Siem Reap: Day 1

Cambodia Travel 2 Comments

Today we journeyed from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap; around a 320km drive, but the minibus was well air conditioned and we had some interesting stops along the way.

The first stop was the hardest to handle…

We stopped off at a small roadside market. It was swarming with folks with bundles of fresh bananas, coconuts and tarantulas. Turns out tarantulas are pretty popular here, usually found nestled amongst cashew trees; they can be harvested and sold to traders for around $0.50 and flogged at the price of $1 to tourists and locals as a deep fried snack. We stuck with bananas.

The bananas are of the mini variety; very dense and pretty sweet!

After the quick banana stop we jumped back on the bus and continued on towards Siem Reap. Next stop was lunch at a restaurant / cafe situated beside another bustling market. It has been quite refreshing to wander round markets in South-East Asia as Scotland has largely phased out the market concept, society kneeling to the supermarket overloads.

H wandering through the market.

The market had a good spread, we focus in on the fruits we were less familiar with, namely the Salak pictured below.

Salak, or snake fruit, was both sweet and sour!
The spread.

Next was a tour of one of the many floating villages which sit on the edge of Tonlé Sap, SE Asia’s largest freshwater lake, with an area of 2700km². The village we visited was called Kâmpóng Khleang.

No prizes for guessing where the lake is…
Fairly lightweight in construction; most homes had waver thin, well ventilated, weaved walls!
We took a tour around the village on one of these nice timber boats.
Hatti overwhelmed by the quantity of stills used in constructing these elevated homes.
Some boats were propelled by strimmer-like outboard motors.
Some of the huts sat alone, isolated from power. Others clustered together in stilted terraces.
Out of rainy season, the some of the buildings can be reached on foot.
Although corrugated metal roofs are now the norm, a few clay tile roofs remain.
The breakfast buffet table in Siem Reap was made out of one of these yokes.
Each home was unique, personalised to suit the individual or family occupying them.
Locals were darting about!
On reaching the end of the village we got an unobstructed view of the vast lake.
On our way back were able to explored a little of the village streets that sat behind the river facing houses.
We came across a monastery, temple and school… along with an array of shops.

After a fantastic couple of hours on the water we drove for another short while and landed in Siem Reap, base camp for the largest religious temple in the world… Angkor Wat. After lobbing our bags into the hotel, we headed out with the group to see a bit of Siem Reap as nightfall set in.

The Street is tailored towards the younger audience attending the famous temple complex.
We happened upon a $0.50 USD draft beer, likely the cheapest we’ll get!

Excited to visit the Angkor Wat complex, and in anticipation of the 4am start, more on that tomorrow, we headed back to hotel and, although tempted by the pool, headed straight to bed!

James

2 Responses to “Siem Reap: Day 1”

  1. What beautiful, interesting houses. The fruit at the market looks delicious and so varied. Markets in Scotland would be a lot more limited 😂

  2. What interesting fruits! The teeny weeny sweet banana so cute 🙂 and snake fruit looks like a easy peel juicy nut! Great photo of all the different types of boats too, must’ve been such an experience to go out on the lake on one of those beautiful old timber vessels.

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