Hotel Selection

Guys,

I'll send out an excel sheet soon for you to pick your preference of hotels in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. If you have a specific budget, please let me know so i can put that into consideration. If you are "anything-can-do", and dont mind saving/splurging, let me know as well and i'll make the decisions for you.

Before i give you my take on hotel selection, maybe you'd like to consider something Boonboon has found on the web, which is quite interesting:

Difference between a tourist and a traveller

I happen to think that there is a difference and several variances. I think on one extreme you have the typical "American Tourist" who brings family along to Disneyland, Las Vegas, or some place like that. This individual will never leave the US and is content with that. (I know a lot of people like this) Then you have levels off that, where some might be bold and venture to Cancun or Cozumel or maybe even Jamaica. Great places don't get me wrong. But this tourist will insist on an American buffet breakfast and probably never leave the all inclusive resort. (Why one would go traveling only to look for the things they have at home are beyond me)Then you have a tourist who may do those things but will go way out on a limb and travel to London, Paris, Rome etc. But that's about it. When you tell someone like this you want to go to Laos or Vietnam they might say "Why on earth would you go there?" Then you have the next level. This tourist will go anywhere. Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, North Africa, Middle East etc.. They may go to the touristy areas but do get outside and see the real country. Then you have diehards who go anywhere, see anything, eat anything, sleep anywhere, climb mountains, cross the Sahara, travel for months. The true traveler. Soakin' it up like a sponge. I think I am making my point. Honestly I'm not trying to sterotype, but lets be honest nobody wants to be called a "typical tourist." I admit that I am a tourist but I also consider myself a traveler. Because I want to go to Southeast Asia and travel across Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia etc.. Remember just wanting to go to a destination is the start of something powerful.

So, if you'd really like this trip to be different from any other trips you've taken, you've got to experience things other than the norm.

Personally, at first instinct i'd like to stay at a comfortable hotel with modern facilities but at hindsight, i'd prefer to stay at some place cheap yet comfortable and at the same time allow me to mingle with the locals. Guesthouse usually offer that kind of intimacy that hotels do not.

We might like to stay at such a place for the first 3 nights, saving our money for better causes (see post on Charity Work) then pamper ourselves during our last two nights at a higher-end hotel.

Give it some thoughts.