Siem Reap; The Old Market

I’ll be the first to admit we didn’t do much in Siem Reap, at least not much in the way of typical tourist activities. There were no visits to Angkor Wat, no Land Mine Museum, no night market. Instead, we took it easy, visited with friends, waited out the rain showers, ate well and adjusted to jet lag.

That’s not to say we sat around. We walked through the old market, went shopping for Khmer language kid’s books to take up to Koh Ker school, and paid a visit to the PLF supported Tchey school where we checked in on the Media Class and got to see some of the student’s photography projects. During the 6 days we spent in Siem Reap we also ventured up north to Koh Ker in Preah Vihear province where we visited the school, spent the night, and got to see some jungle temples most tourists never visit.

There will be more on some of those other things we did in later posts, but first, the market. Y’all know how much I love my markets, right? The Old Market in the center of downtown Siem Reap is about 2/3rds tourist tat (t shirts, fabric, jewelry, etc) and 1/3 actual food market catering to the local population. There is the much larger Central Market across town, also worth a visit, but we didn’t make it there on this trip. For more on the Old Market from our last trip, go here.