Siem Reap is a great place, and we really enjoyed it! To be honest we weren’t really sure what we were going to find in Siem Reap, other than the Angkor Wat temple park. However, this place is bustling and there was plenty of night life for us to walk around. Like most other places we visited Siem Reap feels safe, even after dark down the back streets it feels that there isn’t much trouble around. Also after reading through many travels blogs single travelling females also report that they felt safe after dark. That said, as with all places we visit, you need to keep a keen look out for any upcoming trouble.
There is a mixture of shopping here, and it’s not too difficult to find the local shops, international majors (like Adidas where Wendy bought trainers), and the souvenir shops where you have to be careful not to pay over the odds. During our brief trip to Phnom Penh I asked our guide about haggling for goods as we walked through a locals market. I asked if the locals haggled, and she said they did which I thought was the case, but then she added ‘for everything’. I quizzed here about buying fruit, veg and meat; do you haggle for those as well? She responded that they most definitely do; they haggle for absolutely everything. So the message taken out from this, don’t feel back about haggling when travelling in a country that haggles as the norm.
One of the most surprising streets we found, and is the centre of night life here in Siem Reap, is Pub Street. Lit up with neon signs and with many vendors on the street trying to entice you into their pub, or nightspot. It’s a real change from most other areas in Siem Reap, and at night time the whole area opens up with restaurants, drinks, street vendors and some beggars. Everyone is so friendly though, even when you turn down the 20th tuk-tuk driver or someone trying to get you into their pub they still have a smile on their face. What is more fun is sitting in the front of the pubs, with your 75 cents beer, and watching the goings on of Pub Street.
And a little bonus …
I had to share these two pictures that I took one morning while we were having coffee. In hindsight I should have taken some more pictures for context, but I’ll try and explain.
The guy in red, behind the fence, is spray painting the fence black. He’s just using a regular spray gun I expect connected to a compressor somewhere behind the wall. He’s spraying from inside the complex towards the street. However, on the street there is no protection for any of the paint which isn’t actually landing on the fence. So if you were walking below where he is spraying you would get a hair full of paint, same as the taxi which is parked just under the fence.
