Lotus Guides is a great tour operator, run by Sreang Teng (Teng for short). He%26#39;ll work with you back and forth via email before you even arrive to put together an itinerary that suits your needs. Then, once you are there, Teng is extremely flexible and willing to modify any plans to accommodate your moods and energy levels. He is extremely knowledgeable about the history and culture of his country as well as the background on all of the many temples. He can arrange for off-the-beaten-path experiences as well and can take you to buy rice and supplies to donate at a local orphanage or school. The bonus on top of all of this? His English is great and the car he uses to transport his customers is comfortable with super-strong aircon! All-in-all Lotus Guides provides an affordable, flexible, enjoyable way to see the Siem Reap area while dodging the crowds whenever possible. Highly recommended! His website is at http://angkorsiemreaptourguide.com/index.htm
Great Siem Reap Tour Guide
Hi Mike,
now apart from having a wonderful time with this guide, what did you do? what did you see? what was your favourite thing? where did you stay? where did you eat?
perhaps if you wrote something more like a trip report rather than just a recommendation for your guide, you%26#39;d appear more like a genuine tourist/visitor to Cambodia than someone touting for business.
I understand the %26#39;western%26#39; idea that we can help the Cambodian people by posting a glowing recommendation but you (and many others - you are not alone in this) do yourselves no justice and may actually be having the opposite effect - I would not use a guide or driver that appears in a post like yours. I want to get a feel from genuine travellers about the person they are recommending.
Helen
Great Siem Reap Tour Guide
Hi Thmoore,
OK, I see your point.
What happened with this post is that it was written for a part of the site that stated I should write a ';guidebook-style'; post which I attempted to do. Then, TripAdvisor wrote me and said the post wasn%26#39;t guidebook enough and that I should post it here. Which I%26#39;ve done, only to incur your comments that my post sounds like I%26#39;m touting. It%26#39;s hard to win on this site!
I%26#39;m not a tout though. I%26#39;m just a guy that went on holiday and had a good time with a guide who%26#39;s name I wanted to share with people. So here%26#39;s a bit more information about our experience with him:
Teng took us through the Angkor complex but compared to what I heard coming from the other guides we passed, seemed to have a few more ';inside'; stories about the history of things. He also took us on a gorgeous walk in the woods near the east gate of one of the temples (I%26#39;ve forgotten exactly where). But for 15 blessed minutes we didn%26#39;t see another human being -- just the falling leaves. Emerging practically on top of one of the gates in what felt like the middle of the woods was quite a feeling -- maybe what the first westerners felt when the ';discovered'; Angkor all those years ago.
Beyond the temples, he took us to his house to meet his wife and kids which was actually a real treat. A highlight was browsing through their wedding album. Apparently, Cambodian brides and grooms change their outfits like seven times on the day of their wedding and take lots and lots of professional photos. It was a great ';glimpse'; at local life.
He also took us to a hardly-known orphanage. It%26#39;s called the Happy Family orphanage and it%26#39;s behind the much more popular (and well-funded) Sunrise Orphanage so it hardly gets any visitors or donations. Before that, he took us to some warehouse-like places to buy rice and noodles at local prices to bring with us. (We also bought a bunch of cookies to add some fun to the visit -- as well as some supplies from home).
I asked him to take me to the hospital one day to donate blood because the kids who have Dengue Hemhoragic Fever really need it. He never stopped asking me how I felt after ';leaving my blood in his country.';
On the way back to the airport we really wanted coconuts to drink and he took us to a side-of-the-road stand where Taxi drivers hang out and play chess while waiting for flights to come in. Another cool ';slice of life.';
So, I hope that rounds out the experience a little and makes you feel better that I%26#39;m not a tout. Teng%26#39;s a good guy and deserves business even if my TripAdvisor skills aren%26#39;t as perfect as they should be!
Hey Mike - it%26#39;s posts like this that will relaly get your guy more business.
apologies for sounding cross but you too will have noticed that there are literally dozens of posts like your original one - just %26#39;what a good guy my guide was%26#39; nothing about what it really was that made them so good.
my JBR ';Cambodia... just wonderful%26#39; lets people know exactly why I am so keen to present our tuk tuk driver in such a favourable light and do all I can to get him business.
it%26#39;s those off the beaten track experiences that make a trip to somewhere like cambodia so special. We took our tuk-tuk driver Suwan to lunch with us both days - he was really quite embarassed the first day, but what is $3 for a plate of food for someone who can pay $1000+ for an airfare. We learned so much about him, his family and his country just talking over lunch. We now send him money for his daughters %26#39;english%26#39; school fees via western union in 6 monthly installments. I am a teacher so the opportunity to help educate a child in another country is such a valuable experience for me, but potentially a priceless one for her - how could i not.
We arranged to send over a box of business cards (he told us they were prohibatively expensive to get printed in SR) and hope that having cards will %26#39;make him stand out%26#39; from the crowd of tuk tuk drivers.
We are already planning a 2nd trip to cambodia (march/april next year)- Cambodia certainly gets under your skin. I hope he%26#39;s used up all the cards, got lots of business and will need me to bring another box!
keep talking about your friend but give people a glimpse of the wonderful experience youhad with him and that will encourage more patronage than merely posting what a good guy he is. I take every opportunity to recommend Suwan but only ever send his contact details via a PM - he doesn%26#39;t want his email inbox filled up with spam.
happy travels
Helen
PS where is Vieques - I%26#39;m guessing Caribean?
Hi
Thanks for the tip. My wife and I are of to Siem Reap in April and I%26#39;m looking into getting a guide while I%26#39;m there. This seems to be a good option :-)
Regards
Gard
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