There are some places that just really touch your heart, a place that makes you stop and wonder so much more about the world, and makes you feel truly alive. The memories of the warm sun linger on my skin along with the sensation of refreshing, cooling raindrops. The scents of incense, lemongrass, and jasmine linger around my nose. The taste of coconut, tamarind, and chili linger on my tongue. The sound of percussions, flutes, and fiddles playing traditional Khmer music echo softly in my ears. The smiles of the people eager to welcome me back every single time remain permanent in my mind. Cambodia is one of those places for that essentially speaks to my soul.
So when I was invited to experience Raffles Hotels “The Butler Did It” experience in Cambodia, it was an opportunity I could not refuse. Returning to Cambodia always feels like I am coming home, but at the same time there is still so much more to the country that I have yet to see. While I have already been to both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Raffles’ exciting new venture “A Tale of Two Cities“ was going to show me both in a whole new way. And I’m going to be completely honest – it was one of the best trips of MY LIFE. So let’s get started with Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor in Siem Reap.
I was lucky enough to land early in the morning in Siem Reap in northern Cambodia around 9 am, which meant I was going to have the whole day to myself to enjoy Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor. My Raffles experience began the minute I grabbed my slightly overweight suitcase from baggage claim, when I was greeted by my own personal butler for the next few days as well as a Raffles driver. I was immediately escorted to our waiting Mercedes Benz SUV, where the aroma of jasmine eagerly awaited me as I washed my hands with a cold towel infused with the floral scent. Since I took off from Bangkok at 7 in the morning, which means I had left my hotel at 4 in the morning, my butler correctly assumed that I had not had a chance to eat breakfast. I noticed a lovely covered plate of warm chocolate croissants that were basically calling my name, and I was so touched by the thoughtfulness. I immediately devoured one before I fell asleep for the hour long drive from the airport to the hotel.
I woke up just as we were driving through the heart of Siem Reap’s city centre, a sight I have seen a few times before. Many outdoor cafes were busy with patrons enjoying breakfast, and vespas were zipping through the morning traffic. Shortly after crossing the Siem Reap River, we turned into the palm tree-adorned driveway of Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor. This magnificent building has seen nearly a century of Cambodian history, first opening its doors in 1932. And while today I was arriving in a Mercedes Benz SUV, 90 years ago guests were arriving on the backs of elephants (thankfully, riding elephants is now banned in Cambodia). I was immediately welcomed by name and escorted right into the conservatory, a glorious living room that was basking in the morning sunlight. After a welcome drink and introductions with the Raffles team, I was brought to my room for the next few days where my butler had already arranged for my luggage to be placed inside.
My very large corner guest room boasted tall windows with light blue shutters and a tiled balcony that overlooked the main swimming pool below. Since I began living in Asia over 6 years ago, I never enter a private space with shoes on so I left my well-traveled slip on sneakers by my hotel room door. As I stepped outside onto my balcony, with my tired feet enjoying the cool sensation of the tiled flooring below them, I listened to the palm trees just within arms reach begin to softly sway in the gentle wind. The sun had disappeared behind some clouds, but the heat remained. And then – tap, tap tap. The sound of a gentle rain began to echo in my ears as raindrops tickled the trees, followed by the low rumble of distant thunder. Yes, the daily thunderstorm that is quite common this time of year (November) had arrived a bit early in the day, but for someone who loves to visit Cambodia, this was an all too familiar sound and experience – one that I love very much. Cambodia was welcoming me back. As room service satisfied my craving with a full breakfast of mouth-watering Khmer noodles, I sat and listened to the rain while feeling perfectly at home. The next thing I knew, I was letting myself sink into my king bed’s delicious bedsheets for a nap on what is probably the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on (yes, it even beats my awesome mattress at home!).
As soon as the sun set below the horizon, I made my way downstairs to the conservatory once more for a traditional Cambodian gin experience called Raffles Gin Craze, hosted by the hostess with the mostess – Gin butler Nisha. Here we got to sample some incredible gin that is made specifically for Raffles’ Elephant Bars in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. I’m not much of a gin person. In fact, if it’s not wine, then I just don’t really care for it. However, I don’t know whether it was the energising vibe of our group, the elegance of the conservatory after dark, or Nisha’s one-of-a-kind vibrant personality, but I found myself to be a fan of the gin! The one that really peaked my interest was the Herbal Kulen Gin, which features botanicals grown in a medicinal forest garden at Kulen Mountain just outside of Siem Reap. The combination of botanicals is impressively unique, rivalling many others around the world, and Nisha used it to make it a very Cambodian Negroni. This small batch gin can only be purchased in Cambodia, specifically in Siem Reap, and I am regretting not purchasing a bottle on this trip. I guess that means I will just have to come back.
