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Your personal guide and private car will collect you in Phnom Penh for a morning drive southward towards the Gulf of Siam. On the way you'll pass through miles of lush rice fields, groves of coconut trees, and bamboo forests. Make a stop at the Kirirom Royal National Park (altitude 1200 meters) to enjoy sweeping views of unspoiled nature. Arrive in Sihanoukville in time for lunch. In the afternoon we'll accompany you to one of Asia's most scenic waterfalls, then to each of Sihanoukville's four lovely beaches. Stroll, swim or feast at one of the great seaside seafood restaurants while you enjoy the sunset.

This morning, enjoy an ocean cruise on a chartered boat through the chain of islets off the coast. Fish along the way, enjoy a picnic lunch, and dive into crystal clear water. Later, stop on a nearly deserted island to enjoy a bit of solitude on a beach of your very own. Tonight, why not try your luck at a local Casino?

Enjoy morning on the beach until your leisurely drive back to Phnom Pen... or add extra nights and stay longer with or without our guide, car and driver. As they say in our part of the world, "up to you, boss."

Your Gay-Friendly Hotel in Sihanoukville: DevaRaja Villa

Includes: hotel accommodation, daily breakfast beginning on day 2, transportation from Phnom Penh by private car and return, boat cruise and personal guide. Does not include airfare, other meals, beverages, features not specifically mentioned in the itinerary, items of a purely personal nature. Extra night costs include one extra day car, driver and private guide.

Private transportation from the airport to your hotel. Early arrivals may enjoy sightseeing or treasure hunting in the expansive Russian Market. To catch the flavor of Phnom Penh life, take a late afternoon walk with our guide along the bustling riverfront where vendors cook up snacks, string flowers into fragrant garlands, or attract crowds of onlookers with old fashioned magic shows. If you like, your guide will join you for dinner. (He will make restaurant recommendations based on your individual tastes.) Afterwards, check out Phnom Penh's gay scene and its surprising local night life with your guide.

Your guide will collect you in the morning for a journey through the city. Begin at the carefully tended gardens and pavilions of the Royal Palace. Here, an art nouveau mansion gifted by Napoleon is dwarfed by exotic spires and pagodas arcing into the sky and the glittering treasures of the Silver Pavilion. Wander, awestruck, through the sumptuous National Museum with its extraordinary collections of Khmer stone sculpture and delicate bronze wonders. English-speaking docents are available as well as a newly published English-language guide book. These treasures are just a fraction of those once sheltered in Cambodia's sacred temples and palaces. As impressive as they are now, imagine them as they once stood, lavished with offerings, gold ornaments, and encrusted with precious jewels.

If classes are in session at the Fine Arts School, you may be lucky to glimpse young students reviving traditional Khmer dances that were nearly lost to the world. Visit local temples as time allows and, if you are up to it, tour Tuol Sleng, the most dramatic of the "Killing Fields" museums. Your evening is free.

Enjoy your free time until your flight onwards to Siem Reap, unbelievable Kep and Bokor National Park, the seaside resort town of Sihanoukville, lovely Laos, or Vietnam.

choose from these great gay-friendly PHNOM PENH HOTELS Standard: Regent Park Superior: Sunway Deluxe: Intercontinental Ultimate: Le Royale "One of the highlights of my trip was visiting the Fine Arts School in Phnom Penh. What a treasure! The pictures that I took were the best of my entire Round The World trip and I look at them often." -- Joseph

Includes private airport transportation, gay-friendly hotel accommodation (including tax, service, and daily breakfast beginning on day 2), sightseeing with personal guide, car and driver, admission costs to places mentioned. Not included: airfare, other meals and drinks, other admissions, gratuities, features not specifically mentioned in the itinerary, or items of a purely personal nature,transportation or cover charges for the nigtlife tour. (Please buy soft drinks for your guide.) You can get an instant discount when you combine Phnom Pen with any of our other Cambodia packages. See details on the Club Sanook website.

Where We Shine: Purple Dragon highlights unique and offbeat aspects of Cambodian life that most tourists overlook. We use only gay and lesbian friendly hotels, so couples never suffer embarrassing moments. Your tour is private, which gives you maximum flexibility and the undivided attention of our local guides. Our gay and lesbian guests often remark that the highlight of their holiday was the charming company of our trained guides and their superlative insights into Cambodian culture.

