The luxury of simply feeling good in Siem Reap

As the gate­way to the icon­ic temples of Angkor, Siem Reap is one of the busiest ‘tour­ist towns’ in South­east Asia. Angkor Wat is a must-see, of course, but Siem Reap and its sur­rounds have much more to offer those who would stay a while longer. 

With Siem Reap as a base, you can exper­i­ence loc­al cul­ture by wan­der­ing through the mar­kets, trekking through lux­uri­ant jungles to ‘dis­cov­er’ old temple ruins for your­self, mak­ing day trips out to Tonle Sap lake and its unique com­munit­ies, or exper­i­en­cing any num­ber of oth­er nat­ur­al and rur­al settings. 

The inside track

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo is a team mem­ber at the Asso­ci­ation of South­east Asi­an Social Enter­prises for Train­ing in Hos­pit­al­ity & Cater­ing (ASSET‑H&C), a net­work of voca­tion­al train­ing centres that pro­mote the inclu­sion of vul­ner­able people in South­east Asia.

Siem Reap town is worth explor­ing too. It boasts a dense eco­sys­tem of social enter­prises that help raise the liv­ing stand­ards of poor pop­u­la­tions while offer­ing vis­it­ors an authen­t­ic dive into Cam­bod­i­an life and truly unique feel-good exper­i­ences. One such place is the Bay­on Pastry School Cof­fee Shop, which is the sub­ject of anoth­er “GT” Travel post. 

On my last trip to Siem Reap, I stayed a couple of days at Sala Baï Hotel, which is anoth­er social enter­prise and an ASSET‑H&C member. 

A five-minute tuk-tuk ride from Siem Reap’s centre, Sala Baï’s loc­a­tion is per­fect for feel­ing a little more immersed in the loc­al com­munity, and away from the crowds of Pub Street. The hotel is nes­ted in a peace­ful trop­ic­al garden and fea­tures six very spa­cious and com­fy rooms. The dec­or­a­tion is eleg­ant, com­bin­ing tra­di­tion and modernity. 

I am a break­fast lov­er, so when I woke up after the first good sleep, I was impressed by the won­der­ful table that awaited me. What bet­ter way to start the day than indul­ging in sea­son­al trop­ic­al fruit salad, freshly-baked bread rolls, and freshly-squeezed juice? 

I also had lunch at Sala Baï. The res­taur­ant offers a selec­tion of inter­na­tion­al and Khmer dishes. I ordered amok and totally recom­mend it. The menu changes every two weeks to keep their many loc­al reg­u­lar cus­tom­ers excited about their next visit. 

The next day, to relax after a long day vis­it­ing the Angkor temples, I treated myself to a mas­sage at the Sala Baï spa. 

Over­all, Sala Baï’s products and friendly ser­vice are of a very high standard. 

More import­ant, per­haps, is Sala Baï’s rais­on d’être. The school was cre­ated by the French NGO Agir pour le Cam­bodge in 2002 to fight poverty and human traf­fick­ing in Cam­bod­ia. Its social and pro­fes­sion­al train­ing pro­grams, and board and lodging for those who need it, are offered free-of-charge to under­priv­ileged Cambodians. 

By stay­ing at Sala Baï Hotel, eat­ing at its res­taur­ant, or indul­ging in one of its spa treat­ments, guests con­trib­ute dir­ectly to the edu­ca­tion and train­ing of the stu­dents and allow them to prac­tice their newly-acquired skills daily in real conditions.

If they would like that, cus­tom­ers can get a very con­crete insight into where their money is going. Dur­ing my stay, one of the teach­ers took the time to show me around the school and provide me with more inform­a­tion on the pro­gram. And this is not because I work with ASSET‑H&C. These tours are offered to all guests. 

As a food­ie from HCM City, I par­tic­u­larly enjoyed the oppor­tun­ity to observe the cook­ing stu­dents in action through the large bay win­dow of the kitchen. 

Sala Baï guests are also encour­aged to inter­act with stu­dents to allow them to prac­tice their lan­guage and social skills. Tak­ing a little moment to talk with them was abso­lutely lovely. They were all very wel­com­ing and ami­able. Some of them even shared with me their recom­mend­a­tions for sightseeing.

There is an extra cherry on this cake: Sala Baï is tak­ing a green approach to oper­a­tions too, and I love the way they help guests embark on that aspect of their sus­tain­ab­il­ity jour­ney. For example, in my bed­room, loc­al cof­fee, tea, and sug­ar were provided in glass con­tain­ers that are refilled daily. I was delighted to find in my bath­room loc­ally-pro­duced sham­poo and soap in sim­il­arly reusable con­tain­ers. And, in case you for­got to pack your own tooth­brush, bam­boo tooth­brushes are avail­able at reception. 

Being a respons­ible trav­el­ler, when everything has been thought out to make your stay more sus­tain­able, that’s what I call luxury!

Where is this?

Sala Baï Hotel School (hotel, spa, and res­taur­ant)
Wat Svay, Tonle Sap Road, Krong Siem Reap, Cam­bod­ia
Tel: +855 89 590 864 | Con­tact form

Where next?