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Lara Dunston, Travel and Food Writer

Lara Dunston

Travel and Food Writer

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Direct Bookings for Siem Reap Itineraries and Trip Planning

August 18, 2015 by Lara Dunston

Siem Reap Old Town. Siem Reap Itineraries. Copyright 2015 Terence Carter / Lara Dunston / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been offering bespoke itineraries and trip planning services for a while now, booked via Vayable, as well as arranged directly through me via Grantourismo.

This all came about somewhat serendipitously in response to friends asking me to help plan their itineraries to include off-the-beaten-track spots and local experiences. After restaurateur and chef friends began requesting food-focused itineraries, I started to get fairly busy, so I formalised Inside Siem Reap and Savour Siem Reap and began offering those on Vayable as a way to better manage things.

As Vayable is no longer able to pay Asian-based insiders via PayPal please book directly with me via the Contact page or via Grantourismo.

To read the fantastic reviews I received for my Vayable experiences and to find out more about my itineraries, head to the Travel Services page of this site.

I offer the following bespoke experiences, each handcrafted in consultation with you to satisfy your specific interests and needs. You’ll find more information about these on that Travel Services page.

My Siem Reap Itineraries

INSIDE SIEM REAP

Inside Siem Reap was the first experience I offered and the idea was to show visitors that there’s so much more to Siem Reap than Angkor Wat, as special as it is. This itinerary can still include the temple – and I encourage people to see the lesser-visited temples – however, it also introduces people to the more captivating place and people beyond the archaeological sights to reveal the city locals and expats know and love. Depending on the client, it can take in local markets, off the beaten track restaurants, secret boutiques, offbeat art spaces, laneway cafés and bars, alternative tours, affordable spas, village walks, and more.

SAVOUR SIEM REAP

I started creating the culinary focused Savour Siem Reap itineraries for chefs and restaurateur friends visiting Siem Reap. They tend to take in fragrant local markets, scrumptious (and safe) street food, fine dining restaurants, authentic off the beaten track eateries, food tours, cooking lessons, laneway cafés and bars, cocktail classes, and shops and stalls selling covetable bits and pieces for the kitchen. Siem Reap may not be known as a gastronomic destination, but there’s plenty here to satisfy foodies and I love giving people a taste of the tantalizing place beyond the temples to reveal the delicious side of the city that locals and expats get to savour every day.

SHOP SIEM REAP

My Shop Siem Reap itineraries concentrate on Cambodian crafts, couture fashion, handmade jewellery, recycled accessories, vintage one-offs, hand-woven textiles, and original art and design objects. My focus is on Cambodian made things, some hand-crafted by artisans practicing centuries-old traditional techniques handed down through generations, others by skilled self-taught crafts-people, European-trained designers, and creative cutting edge young artists. Many things are produced at NGO-supported workshops by disadvantaged Cambodians, such as former street children, landmine victims, and people with disabilities who otherwise wouldn’t have skills or a job, so by buying their products you’re supporting them and their community and helping to lift Cambodia out of poverty.

SIP SIEM REAP

This is a new experience that I hadn’t got around to putting up on Vayable before they stopped paying people. It was created in response to client demand, after a few one-hour chats about the itinerary at Miss Wong’s turned into hours-long bar hops, with clients asking me to show them the drinking spots beyond Pub Street that expats and locals like to sip at. I’m sub-titling it a ‘cocktail (bar) crawl for adults’ because you’ll pay for your own drinks and can drink whatever you want. We’ll also hop between specially selected places on the night that match your interests and won’t follow a set itinerary. If a bar isn’t to your taste or isn’t happening we’ll move on.

All of my standard experiences involve the following:
1) a pre-trip bespoke itinerary and trip planning advice;
2) after you arrive in Siem Reap, an orientation by tuk tuk, taking in a lively, off-the-beaten-track, local neighbourhood and introduction to the town; and
3) a chat about your itinerary and trip over a drink at my favourite café or bar.

Note that I only recommend Siem Reap-based travel companies that use Cambodian guides. I don’t believe expats should be taking guiding jobs from foreigners in a country as impoverished as Cambodia.

My Trip Planning Services

For an additional fee, I offer more than the standard Siem Reap itineraries, orientation and meeting over a drink outlined above. I also provide trip planning services and expert advice, from recommending the best way to get to Siem Reap and the best places to stay, to making personal introductions so you get VIP treatment, organising a tuk tuk driver and guide, and offering ongoing advice and tips throughout your stay.

