Smiley's Guesthouse, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Address:Taphul Road



Website: http://www.smileyguesthouse.com/

Like most of the guesthouses in Siem Reap, the exterior is quite pretty- a large, multi- levelled orange coloured building down the end of a short narrow laneway from the road.
It is a short walk from the main road and the only KFC that we saw, as well as about 10 minutes away from the Centre Market, and the tourist area around the Old Market.

We checked into the cold shower fan room (USD$6 per night) which on the face of it, was really nice. Towels and bed covers were provided in the very large room, along with a wardrobe, writing table and chairs, as well as a balcony overlooking another block of rooms. The one thing that let it down majorly was the ensuite bathroom, which was absolutely filthy. There were plenty of unknown smears and globs on the walls which made it quite evident that even the cleaners regard the bathroom as too dirty to handle. We decided that the condition of this all-important room couldn't be overcome, particularly as it happened to be the first night of another bout of stomach sickness for me :(

We changed rooms to the hot shower fan room (USD$8 per night) the next morning which was actually significantly smaller in size, but the main thing was that the bathroom was cleaner (although it could still have done with a good bleaching down). The room was again very nicely decorated in Cambodian style, and the balcony overlooked the front yard of the guesthouse. Another thing to note was that the connection of the free wi fi access was quite at a disadvantage here compared to the other room, with it pretty much unable to connect. At least they provide a few computers for internet downstairs near the lobby for this purpose. The rooms here also come with cable tv which seems to be standard here in Cambodian guesthouses- a great thing!

A note on the staff- they were very keen to secure our services on hiring tuk tuks or joining tours to various tourist attractions around town from the get go, continuously asking us where we were going the first few days that we were there which got quite annoying. Eventually they realised that we were going to make our own plans but the constant sour facial expression of a particular staff member there wasn't a nice thing to come back to after a day of exploring the town!

Overall, a very good value stay in this town of Angkor Wat for the use of a welcoming room, cable tv and internet. A great location too to the nearby markets and restaurants where the staff eventually leave you alone with their sales pitches (after trying but getting nowhere).

Rating: 8.5/10