Sunday, February 23, 2014

26 April - 2 May 2010 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Our Mekong Delta trip was up to Phnom Penh where we stayed for a day, and then took a bus to Siem Reap. There were many buddhist monks among us, enroute to Siem Reap. As we were told later, they headed to Angkor Wat to celebrate Vesak, or Buddha Day, a holy day observed by Buddhists in South East Asian countries (more about it in my next post). 

My favorite part of the city was French quarter. Located right in the city centre, it is a mix of Cambodian traditional daily life, and modern (sometimes upscale) restaurants and shops. Its wide streets are made of 2-storey buildings painted in pastel colours, and filled with scooters and auto rikshaws.  Some of them were particularly remarkable. 











But once you move away from the city centre, the contrast in the life conditions gets drastic...













Colourful temples:






At night, we went to the night market. It was filled with silk scarves, clothes, paintings, sculptures (mostly related to Angkor temples and Buddhism), tableware - everything manufactured locally. Again, we felt the biggest disadvantage of being backpackers. Not enough space for all those things we would love to buy, and undesirable extra weight to carry for the next few months.





And we also visited... crocodile farm! I've never seen so many crocodiles per square metre.





There is a lot of reflection but you can still see how they end up:



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