For chefs and restaurateurs, I can make introductions to Siem Reap chefs and restaurateurs, organise restaurant reservations, and plan special culinary experiences not included in the standard itineraries.

If you don’t want a full itinerary and are simply looking for tips and recommendations, please head over and browse the Cambodia section of my travel site Grantourismo, where I have an abundance of information on Siem Reap and other destinations. Feel free to ask questions in the Comments there. Happy to help you make the most of the place I call home.

 

If you’d like to book one of my Siem Reap itineraries or chat about your trip please email me or get in touch via my Contacts page. 

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Brief Bio

Lara Dunston is a Cambodia based Travel & Food Writer and has regular gigs with: The Guardian, CNN, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, The Independent, Telegraph, National Geographic Traveler / Traveller, Get Lost, Wanderlust, Travel+Leisure SEA, DestinAsian, AFAR. Read more here.

Related Websites

Our travel website:
GRANTOURISMO TRAVELS

Our full service digital media agency:
GRANTOURISMO MEDIA

Our Cambodian retreats site:
SIEM REAP RETREATS

Partner Phtography Site:
TERENCE CARTER PHOTOGRAPHY

Latest on Instagram

How are you all doing? We’re back in beautiful S How are you all doing? We’re back in beautiful Siem Reap after a whirlwind trip to the Cambodian capital to get Terence an emergency passport and take the opportunity to start updating our Phnom Penh guides. But I still want to share some Phnom Penh pics with you, in case you’re planning a Cambodia trip. And you should! A post on that subject going up soon on Grantourismo.  We spent a full day cleaning the apartment, which flooded while we were away – seems they had wild storms in Siem Reap with horizontal rain! Good thing I wasn’t here as it would have triggered memories of the nightmare of an apartment we moved into after the pandemic began, which flooded *every* time it rained.  I made a beeline for the markets to buy some beautiful produce and have been busy recipe testing, cooking and writing, while Terence, in between shooting dishes for me, has been occupied with the new Grantourismo design.  You may only notice small design tweaks, as the main point was to move it to a new theme to speed things up, as it’s a big site, being 12 years old with thousands of posts. I’ll let you know when it’s done so you can test it for us x  Pictured: the famous stall at Psar Chas or Old Market in Siem Reap, which specializes in all things preserved and fermented, from prahok (fermented fish paste) and juicy Siem Reap sausages to smoked fish and buffalo jerky, a fantastic drinking snack.  #SiemReap #market #OldMarket #PsarChas #foodstall #cambodianfood #khmerfood #localfood #localproduce #fermentedfoods #preservedfoods #fermentedfish #prahok #buffalojerky #sausages #fishpaste #shrimppaste #foodwriter #foodblogger #travelwriter #travelblogger #culinarytravel #foodtravel #marketlover
Hello @foodpanda_hongkong Glad you liked our phot Hello @foodpanda_hongkong 
Glad you liked our photo, but you do not have the rights to use it. You’re stealing our livelihood when you steal our content. Remove it now. @foodpandaglobal is owned by the billion dollar company @deliveryhero — you should be paying for images instead of stealing them from us and other small publishers and photographers. Or creating your own content.
We do.
It’s reassuring that in a city that’s changed It’s reassuring that in a city that’s changed so dramatically in recent years — so many buildings have been demolished to make way for lofty apartment blocks and towering hotels, completely changing the character of some Phnom Penh neighbourhoods — to find a heritage building that’s received little more than a coat of paint. (It used to be a pale lemon colour.)  The home of UNESCO’s Cambodia offices, the 19th century villa has long been one of my favourite French colonial buildings in Phnom Penh. Whenever I stroll by I imagine it as a breezy bar and restaurant, open for architecture- and history-lovers to soak up the atmosphere, rather than private offices closed to the public. But at least it’s still standing.  #phnompenh #travelwriter #travelwriterslife #lifeofatraveller #travel #travelgram #traveladdict #travelling #travelblogger #heritage #architecture #colonial #indochine #french #frenchcolonial #villa #mansion #colonialarchitecture #frenchcolonialarchitecture #facade #balconies #balustrade #cambodia #cambodianarchitecture
