Stung Treng Guide

Being my birthday we decided on a road trip around the east of Cambodia. The easiest place to get to from Siem Reap (by car) was to head to the rustic border outpost of Stung Treng, so here’s the guide street food, food, drinks and travel in Stung Treng.

Stung Treng guide

Stung Treng is the last major “town” before the border post between Cambodia and Laos. Whilst generally not on the tourist trail it is a popular stop off for people either coming to, or from Laos, or visiting elephants and dolphins in Eastern Cambodia.

Getting to Strung Treng

The drive from Siem Reap to Strung Treng is 4-5 hours deepening on how long it takes you togged out of Siem Reap.

It is another 2-3 to Kratie and 7, or so Phnom Penh. Katie is where you get to see the dolphins of course (we will be going there later).

What is there to see and do in Stung Treng?

There might not be that much to do from an elephant pant temple spotting point of view, but this is a very pleasant place to stop en-route to do other things.

Street food (and drinking) on the Mekong in Stung Treng

And this is where you find the highlights of this cool little town! Along the riverside in Stung Treng theres rows upon rows of umbrellas and street food hawkers overlooking the Mekong. During the day they simple simple fare, coconuts, Cambodian sausage, and Cambodian Fried Noodles, oh and of course beer.

Of a night time options become a bit more varied, although it is still more a place to eat than drink.

In the centre of Stung Treng by the central market (another highlight) and along the main park that goes through the town there is a HUGE amount of street food options. Cambodian balut seems to be a popular number here.

Restaurants in Stung Treng

We started with river beers and street food, before deciding we should take things up a notch.

Hotels in Stung Treng

Booking dot com was a bit of a let down here by only listing two places. In fact theres a ton of guesthouses and hotels along the main boulevard, as well as 4-5 on the riverfront.

We went for the Tonle Meas hotel, which at $15 for a double was well worth it. Rooms were extremely decent for the price, it had fox movies and got them to “upgrade” us to the riverside view room.

We were going to stay in Stung Treng hotel for the pool, but as you might notice from the photo it has rather seen better days! Sadly this seems to be a bit of a trend in Cambodia now. Places with pools (outside of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap) are keeping them open, but due to a lack of tourists are saving money by simply not cleaning them. Quite similar to the pond we found in the resort we stayed in in Pailin.

Getting out of Stung Treng

Laos is the obvious choice, but not sadly during coronavirus times. We decided to head to Banlung, technically about 4 hours,  or so away and home to some interesting ethnic minorities!

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