Custom vacations are our specialty. If this travel package is not exactly what you are looking for, we may be able to modify it to make it a perfect fit.

Purple Dragon's Siem Reap packages offer great value and save you time and effort by arranging your choice of hotel, round trip airport transportation, and sightseeing with a personal English-speaking guide. You can always add extra nights and optional sightseeing if you wish.

Angkor Adventure In five days and four nights you get to see the best of Angkor, including magnificent treasures that very few visitors bother to see.

Essential Angkor This two-night exploration of Angkor Wat's Ancient Wonders is just right for visitors who want to see just the highlights

Angkor Leisurely On a budget and want to spend more time enjoying Siem Reap? Angkor Leisurely is a five-night "free style" package that includes fun extras. You stay at Golden Banana, Siem Reap's gay boutique resort hotel.

Ultimate Angkor If you are not the kind of "drive by tourist" who wants only a sample of Angkor Wat, why not stay longer? You will see the most famous of Angkor's sites, of course. But we will also show you Cambodia's magnificent countryside and some unbelievably spectacular temples where you will probably not see other foreigners.

Have extra time to spend in Siem Reap? You may add one of our optional "Fresh Ideas" side trips, which include a personal English-speaking guide.

River of 1000 Lingas Day Trip to Angkor's mystical Kulen mountain, still a holy place after 1100 years. One of the best day trips we offer anywhere.

Soar Above Angkor You can have the unforgettable experience of viewing the Angkor complex from above by helicopter. Longer trips with one or more stops allow you to see unbelievable yet remote temples that are difficult to reach by land.

Overlooked Angkor Less-visited wonders off the tourist path.

Tonle Sap Boat Cruise Floating villages and wildlife on one of the world's most unusual rivers.

Angkor's Divine Puzzle Picnic at a mysterious man-made lake, the size of 70,000 swimming pools.

Around Siem Reap Take a Break from Temple Viewing to enjoy the charms of this French Colonial town, with its stately historic architecture, bustling markets, and wild, frontier gold rush pace.

Purple Dragon is Asia's oldest, largest and most respected tour operator specializing in programs for discerning gay and lesbian travelers. All of our tours are private and include private transportation and one of our legendary private guides. We do not offer group tours. The big advantage to a private tour is, of course, that you do not have to put up with other people or compromise your own schedule or activities to suit others in a group. You can spend a bit more time at places that really matter to you, avoid places that do not, and go at your own pace. We use gay-owned or gay-friendly hotels wherever possible and show our guests the local gay nightlife where it exists. You do not have to be gay to enjoy one of our all-inclusive tour packages. A growing number of mainstream guests travel with Purple dragon because they know they will get something better from a gay company.

The Kingdom of Cambodia is most often remembered as a place of war and genocide. Cambodia has taught us how a people, a culture and a nation can survive unbelievable atrocities and eventually thrive.

Why visit Cambodia? Because it is home to one of Asia's oldest cultures and most important historic places. No matter where you visit, the scenery is spectacular and mostly unspoiled. Khmer people everywhere are genuinely friendly. English is widely spoken. The weather is tropical year 'round and the country is probably safer than your own home town.

Cambodia is worth much more time than a quick trip to Angkor Wat. You will be pleasantly surprised if you visit Phnom Penh, which is practically a living museum of French Colonial architecture, colorful temples, nightlife, shopping and the mighty Mekong River. You can fly between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in 4o minutes or drive in about five hours.

Sihanoukville has been called the "Puerto Vallarta of fifty years ago." There are three magnificent beaches and several good hotels, including a world-class resort. The sleepy town of Kep, near the Vietnamese border, and nearby Bokor National Park, are among the most fascinating places you may ever visit. In ddition to a completely unspoiled forest you can see Cambodia's "twentieth century ruins."

Purple Dragon offers all-inclusive travel programs in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, and Kep/Bokor National Park. Creating the the perfect adventure could not be easier! Our programs are all modular. Choose a destination and arrive any day. Add any extra sightseeing you like and your trip is tailor-made to suit your own schedule, tastes and budget. Your private tour includes personal guides, so you'll never be herded around on a bus with 40 strangers. Although we have already chosen the optimum amount of time to visit each place you can extend your stay in any of our destinations.