I knew I couldn’t keep up the pace of posting af I knew I couldn’t keep up the pace of posting after so long away from social media 😂 We just got too busy and something had to give...  A few of you asked where the pizza shot was from @pizza4pscambodia in Phnom Penh, so here you go... half salami and chorizo, and Parma ham and house-made burrata, which is luscious and creamy.  Someone else asked what is Japanese pizza exactly... it’s not okonomiyaki, which I know a lot of US food sites call ‘Japanese pizza’, even though it’s not, it’s a battered pancake.  Firstly, the actual type of pizza is Neapolitan-style, the original pizza invented in Napoli (Naples) in Italy — thin soft base spread with tomato sauce, baked quickly in a pizza oven on super high heat, with a puffy, slightly chewy crust, and a base that becomes a bit wet in the centre.  However, whereas Neapolitan pizza has very strict rules, otherwise, it’s not Neapolitan, Pizza4Ps’ pizzas are ‘Neapolitan-style’, as they get very creative with their toppings, using Japanese ingredients such as seaweed. It’s this — and Japanese owners — that makes it Japanese pizza, a style that began in Japan post-World War 2, when an Italian-American war vet is said to have started the first pizzeria, making the Napoli style, not American styles, of pizza.  A couple of you also asked to see the dramatically different Phnom Penh skyline. The changes are breathtaking if you haven’t been to the Cambodian capital in a few years. I’ll share that pic shortly.  #phnompenh #cambodia #travelwriter #foodwriter #travel #food #foodblogger #travelblogger #travelingram #lifeofatravelwriter #lifeofafoodwriter #traveltips #restaurant #phnompenhrestaurant #pizza #pizza4ps #pizzaoven #pizzalover #japanesepizza #neapolitanpizza #neapolitanstylepizza
That’s our pizza going into the oven at @pizza4p That’s our pizza going into the oven at @pizza4pscambodia yesterday, the Phnom Penh outpost of the Japanese-owned restaurant group. It started out with one hugely popular restaurant in Vietnam some years ago, hidden down a lane in Saigon’s Japantown, and now has restos scattered up and down the country.  Pizza4Ps’ Japanese pizza has a thin base and thick crust, and while it’s more Italian than the American-style so popular in Cambodia, it tends to be wetter than Italian pizza, especially if you order their pizza with a ball of heavenly house-made burrata, which the waitress slices into at your table, spreading the luscious creamy cheese over the pizza. So good!  There are also no rules when it comes to the toppings, so while we had to try our favourites from the mother restaurants — Parma ham and burrata, and their own chorizo and salami — we took note of their Cambodia inspired creations. These include a a very pretty nom banh chok pizza spread with a freshly pounded Khmer herb and spice paste and sprinkled with edible flowers, and a whole page of salmon dishes. Cambodians are crazy about salmon.  #phnompenh #cambodia #travelwriter #foodwriter #travel #food #foodblogger #travelblogger #travelingram #lifeofatravelwriter #lifeofafoodwriter #traveltips #restaurant #phnompenhrestaurant #pizza #pizza4ps #pizzaoven #pizzalover #japanesepizza #restaurantdesign #restaurantinterior
One thing I have not missed as a travel writer dur One thing I have not missed as a travel writer during the pandemic has been the fast pace of these updating trips. No matter how hard we work to try to squeeze everything in, something always gets left out, as we run out of time each day. And we’ve been doing this for decades, it doesn’t get easier; we haven’t figured out a magic formula.  One place I was determined not to miss trying was the new-ish @pizza4pscambodia — the first Cambodia branch of a Japanese owned Vietnamese based restaurant group specialising in Japanese pizza. I was so pleased we got to enjoy a quick lunch there yesterday, even if we weren’t able to sample their 4Ps craft beers (liquor sales were banned for two days during the local govt elections) and even if the service wasn’t as good as it is in Vietnam.  Apart from the style of pizza, three things really distinguish @pizza4ps — they work with local farmers to source the best quality local organic produce and you can really taste it; they produce their beautiful cheeses and charcuterie in house when they can’t source it locally (their creamy burrata and mozzarella are sublime); and they are a zero waste restaurant. I’ll tell you more in the next post.  #phnompenh #cambodia #travelwriter #foodwriter #travel #food #foodblogger #travelblogger #travelingram #lifeofatravelwriter #lifeofafoodwriter #traveltips #restaurant #phnompenhrestaurant #pizza #pizza4ps #japanesepizza #restaurantdesign #restaurantinterior

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ALL MEDIA (WORDS AND IMAGES) COPYRIGHT © 2007–2022 LARA DUNSTON AND TERENCE CARTER | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DESIGNED IN APARTMENT RENTALS, HOTELS AND RESORTS AROUND THE WORLD BY GRANTOURISMO MEDIA. ASSEMBLED IN SOUTH-EAST-ASIA.

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