Cambodia Part 2 - Siem Reap

The gateway to Angkor Wat is Cambodia's second largest city, Siem Reap. More like a big town, Siem Reap is growing rapidly due to tourism but the old part of town retains its charm, with grand French buildings, tree-lined streets and a peaceful river. An early morning view from the balcony of my colonial hotel is shown below.

Cambodia is a country full of water, especially as the wet season comes to an end. The slow flowing Siem Reap River is a nice place to find some shade, watch the world go by and recover after a day amongst the temples.

Siem Reap has become one of the major tourist destinations of the world and the old town is set up for the backpacking crowd, with the usual cafes, restaurants, bars, travel agents and souvenir stores. Two of the popular streets are shown below including the aptly named 'Pub Street' on the left.

The preferred means of transport in this part of the world is the 'moto'  (motorbike or tuk tuk) and you can grab a quick lift somewhere or hire a driver for the day. The shot below is taken as I am being shown around by my driver, Mr. Sok.

The people of Cambodia are very poor and the tourist is a major source of income. You see more young people than old, with so many of the older generations 'eliminated' under Pol Pot. Children go to school 6 days a week, either for 4 hours in the morning or 4 hours in the afternoon, so you always see lots of them around, either playing or trying to sell you a guide book, postcard, some jewellery or a bottle of water.

The elderly are given great respect and the extended family tend to live together. The monks are a common site in their bright orange robes. Labour is cheap, so you often see large groups of workers doing the cleaning and maintenance around the city.

There is not a huge amount of wild areas in Cambodia, with rice fields, which actually look quite beautiful, covering most of the land as in the photo on the left below. However, there are natural areas and around Siem Reap there is an opportunity to enjoy the forests and get away from the crowds. Plenty of birds can be heard, the water is full of fish and I happened to come across this group of monkeys shown on the right below sitting by the road.

I guess Siem Reap's raison d'etre is that it is the place to stay when visiting the temples of Angkor but a few days in this colonial French town will have you wanting to come back again and enjoy its allure.