Don't just fly to Siem Reap
Most people bounce straight from Phnom Penh to Angkor on a night bus and wonder why Cambodia felt thin. Add Battambang and the slow boat across the Tonlé Sap and the country opens up — rice country, river life, and one of the best travel days in Southeast Asia.
Phnom Penh, 2-3 days
Cambodia's capital moves at moto speed. Give the first day to history that hurts: Tuol Sleng (S-21) in the morning and the Choeung Ek killing fields in the afternoon (about $5-6 each with audio guides that are worth every cent; a remork/tuk-tuk for the loop runs $15-20). It is heavy, and it should be — you understand everything else about modern Cambodia better afterwards. Balance it with the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, sunset beers on a rooftop over the Tonlé Sap-Mekong confluence, and a $1.5 bowl of kuy teav noodle soup at the Russian Market. Dorms run $6-10.
Battambang, 2 days
Comfortable buses (Mekong Express, Vireak Buntham) cover Phnom Penh to Battambang in 5-6 hours for $10-13. Battambang is Cambodia's second city and feels like its friendliest: French shophouse streets, a riverside promenade, and countryside that begins two blocks from your hostel. Hire a tuk-tuk driver for the afternoon circuit ($15-20): the bamboo train — a flat rattan platform on wheels doing 30 km/h through the paddies, which is faster than it sounds when your nose is a metre off the rails — then Phnom Sampeau at dusk, where a memorial to the killing caves sits above the daily spectacle of several million bats pouring out of a cliff in a smoke-like ribbon that lasts half an hour.
The boat to Siem Reap
This is the leg to plan the trip around. In wet season and shoulder months (roughly July to February, water permitting), a morning boat leaves Battambang down the Sangker River, across the corner of the Tonlé Sap lake to Siem Reap: 6-9 hours depending on water level, about $25. You will be too hot, the seat will be hard, and it will still be a highlight — hours of stilt villages, floating shops paddling out to sell cold drinks, fish traps, kids backflipping off porches. In deep dry season the boat stops running or takes forever; take the bus instead ($8, 4 hours) and do a Kompong Phluk boat trip from Siem Reap.
Siem Reap and Angkor, 3-4 days
Siem Reap is a comfortable machine for supporting temple days: $6-12 dorms, $1 beer, good coffee. The Angkor pass costs $37 for one day, $62 for three — get three. Day one, the small circuit by remork ($20-25 for the day): Angkor Wat at dawn, then the immense root-strangled courtyards of Ta Prohm and the stone faces of the Bayon, which follow you around like portraits. Day two, rent a bicycle ($3-5) for the quieter big circuit — Preah Khan and Neak Pean at your own pace. Day three, share a car ($60-70 split) out to Banteay Srei, carved in pink sandstone so finely it looks poured, and the river carvings at Kbal Spean. Sunrise crowds at Angkor Wat are worst November to February; going at 5 p.m. instead is a legitimate life hack.
For the lake, a late-afternoon trip to Kompong Phluk ($20-25) puts you among flooded-forest stilt houses ten metres tall.
When and how much
November to February is dry and relatively cool; May to October is green, dramatic and quieter, with the boat at its best late in the wet. Everything runs on US dollars alongside riel. Budget $30-40 a day all-in, plus the temple pass.