The perfect additions to a visit to Cambodia include would be Hanoi, Sapa, Hue & Hoi An in Central Vietnam, or a few days in Ho Chi Minh City.

Both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap have international airports with daily flights from Bangkok, Hanoi, Saigon, Hong Kong, Vientiane and Taipei. You can also travel by road from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, although roads are in poor condition, making the trip slow and uncomfortable. You can also travel by boat from Vietnam on the Mekong River. Ask us for details.

Have extra time to spend in Cambodia? You may add one of our optional side trips, which include a personal English-speaking guide.

There is no bad time to visit Cambodia. August through October are the "green season" when brief daily showers keep things cool and fresh. (As Cambodians say, "No rain, no rice.") The coolest, driest season is November through February. Prices are generally higher during this peak visitor season. The warmest months are March through May.

The percentage of Cambodians who identify themselves as gay or lesbian is probably just about the same as it is in the rest of the world. Unlike in other countries, "gay" is not a lifestyle in Cambodia, although that is changing. Gay men still marry and have children because of cultural tradition and because they want someone to take care of them when they are old. Gay and lesbian visitors feel comfortable in Cambodia because most people are non-judgmental Buddhists, to whom someone else's private life is of little interest.

Cambodia's best gay nightlife is in Phnom Penh, where there are six gay bars (including one that attracts drag queens) the last time we counted. There are also several large discos that attract a very large gay clientele. Siem Reap is far quieter. Nightspots there are very mixed. Local gays in Siem Reap enjoy two after-hours places that are off the tourist radar, and appear to account for as much as a third of the clientele.

Cambodia has a small but very active pride organization located in Phnom Penh.

More information about gay life in Cambodia appears in the "before you go" information we provide customers about to travel with us to Cambodia.

Purple Dragon offers all-inclusive travel programs and unique side trips designed to help first-time visitors get acquainted with incredible Cambodia. Creating the the perfect adventure could not be easier! Our programs are all modular. Choose a destination and arrive any day. Add any extra sightseeing you like and your trip is tailor-made to suit your own schedule, tastes and budget. Your private tour includes personal guides, so you'll never be herded around on a bus with 40 strangers. Although we have already chosen the optimum amount of time to visit each place you can extend your stay in any of our destinations.

Before your trip we will give you extensive "Before You Go" information that includes tips about packing, weather, money, shopping, food, travel practicalities and local culture that will help you enjoy a worry-free holiday.

A visa is required for citizens of most countries. Visas are issued on arrival, although you can also get one in advance. for more information read our Visas page.

Purple Dragon is Asia's oldest, largest and most respected tour operator specializing in programs for discerning gay and lesbian travelers. All of our tours are private and include private transportation and one of our legendary private guides. We do not offer group tours. The big advantage to a private tour is, of course, that you do not have to put up with other people or compromise your own schedule or activities to suit others in a group. You can spend a bit more time at places that really matter to you, avoid places that do not, and go at your own pace. We use gay-owned or gay-friendly hotels wherever possible and show our guests the local gay nightlife where it exists. You do not have to be gay to enjoy one of our all-inclusive tour packages. A growing number of mainstream guests travel with Purple dragon because they know they will get something better from a gay company.

If you are a Member of Club Sanook, our private travel club, you can learn more about Cambodia from stories published in our Member Newsletter.

"I wanted to let you know how pleased I was with my Cambodia tour. Everything went smoothly and as advertised: pick-ups and drop-offs at airports, hotels, guides, cars. My guides--Chet in Phnom Penh and Khoun in Siem Reap--were knowledgeable and fun to be with, flexible, and took good care of me. My regret is that I didn't add a day to the itinerary in Siem Reap, where there is so much more to see and to experience. I've never arranged a tour before, but I'm glad I did. Cambodia's not easy, even for an experienced traveler. Thanks for making my introduction an enjoyable on." -- Bruce G.

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AngkorTourGuides.com offers professional guides to help you navigate through enchanting Angkor Wat and its many spectacular temples! Our guides speak exceptional English, hold university degrees, and have received certification from the National Tourism Agency of Cambodia. Some are even former Buddhist monks and have spent many years immersing themselves in the traditions and roots of ancient Angkorian Society.