Meet Vuhta, the Best Tuk Tuk Driver in Siem Reap!

Before we traveled to Siem Reap, we were wondering how we could find a reliable and trustworthy tuk tuk driver. We had heard there were SO MANY TUK TUK DRIVERS...and there really were hundreds of them. 

Luckily our concerns didn't last long. My very good friend Emily recommended a Cambodian man so sweet and so humble that she swore we had to use him to explore the temples. Emily used this guy during both of her trips to Siem Reap.

His name is Vuhta. We emailed him (thanks to Emily having his email address) and we got a response immediately. He would pick us up at 5AM the next day to take us to sunrise at Ta Phrom and on a full-day tour of the Angkor temples. Vuhta even threw together our itinerary for the day AND had a cooler with cold water and soda.

Vuhta is beyond nice...beyond friendly...always smiling and pointing things out on the road. Vuhta was our driver for all 3 days of our temple explorations and he also does tours to the countryside and to orphanages around Siem Reap (we didn't do this but Emily said the orphanage was a huge highlight). We had a late evening flight from Siem Reap so Vuhta whirled us around the temples for a few hours then dropped us off at the airport right on time. And he watched our backpacks as we explored the temples.

Christian loved the guy, ah hell I did too!

We want to go back to Siem Reap again just to be around the sweet and happy Vuhta.

Going to Siem Reap and need a tuk tuk driver? Here's his contact info:

Vuhta: sumvutha2003@yahoo.com

{This little lady knew about a million different languages. I didn't want to buy anything from her but I was nearly starstruck when she said several sentences in several languages...including Japanese, Chinese, Korea and Italian...holy moly. I gave her a couple bucks to take a pic with me...she wore my glasses then she gave me a bracelet...this little girl was awesome}

Motorbiking Around the Cambodian Countryside

Although we LOVED the Angkor temples and late nights on Pub Street, we wanted to see a bit of the Cambodian countryside. Khmer Ways had great reviews for their motorbike tours so our decision was pretty easy. 

Ny picked us up at our hotel (King Boutique Villa...thanks again Agoda for such cheap rates at only $20 per night! Pool and breakfast included) and we were whisked off to the Khmer Ways office on the outskirts of Siem Reap. After a brief 'Motorbiking in Cambodia 101' we were off. 

We motorbiked down dirt roads and over rickety bridges between rice fields, rivers and villages, stopping every so often to take pictures of the countryside. The Cambodian countryside was outstanding. Farmers steering yacks on the fields, women biking down the road carrying fruits and rice, cute Cambodian kids sprinting to the roadside to wave and say 'hello' and exploring old temples with not a single tourist in sight. Oddly enough Ny even pointed out a magic mushroom factory...hahaha.

It was late in the afternoon, the light was beautiful and the sun setting over the fields was way more beautiful than any Angkor sunset we had seen.  We couldn't recommend the Cambodian countryside and this tour enough! We were bummed because we only did the half-day tour so make sure you do the whole shebang with the full day tour (or be a real diehard and do the multi-day tour).

Ofcourse Ny was just as sweet and hospitable as the rest of the Cambodians we'd met in Siem Reap!

In Love with Cambodia

Cambodia was on our SE Asia route from the very beginning. But we didn't know how long or where to go exactly. We, unfortunately, let opinions on the internet skew our excitement a bit as we heard that Cambodia was increasingly falling victim to tourism...meaning that people were rude, theft was common and places were saturated with tourists. We found a cheap super promo flight back to Bangkok on Air Asia so we planned a good week in and around Siem Reap.

Our first impression of Cambodia was not good...we braved the 9 hour overland border crossing via Poipet and dodged all of the bribes and tourist scams. Well almost...we ended up getting scammed into a $10 tuk tuk ride when we arrived in Siem Reap. All in all, the first day we were thinking that the rumors were true and we were kinda bummed about it.

But boy were we wrong. After our week in Siem Reap, we were straight up bitter that we only planned a week. Cambodians were the sweetest people we ever encountered---EVER. Siem Reap and Pub Street were the exact mix of backpacker town we expected around SE Asia. And not to mention, motorbiking around the countryside and exploring the temples around Angkor Wat completely exceeded our expectations.

Our first glimpse of the temples was actually on my birthday! I'm not so keen to wake up at 4:30AM on my birthday (or any day for that matter) but we were picked up by our very very sweet tuk tuk driver and we watched the sun illuminate Ta Phrom right in front of our eyes! That kicked off a full day of climbing over ruins and venturing away from the main temple Angkor Wat (which isn't the most beautiful one in my opinion!). And to cap off the celebration, we partied into the wee morning hours on Pub Street with 50 cent beers.

More on Cambodia later but this is one birthday, and one country, that I will never forget.