Siem Reap in Cambodia was our favorite place. Lively, fun, surprising - it has the magic mix of ingredients that makes a city a very special tourist destination. Apart from the magical Angkor Wat complex of temples, the city has enough to offer for you to spend 4-5 days simply experiencing the markets and the night life.
One of the most surprising sights in Siem Reap was this Bugs Cafe. The cafe takes Cambodia's insect-based cuisine to the next level. The cafe promises to plate it up so that you will find tasting the cuisine easier. It is impressive how the country has turned this choice of local food into a tourist experience.
Siem Reap is great for shopping. There are several night markets where you can find quirky local artifacts and souvenirs such as miniature Angkor Wats, Bayons, etc, fridge magnets, shot glasses etc. You can buy idols of Buddhas and even electronic items such as a Bluetooth Karaoke Mike, which we stumbled upon during our foraging. Nishant too had a great time looking through stuff and clicking pictures.
These markets are so colorful that you can spend hours looking through hundreds of shop and not get bored. You can browse through Aladdin pants, bags, cosmetic jewellery, t-shirts, skirts and so much more. Didi and I could have easily spend 3-4 days roaming through these markets.
Nishant, our little photographer, hung around clicking whatever fascinated him and as a reward got a few t-shirts too. You can see him looking thoughtful in the above photograph. He too likes knick-knacks, and he and didi make sure that they get a nice souvenir for their shelves and ours too wherever they go.
It was almost cold in Cambodia at this time, which is very unusual. When we first landed in Cambodia and visited the Russian market in Phnom
Penh, one of the questions that struck us was about the many jacket and
sweater shops there. At that time it was humid and from what we had
heard, that was the coolest it would get in Cambodia ever. We were
confused about how much business these shops do. But then, soon, it
became cooler and our confusion was cleared. Anyways, when we were in Siem Reap, it was cool because of some unusual weather conditions in the adjoining sea.
The night market was also a great place to see some local art. All of the paintings in the background were made by this guy standing here. In fact, when we arrived at his shop, he was in the process of creating one such painting. We were awestruck by his talent.
The alleys of the Night Market are pretty narrow, and on hot days, I assume it would get suffocating. But people, in general, were very well behaved. You did not need to worry about anyone misbehaving. It was a cool, civilized culture.
Here's Nishu clicking us, and VJ clicking him in the act. People were in general very generous towards Nishu. One stall that was selling insect and reptile based snacks allowed Nishu to click several pictures of their merchandise even though we were clearly not going to buy anything from them.
Here's the photographer catching a break.
Another shop selling some breathtaking paintings of the floating villages and the Angkor Wat complex. However, in this one, we couldn't identify the artist.
Some tourists catching some rest while browsing through the endless alleys and shops. It was very thoughtful of the shopkeepers to put these chairs out for the tired tourists.
Tuk-Tuks were the convenient and reasonable mode of commutation. Nishu enjoyed them thoroughly.
Cambodian people are big on decorative fairy lights. We found the entire night market and the pub street covered with various kinds of such lights.
The pub street had a completely different kind of feel to it when compared to the night market. First, it was full of pubs and bars, which is obvious, and second, your found several live music places where you could listen to the local musicians.
Pub street took the concept of fairly lighting to a whole new level. It was splendid.
Since we did not have too many nights in Siem Reap, were were not really able to explore any of these lovely looking places. If given a choice, I would spend at least 5 nights in Siem Reap.
These small bike-driven streets-side mini bars were really cool. Since Cambodian people are generally nice, sitting here and sipping on a drink would be a calming experience.
This was another night market across the river, and the shops here were more or less similar. Though we saw some very different things here, such as the Karaoke Mic.
Buddhism being the dominant religion in Cambodia, it wasn't surprising to see quite a few of these shops selling Buddhas in various shapes and sizes.
We had these too. The amazing speed and skill with which the vendors were making these rolls was a sight to see.
For some reason, these ice cream rolls are called fried ice cream rolls, but let me assure you there is no oil involved.
The pub street and the night market will probably be the lasting impressions of Siem Reap. It is a city that I will never forget.
.jpg)