Shopping in Siem Reap

17th July 2007 (still)
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You could get around town by foot, bicycles *there were many for rental, or by tuk-tuk . Always bargain with the tuk-tuk drivers for a cheaper rate. They asked for USD3 per tuk-tuk but we managed to get it for USD1.50. If you’re really good, you can get the ride for USD1 only (we found out later).

Oh yeah, the drivers didn’t seemed to understand ‘one fifty’ as in USD1.50. We had to tell them ‘one and a half’ instead.

Tuk-tuk in Cambodia

The Old Market is at the south of town. Quite a happening place where we found stalls selling souvenirs and other tourist junk. To name a few, there were miniature wood/stone carvings, silk shawls, paintings, bags, gems *not sure if it’s genuine though, etc… Things there were not as cheap as those sold by peddlers around the temples vicinities but there were more varieties.

From old market..nice hor?

Do bargain with the sellers for the best price. You can lower it down by at less 70%-80% of the quoted price. Oh, and you can get a better bargain if you buy in bulks of more than 3-5 pieces of each item.

Most sellers speaks Chinese and since PigDog Klan* had MicrophoneChiang as out trusty negotiator, we had no problem getting around *very talented negotiator, he is :p.

I managed to get 5 pieces of shawls for USD1.50 each and 2 Tshirts as souvenir for USD2 each. SweetToothTim, SnapMe!Eve and BigSistaJune bought some gem bracelets. Many stalls sell gems around there. Many varieties in many sizes.

Members of PigDog Klan* with pretty local seller (in black)

Most of the stalls sell similar stuffs but the price varies. So, it’s best to go around the whole market for a survey of price.

Talking bout surveys, EatAllYouCanShung got conned the day before. He bought 2 books *bookworm! from the peddlers at the temples for USD14 *so cheap hor? kena con got lar … We found out later that some other peddlers selling one of the books for only USD1 ! *whacks head So, do survey first before buying.

Small wet market inside the old market

Come get it! Come get it! Fresh veges for ssaaaalllleeee!!

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PuppyEyes bought us to another souvenir shop before we went to Old Market. I forgot the name *sorry. You need to get visitors passes (FOC) to get in. The stuffs there were super expensive. Not a good idea to go to those big modern shop lots or souvenir shops.

PigDog Klan* and PuppyEyes (in middle) smiling like idiots in front of souvenir shop.

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Next stop Cambodia Cultural Village. This park was well built and maintained. Within the village, there was a small wax museum and alot of miniature monuments. Here is a chance for tourists like us to watch dance shows telling about Cambodian cultures.

Admission fee is USD9 per person and additional USD5 to hire a guide. Ours are free :P

Just behind you my dears

Wax museum

BigSistaJune caught in the act

Noooo…errr…i’m not trying to steal it…er..

I found the museum a tad too boring for me. Nevertheless, it’s a great place to learn about Cambodia’s history.

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It started to rain again. Instead of exploring by foot we took a ride on the Electric Tour Cars.

Monks running in the rain

See my trusty pasar malam slippers :P

There were cute miniature monuments all over the place. Nicely built, great for taking photographs.

Miniature Cambodia Royal Palace and Bayon temple

Druglaw: I’ve got stacks of weeds at home…bout this tall

Sleeping Buddha ZZzzZZZZzzzzz….

Small waterfall! Nice!

Oops! What’s these doing there????

See the difference?? Nope. Me neither…

We went for 3 cultural dance performances that day. Loads of people there. There were locals watching the shows too but mostly tourists like us.

The narration during the shows were in 3 different languages. Japanese, Chinese and Khmer…. *why no English??!!

Err… the cultural dance shows were bit boring too. *yawn. Except for the last performance :)

The final skit told us about Cambodian traditional wedding ceremony. They even invited an audience to act as the bridegroom! *wakaka My favourite character in the show is the stooge in traditional Chinese costume. He plays one of the 3 suitors. He was so damn funny!

Very enjoyable show.

Comedy in the making