So I put a post on The Wrong Way Home’s Facebook page about what people would like to hear about more on this blog. I’ve been neglecting it a little bit – trying to find a work/life balance (which I’ll blog about soon) but one of my goals for this year is to be a lot more active on here. One of my awesome readers suggested that I do more frequent posts on what it actually costs to be in the places I am in – which always helps with budgetting and planning. So here’s my first guide to the costs in Siem Reap!
At the moment I’m in Siem Reap, in Cambodia and I would say this prices are fairly standard for Cambodia, although Phnom Penh tends to run a little more expensive for accommodation in my experience. Let me introduce to you my humble abode that costs around $8USD a night. It’s a private room, so if I was traveling with someone my accommodation expenses would be $4 a day or $28 a week. You can find dorms in Siem Reap starting from $1, private basic rooms from $5 and you can pay as much as you want for high-end accommodation. My room rates include a towel, a simple breakfast (fried eggs and toast or noodle soup) and some bottles of water.
Eating out is really inexpensive here and you can enjoy a sit down meal in a restaurant for as little as $2 and local street food can be had for around $1. I am really enjoying Viva Restaurant which is a Mexican place and I ordered these delicious enchiladas for $5.50.Cocktails are a tempting $2.50 in most places, local beers are from $0.50-$1.50 in restaurants and bars, coffees range from $1-2.75 in most places depending on style and a small bottle of water in a restaurant is $0.60.
Considering my breakfast is free I can easily keep my food costs under $10 a day – eating well – assuming there’s no drinking.
I decided to rent a bicycle because I need the exercise and it’s less hassle than dealing with tuk tuks. Siem Reap has changed a lot over the past two years. It seems that Siem Reap is the New York of Cambodia and every second Cambodian has moved here to be a tuk tuk driver. I rented my bicycle out for $1 a day and my guesthouse offers free tuk tuks during the evenings, so my transport costs here have been really low. You can rent a tuk tuk for the entire day for $12 or $15 if you plan to cover substantial distances (like the far between temples). Or single trips around the city are usually $1 on the back of a motorbike, or $1-2 dollars for a tuk tuk depending on distance and number of people.
Other costs in Siem Reap:
I had a punctured tyre, so took it to the local bike repair shop. He worked on my bike for about twenty minutes repairing the inner tube and charged me 1000 reil which is $0.25
$4-6 an hour for a foot or body massage. I think the Cambodians are rougher than the Thais – you’ve been warned.
$1 for a Sim Card and $10 for 5 GB mobile data so I can work wirelessly
Angkor Wat is relatively expensive if you plan to visit $20 for a day and $40 for a three day pass
As my work is location independent, it’s a lot cheaper for me to travel around Asia than it is to live at home. Soon I’ll be heading to Takeo to volunteer where my costs will drop, but I’d say it’s very easy to get by on $20 a day, or $140 a week in Siem Reap assuming you don’t go out drinking all the time. If you stay in the cheapest hostels and eat at the cheapest places you can keep things under $10. This doesn’t factor in the costs for Angkor Wat, as I’ve been three times before.
Please let me know if you found this post helpful and if you think I missed out anything important!
If you’ve been to Siem Reap before I’d love to hear your highlights for this city – I’m here for another few days.
