lovers, the best I could find was a pub playing some Psy-Trance)
I can’t comment too much as it’s a fairly standard club set up, however it doesn’t really kick off till later after dinner time, and I don’t really remember how I got back to my room either! That kind of night.
I didn’t get a chance to go but if you are after a more relaxed and classy vibe then check out a cocktail bar called Miss Wongs, a 30’s Shanghai inspired decorated cocktail bar.
Leave a Reply