While we could have easily spent long hours deep into the night enjoying a night cap at the Elephant Bar, with Nisha ready to serve us whatever our hearts desired, my dreamy Raffles bed was calling my name because we had a very early wake up time scheduled for our first activity the following day. I know the idea of waking up at 4 am while you’re on vacation doesn’t exactly sound ideal, you’ll have to trust me on this one. After 6 hours of surprisingly blissful sleep (seriously I need the company information for this mattress), I was up at 4 am to get ready for our long morning excursion exploring some of Siem Reap’s most famous and historic temples. But why 4 am? Well, it’s not every day you get to watch the sun rise over the iconic Angkor Wat temple, and we were going to be doing exactly that. We sleepily gathered in the conservatory at 4:30 am, where warm croissants and hot cups of coffee and tea awaited us. The hotel was quiet and still, with all the other guests still sleeping soundly in their beds (with those mattresses of course they would be!). Outside was dark and calm. It was hard to tell if it was cloudy or not, as the last few mornings had been a bit on the wetter side, but by 4:45 am we had all gathered on the back of Vespas and were speeding through the hushed early morning streets of Siem Reap. As we drove further away from the city centre, only the sounds of our Vespas echoed through the tree-lined streets.
It almost felt like a race against time. In the distance, there was a very faint glow on the horizon. Most tourists head for the main gate to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, and that was evident as we jumped off our Vespas and headed towards our quieter vantage point. Crowds of people like to go inside the temple for sunrise, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, our butlers at Raffles arranged for us to watch the sunrise at a less popular spot outside the main gate, where we get a view of the whole complex in front of the moat. This meant that as the sun began to rise over the horizon, the colours that appeared like watercolours in the sky were reflecting in the water below our feet. The weather gods had smiled on us – there wasn’t a cloud in sight unlike the previous few mornings. As the colours of blue, purple, red, yellow, orange, and pink danced across the sky, I couldn’t help but hear the song “At Last I’ve Seen The Light” from my daughter’s most recent movie obsession “Tangled” in my head. I’m naturally quite an emotional person, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that I may have gotten teary-eyed at the sunrise over Angkor Wat. This had been on my bucket list for a while, and despite several visits to Siem Reap I had never had the opportunity. Raffles made it happen, and now I can’t wait for my daughter to one day get to experience the same beauty. Hopefully with the same good luck regarding weather!
With the birds singing their morning melodies, and the light now reaching every corner above the horizon, we gathered ourselves and began to make our way to the main gate. With a lot of people already inside the main temple complex, this meant that the main gate was much quieter and would give us time to slowly enjoy more the complex while everyone else did their tours inside. We had a lovely guide with us who spoke to us in great detail the history of Angkor Wat and the meaning behind specific architecture and layouts. I’ve talked about the history of Angkor Wat in my previous post here, but even on this tour I learned even more than I had learned before. It truly is a wonder of the world, with the temple combining Hindu and Buddhist heritages and traditions. It was commissioned by the Khmer king Suryavarman II as a dedication to the Hindu god Vishnu, and began construction in the year 1122. Unlike other temples, it faces west instead of east, as it’s believed the king wished to make this his funerary temple, but which also makes the sunrises here behind the temple all the more remarkable. The main tower aligns with the morning sun of the spring and autumn equinoxes, in which the sun rises perfectly above the central tower. The amount of devotion towards astronomy regarding the building of Angkor Wat is beyond impressive. In the centre of the temple, our guide placed a digital compass on the ground which read a perfect 0 degrees (with zero error of margin) regarding the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west. When you think about the digital help we receive in 2026 to make things like this happen, but that Angkor Wat was built in the 1100s, it makes the whole temple even more fascinating.
In 1181, the Khmer king Jayavarman VII came to the throne after a few years of the Khmer empire being under attack, and slowly under his reign, Angkor Wat was converted to Buddhism due to his queen Indradevi being a devout Buddhist. Angkor Wat is still an active Buddhist temple today, and despite the hardships and neglect that it has endured and the history Cambodia has seen, it has never been fully abandoned. In the 1800s, the temple was rediscovered by French explorer Henri Mouhot who romanticised Angkor Wat and drew vast attention to it in the western world. This eventually led to the French organising a restoration and conservancy over Angkor Wat, however this completely fell apart during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. Bullet holes still remain throughout some of the complex due to the numerous shoot outs between the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese during that time, and many celebrated and notable statues or works of art were stolen or broken by art thieves. Still, Angkor Wat remained a symbol of Cambodia, and in 1986 restoration work became possible thanks to India. Once the restoration was completed in 1992, Angkor Wat became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. due to damage being found on the Angkor Wat temples from frequent airplane traffic, the the Siem Reap International Airport just outside the city centre was permanently closed in 2023 and the new (and much larger) Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport was opened an hour away.
Angkor Wat is a very popular tourist site, but with the initial crowds now having left the complex, the inside of the temple became much quieter. Even though it was only 8 am at this point, to us it felt like it was almost noon thanks to our 4 am wake up call. Our stomachs were grumbling, and so we walked east towards the back of the complex where our Vespas were happily waiting for us along with cold towels and cold water. Minutes later, we donned our helmets and hopped on the back of our Vespas to be whisked off to our next destination – breakfast! Just outside of the Ta Phnom Temple, we stopped at a traditional Khmer house next to a quiet field of rice paddies where an elegant outdoor table was waiting for us fruits, yogurt with passion fruit (my favourite!), tea and coffee, pastries, cucumber sandwich on beetroot bread (so darn delicious), fresh juice, and champagne.
