Angkor Wat without the crowds
The Anantara Angkor Resort resort is immaculate and creatively designed, with sufficient Cambodian architectural and cultural flourishes to herald the destination.
A 4.30am wake-up call is the stuff of early-departure holiday nightmares but not when it’s a signal to dress and get ready for a private tour of Angkor Wat. This World Heritage-listed site on the outskirts of Siem Reap is Cambodia’s most fabled drawcard and, with such a status, hordes of tourists are a given. It’s not enough to be there for the sunrise. You need to be at the site before the sky even begins to consider its dawn debut.
So we depart at 4.40am with a guide from Anantara Angkor Resort, there’s no wait for tickets, the sun appears in a shimmer of pink and we are first into the complex. Our host takes our photos in front of temples and there are no people in the background to sully landscape shots. A tiny 21st-century miracle at a 12th-century site of ineffable wonder? Those who’ve battled the usual queues and crowds at this oft-called “eighth wonder of the world” site would agree such near-solitude constitutes an unearthly moment. We are back for breakfast by 9am and it’s hard not to feel a tiny bit smug, although those returning from 7am bike rides can probably claim the edge.
This exclusive experience is offered by Anantara Angkor Resort as a neat option for guests to do the city’s chief attraction with relative ease. It’s just one on an agenda of touring possibilities that transcend the norm. Next for us is a quad-bike tour, outsourced to a local operator. After a 10-minute transfer from the resort, there’s a safety lesson in a garage and then we’re thumping along dirt tracks through villages, skirting rice fields, passing waterways where bathing buffalo gaze blankly at us, and pausing for a couple of photo ops.
By 5.30pm, we’re back at base camp and planning a swim as our shoes are spirited away for a thorough clean. And what an encampment it is. This hideaway resort by Thai-headquartered Minor Hotels is immaculate and creatively designed, with sufficient Cambodian architectural and cultural flourishes to herald the destination. The huge white sandstone sculpture of a mother and child by the main pool is a little bit neo-Khmer, a whole lot Henry Moore, and the property still looks fresh after a complete overhaul in 2017. Fruit bowls and flowers are in abundance; carp lazily circle ponds; staff are unfailingly polite, and fellow guests seem suitably chilled in this compound setting.
The 39-strong accommodation inventory is all-suite and arrayed across two storeys, set around a well-planted courtyard topped by tall, slender palms. We stay in a premier terrace style on the ground level, complete with a decorative pool and access beyond to the main 18m-long saltwater swimming pool. The outdoor seating is shaded with a screen of greenery so it feels relatively private. There are family rooms and signature suites, some with plunge pools, but the terrace style is perfect, featuring teak furniture, floors and fittings; bright silk fabrics and Khmer artisan touches such as carved panels, rattan screens and decorative ornaments. There’s a big soaker tub and rain shower and plenty of space. Expect to be attended by a butler and offered perfumed foot soaks in a bowl scattered with frangipani or rose petals. Depending on the season, a premier terrace suite could be less than $300 a night for two with breakfast, so it’s something of a bargain, too.
The resort’s all-day Chi restaurant, hung with brass chandelier-style lights, is named for the Khmer word for “herb” and serves “progressive” Cambodian cuisine as interpreted by a foreign chef in a bright space with foliage framing the tall windows. The menu includes such signature dishes as red river lobster curry and elevated versions of amok, the national dish, but even a simple pomelo salad tossed with spices and herbs is refreshing and delicious. The breakfast buffet is diverse and more substantial than expected for a property of such modest size. Also available are private Dining by Design experiences at a per-head set cost, with the option of a dance performance. L Lounge is the venue for snacks, sushi, tapas and coffee; given the scale of the estate and maximum number of guests, it’s pretty impossible to feel crowded, although our visit was just after lockdown and staffing was still an issue, especially at the spa, with just one therapist and limited services available.
The property is on unglamorous National (better known as Airport) Road (as handy for arrivals-departures as the name implies), which means the “resort” tag could be a misnomer if it weren’t for the tropical architecture and sense of enclosure. It’s more than a stroll into Siem Reap (the lively old town quarter is at least 20 minutes on foot, although a tuk-tuk ride is easily organised), so management has been clever in its introduction of tour programs and packages that get guests out and about and then back again to a true hideaway.
Jo Makito was a guest of Anantara Angkor Resort.
In the know
The Angkor All-Discovery Package for three nights includes accommodation for two, breakfasts, choice of lunch or dinner each day, a high tea or Dining by Design experience, daily excursions to Angkor Archaeological Park by private car with an English-speaking guide and temple passes, quad-biking adventure and countryside bike ride. From $US565 ($815) for two; valid to December 31. Rooms at Anantara Angkor Resort start at about $300 a night for two with breakfast.
More to the story
Guests at Anantara Angkor Resort’s sister property in Siem Reap, FCC Angkor by Avani, also have access to a range of experiences in a Pack & Go package that includes airport meet and greet, VIP fast-track and return transfers. Excursions can include a visit to Phare Circus to watch performances by graduates from a vocational training centre in Battambang, pottery classes with Khmer Ceramics, ziplining within the Angkor Archaeological Park, food tours to local restaurants and bars with Taste Siem Reap, and guided touring on a vintage Vespa.
This former Foreign Correspondents’ Club, a hangout for journalists in the mid-90s, sits within a ’60s low-slung neo-colonial building in gardens of banyans and frangipanis on Pokambor Avenue, overlooking the river in the town centre. It was built as the French ambassador’s villa and revamped in 2019, including the addition of an architecturally compatible building. Eighty well-kitted guestrooms overlook an oasis-like courtyard pool, and there’s an excellent spa, gym and children’s club, plus Mansion restaurant and Scribe bar and grill, one of the town’s classiest watering holes (try the kaffir lime gimlet).
All categories of accommodation, spread across two buildings, offer an airy, uncluttered layout, Khmer textiles, village-woven baskets and, as a nod to the heyday of expat reporters, dial telephones and manual typewriters sourced at flea markets. Add an overall look of ceiling fans, potted palms, cane peacock chairs, plantation shutters and a seamless indoor-outdoor feel. Check onsite SATU Concept Store for a range of Cambodian-made items from independent brands and artisans.