IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR mid-priced accommodations in Angkor and want something more than the usual medium-size concrete establishment, here are some of the more interesting options.

Though the rooms border on rudimentary, Earthwalkers (www.earthwalkers.no) offers good value, with rates as low as $5 per person in dormitory-style quarters. Guests stay in newly constructed two-story buildings that radiate from a pool (shaped like a foot, of course, in reference to walking).

There’s a lounge where guests sit around a billiard table, swapping travel tips and tales.

Advertised as “gay-friendly,” the Golden Banana Boutique Hotel and B&B (www.golden-banana.com) has become remarkably popular not just with the pink crowd but all types of travelers.

A building that will house 20 rooms is presently under construction. The Golden Banana started as a cheap and cheerful B&B, then expanded into a higher-priced boutique hotel across the street.

Imagine Angkor (www.imagineangkor.com), though somewhat far from the town center is highly recommended if you’re looking for somewhere quiet and restful.

The rooms are spotlessly clean and the rates affordable. As a bonus, you might get to meet the ebullient owner, Jon Ryder, who first came to Cambodia as a volunteer dentist. Imagine operates on a unique commitment to “responsible tourism,” actively contributing to the local community.

The River Garden (www.therivergarden.info), Australian-owned and managed, in what used to be the residence of a wealthy family, is enveloped in an air of seclusion brought about by a lush tropical garden.

The place is also for foodies, with Debbie, the owner, running Cooks in Tuk Tuks, a culinary tour that takes participants to the market to shop for ingredients that are then cooked into traditional Khmer dishes.

Then there’s Viroth’s Hotel (www.viroth-hotel.com), a seven-room boutique hotel, done along the clean lines of contemporary minimalist style, with a saltwater swimming pool and rooftop Jacuzzi and spa among its amenities. Rates here start from $70.

In marked contrast, L’Eurasiane, run by Olivier, a Frenchman, and his gracious Cambodian wife (his assistant when he worked as F&B manager in one of the big hotels), is the exact opposite, with five rooms in very rustic surroundings. Meals are served in a ramshackle bamboo hut by a mossy, overgrown pond.

But without doubt the most unusual of the lot is The One Hotel Angkor, (www.theonehotelangkor.com), which, as you might have gathered from the name, has only one guest room. It is actually a luxury suite on the top floor of one of the renovated colonial buildings near the Old Market. To stay here would set you back $250 a night.

Last but not least, The Cockatoo, an 11-room boutique hotel in a quiet residential part of town, just across the river from the Old Market, will open in late November.

A traditional wooden Khmer house converted into a modern hotel, The Cockatoo will stand on spacious, landscaped grounds centered on a swimming pool. There will be a café, restaurant, bookstore and art shop on the premises. Amenities will include massage service and free Wi-Fi. (The website, www.thecockatooangkor.com, is presently under construction.)

Where and what to eat

Most hotels include breakfast with their room rates, and it is usually a hearty buffet, generous in both selection and servings, so you can fill up before hitting the road to the temples.

For lunch and dinner, the visitor has a good selection of places in and around the center of town, though be forewarned that the variety is nowhere near what you get in Manila or other big modern cities.

One other thing you might want to bear in mind is the fact that Cambodian food is not hot and spicy, unlike other Southeast Asian cuisines. It is really quite mild, even when the menu says red curry and you imagine it’s going to be fiery and searing to the palate.

Only two places in Siem Reap claim to serve authentic royal Khmer cuisine—the Raffles and Angkor Palace.

I’ve had the pleasure of dining in both places, but I also liked the regular Cambodian dishes I tasted at Amok, though I hasten to add that I have no idea what the names of the dishes were as I was too engaged in conversation with my fellow Pinoy diners.

The only one I remember is Chicken Amok, as I found this rather amusing, conjuring up a hilarious image of a chicken running amok. In fact, the dish is the Khmer version of our own Filipino ginataan, with bite-size morsels of chicken steamed in coconut cream contained in banana leaf.

Chicken Amok is a very popular Cambodian dish, and so is Beef Loklak, chunks of beef simmered in sweetish brown sauce. You’re bound to run into these two dishes in any place serving Cambodian food, the way adobo and kaldereta are mainstays of Filipino cuisine.

The red or green curry (very carefully explain to the waiter which one you want as one can easily get mixed up with the other) at the Oxcart Restaurant of the River Garden can be excellent, and so can the fresh spring rolls, Thai style. I have never been there for dinner, but lunch is a good time for eating al fresco, with dappled sunlight falling on the lovely garden.

There are several places in town that serve Indian curries when your taste buds are tingling for something really hot. I have tried out two of these places and out of the two I recommend Kamasutra on Pub Street. I especially liked the Chicken Hyderabadi, which had a rich, spicy sauce bursting with mouthwatering flavor.

Another lovely garden setting can be found at the Butterflies Garden, where diners can sit in little alcove settings while the lovely creatures flit in and out of the lush vegetation. The food we had here for lunch was quite tasty.

There is a plethora of eateries around Pub Street that get packed with customers in the evening. Each one features a thematic décor and serves its own selection of specialties. Some, like Burgers Without Borders, have a distinctly contemporary look and ambiance that was unthinkable in Siem Reap just over a year ago.

The same can be said about Viroth’s, which, like the Butterflies Garden, is located on the eastern side of the river (separate from the hotel of the same name).

Here the tables are set out on wooden decking under a high nipa roof held up by a black metal framework. It’s a sleek fusion of the old and the new, traditional and modern. And as there are no walls, one gets the pleasant sensation that one is dining outdoors.

Not far from Viroth’s lies Les Orientalistes, which boasts what is probably the most colorful restaurant décor in the whole of Siem Reap. Moroccan-inspired, it delights the eye with its vivid combination of brilliant red and yellow mixed with electric blue.

If you’d like to watch some courtly apsara dancing with your dinner, the Apsara Theater lets you do just that, in a beautiful teak structure built in the mold of traditional Khmer architecture.

The Alliance Café, too, offers an elegant dinner setting, in a carefully restored French colonial building, the former local home of the Alliance Francaise.

At Raffles, both the fine dining restaurant and less formal café serve consistently good food, prepared under the direction of executive chef I Wayan Mawa, an Indonesian who speaks a smattering of Filipino. Also at the Raffles, The Conservatory is a cozy venue for enjoying an aperitif or digestif in the evening, with soothing classical music played on a gleaming baby grand by a Filipino, my brother Carlitos.

What to buy

Cambodia is renowned for the artistry and quality of its traditional silverwork. This comes as jewelry (rings, bracelets, earrings) or decorative accent pieces shaped as animals (deer, elephants, birds). Silver pieces can be found in many shops and are certainly worth buying.

The same is true of wood and stone carvings, mostly modern replicas of ancient designs (be wary of buying “antiques” as they will most likely turn out to be fake or relatively recent, and, if authentic, they may get you in trouble with the authorities).

Silk, of course, is an excellent buy, in the form of shawls, scarves, cushion covers, table runners, cloth and even paintings. There are other types of fabric as well, samples of which can be seen at the Old Market, Central Market and Night Market. At these same places, tourists can browse through a wide range of local arts and crafts, from wind chimes to handmade paper.

Gemstones are another possible buy though you will need an expert eye to be able to tell the gems from the glass.