With our tummies full, our minds and bodies were ready to explore another temple. While I had already been to Angkor Wat before, I had not yet had the pleasure of visiting the Ta Phrom Temple, which became famous abroad thanks to the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film with Angelina Jolie. In fact the temple is lovingly referred to as the “Tomb Raider temple.” The temple began construction during the reign of the Khmer king Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. As he was the first Khmer king devoted to Buddhism, Ta Phrom Temple was built as a Buddhist complex for his family and so he dedicated the site to them through the architecture and structure. The temple was built without mortar, which over time has allowed trees to grow through the stones of the site especially after it was abandoned and neglected after the 15th century. It’s incredible to see in person as the temple and the jungle appear to be intimately connected, and it is even more surreal to get to touch these magnificent trees that have seen centuries of history. It should come as no surprise that in 1992, the temple was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List and is one of the popular temples to visit in Siem Reap. Upon our arrival, we saw the Archaeological Survey of India restoring some of the entrance gates, and on the walkway leading up to the main temple we saw musicians playing traditional Khmer music. These musicians had lost limbs from land mines placed around the country during the Khmer Rouge regime. With the music inviting us in, we explored almost every corner of the temple, dipping into stone doorways and letting the majestically tall trees shield us from the sun.
By now, it had reached 10 am and we were beginning to feel the heat of the humidity and sun a bit. We hopped on the back of our Vespas for a little city drive through, passing Bayon Temple and getting to meet a few monkeys on the road along the way. It was a peaceful 15-minute ride back to Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor, although riding on the back of a Vespa definitely takes some getting used to. I was certainly questioning my posture a few times! With the sun beginning to hide behind some clouds, the gentle wind on our faces felt refreshing in the hot, humid weather that is common in Cambodia. While the weather was on our side for our morning tour, the rain decided to make its entrance just as we pulled up to our hotel for lunch. It made for a perfect backdrop as I convinced the entire team to order passionfruit sodas with me, and with the food manager taking my allergies so seriously that he had the kitchen prepare me special dishes of ceviche and ravioli. After lunch, I snuck away to the Raffles Spa for a 90-minute aromatherapy massage that put me to sleep just as the warm jasmine oil met my skin. I then retreated to my room and was able to video chat with little bean before getting ready for our last dinner in Siem Reap.
After dinner at 1932, I returned to my room to find treasured gifts from my butler. But one gift in particular was especially meaningful, because my butler had overheard that my daughter’s birthday had recently passed and that she loves the water buffaloes in Siem Reap. To my amazement, a knitted water buffalo stuffy was waiting for me on my bed to bring back to little bean. I wasn’t taking any chances and that water buffalo remained in my carry on for the rest of the trip. For our final morning in Siem Reap, I got to enjoy a bit of a sleep in for my final moments in my dreamy bed before finally bringing myself to breakfast at Café d’Angkor. I chose to sit outside, as the sun was still hiding behind some clouds. It was a peaceful way to start my morning, with birdsong (and a bird guest that was eyeing my food) as I sipped my tea and happily ate my crepes and passionfruit. It was a bit of the opposite experience happening back at home where chaos was underway as the beau scrambled to get little bean ready for school! It was going to be hard to say goodbye to the place I got to call home in Siem Reap for a few days, but as the delicious sour taste of passion fruit enveloped my tongue, I couldn’t help but already think of getting to bring the beau and little bean here because this adventure needs to be continued.
Before we departed in our luxury Mercedes Benz van for our six hour drive south to Phnom Penh, we got to receive a Buddhist monk’s blessing in the garden courtyard. With peeks of sunshine seemingly dripping through as pillows and jasmine flowers were scattered on the floor, a monk in traditional orange robes sat before us and welcomed us to our blessing. I recently began exploring world religions, with my current chapter being on Buddhism, so this blessing was very moving in more ways than one. It was also my second blessing in one month, as just a couple of weeks earlier I had taken little bean to a Buddhist temple in Phnom Penh for her blessing. It was here where I received my second red string of the trip, choosing to keep it on alongside my first string for as long as possible. In fact, I did not remove either string from my visit to Siem Reap until almost two weeks after I returned home. It was hard to say goodbye to our wonderful team at Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor and to my sweet butler, after so many incredible, bucket-list memories had been made in just 3 days, so instead I chose to say “see you again soon.” As we piled into our van that would take us to our next destination, our butlers had surprised us with lunch boxes full of delicious snacks, sandwiches, and drinks to keep us full on our journey.
Part 2 coming soon.
Thank you to everyone at Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor for making my trip so memorable, and thank you for partnering on this post. Although I was a media guest of Raffles Hotels, all opinions here are my own.
