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Information on Siem - Cambodia

Information Sheet Cambodia - Siem

Weather

From December to April the climate in Cambodia is at its driest with abundant sunshine and temperatures often reaching 40ºC (104ºF) in April, the hottest month. The humid southwestern monsoon from May to October sees rain fall mostly in the afternoon, accounting for 70-80% of annual rainfall. The highest temperatures around this time average just above the 30ºC mark (around 88ºF).

Fast Facts

Population: 861,000

Currency: Name: Riel , Code: KHR, Symbol: CR

Electrical Plugs

Languages Spoken: Official: Khmer

Time Zones: MT/UTC +7

Country Dialing Code: +855

Weights & Measures: Metric

Shopping

Siem Reap is an excellent place to buy Cambodian souvenirs, silks, handicrafts, textiles and contemporary art. Only Phnom Penh offers a comparable selection. In addition to the tradition shopping venues, over the last few of years there has been an explosion of new shops, galleries and boutiques, offering a varied selection of quality handicrafts and silks as well as original artistic creations in a variety of media.

Phsar Chas (the ‘Old Market’) is one of Siem Reap’s largest traditional covered markets and offers the largest selection of souvenirs under one roof in town. In fact, this market is really a ‘must visit’ in itself for the unique, colorful, local shopping experience. Of all the local markets, the Old Market offers the widest variety of souvenirs as well as the best selection of handicrafts and curios, including such items as traditional silverwork, silks, baskets, statuary, carvings and traditional musical instruments. See the Old Market area map. Also check out the just opened Angkor Night Market off Sivatha. The new night market promises an interesting after hours shopping venue.

Individual little boutiques, art and photo galleries are scattered across the town, though there is a concentration of places in the Old Market area. The boutiques tend to offer higher quality, more unique and sophisticated selections of items than the Old Market - some focusing on Cambodian silks and tailoring, others on high quality handicrafts, NGO-based crafts, Asian-inspired photographic and artistic creations or specialty items such as local candles, spices and teas. Perhaps most interestingly, a new generation of Cambodian artists is making its mark and contemporary Cambodian art is coming to the fore after decades of silence. In addition to the listed galleries, check out The Arthouse Gallery at The Warehouse and the The Arts Lounge at Hotel de la Paix, both featuring regularly changing exhibits featuring the works of contemporary Cambodian artists.

What to Buy

Hand-woven Cambodian silks, stone and woodcarvings, statues and castings, contemporary Cambodian art, Cambodian handicrafts and traditional musical instruments, temple rubbings, silver betel containers, colored gems and basketry are among the most popular souvenirs. The most useful and one of the cheapest souvenirs that you can buy is a traditional checkered Cambodian scarf (krama). If you don’t mind looking like a tourist, wear it around your neck like the locals to keep the intense tropical sun off the back of your neck.

Cambodian Silks

Cambodian silks are prized by silk collectors the world over. Most of the silk available in Cambodia is hand-loomed using the traditional ikat method of dying the threads and looming in the patterns. Both raw and fine silks are available in the form of bolts, sarongs, clothing and various handicrafts. Many of the pieces available are potential collector’s items. Cambodian silk is available at silk shops and boutiques across Siem Reap, many specializing in silk creations such as tailored Asian and Euro-Asian fashions, pillows, blankets, purses and other decor and accessories.

Statues and carvings

Statues and carvings of traditional subjects, often copies of Angkorian era works as well as Buddhas and various Hindu gods and personages, are available in stone, wood and brass. Statues make for relatively heavy, bulky souvenirs but are still very popular because of their beauty and artistic value. The replica of an Angkorian era bust of Jayavarman VII with its graceful lines and peaceful smile is truly captivating and is perhaps the most popular piece. Statues and carvings are available at the Old Market and most souvenir shops, though it pays to shop around for the best price and quality. Highly-recommended is a stop at one of the local workshops such as Artisans D’Angkor to see craftsman producing wood and stone carvings. At Artisans d’Angkor visitors can observe artisans making traditional wood and stone carvings and lacquerwares following traditional techniques. Of special interest is the traditional polychromy finishing technique that is being practiced in the workshops. Polychromy imparts a unique patina to stone and wood pieces.

Silver betel containers

Silver betel containers are popular, traditional souvenirs. These pounded silver containers are often shaped like animals, fruits and vegetables, and were originally used in ceremonial and everyday life to hold dried betel nut. (Betel is a type of palm nut that is chewed as a mild stimulant.) In the traditional market, betel looks like coin shaped, dark red plugs. You may see people, particularly older women from rural areas, with teeth stained deep red from years of chewing betel. Nowadays, silver betel containers are made primarily for sale as souvenirs but are still hand crafted using traditional techniques and styles. And in comparison to statues and carvings, they are comparatively light weight and transportable.

Temple rubbings

Temple rubbings are for sale everywhere in Siem Reap - the temples, the souvenir shops and the Old Market - but are, in fact, neither actual rubbings nor from the temples. They are in fact made from a heavy paper that is moistened then molded over recreations of original and imagined Angkorian-era temple carvings. Nevertheless, these rubbings are distinctive, light weight, transportable, inexpensive and uniquely Cambodian souvenirs.

Gems

Gems are a tempting souvenir. Western Cambodia, particularly in the area of Pailin, is a fertile source of colored stones. The markets in Siem Reap are full of jewelers specializing in Cambodian sapphires and rubies. Know something about gems and/or know the jeweler before spending much money.

Eating Out

For a comparatively small town, Siem Reap offers an amazing range of cuisines and dining venues. The emphasis is, of course, on Khmer food, which can be found at restaurants across town, but European and other Asian cuisines are also well represented, including Italian, Thai, German, Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and, of course, French. Given Cambodia's long relationship with France and France's gastronomic traditions, it is no surprise some of Siem Reap’s finest dining venues offer French cuisine. Also of interest to the gastronome, some newer venues are serving finely prepared Khmer-Asian-western fusion cuisines quite unique to Cambodia. Restaurants are scattered across the town but none is more than a 5-minute tuk-tuk ride away. Many restaurants, including several specializing in Khmer food, are concentrated into the Old Market area, especially around ‘Pub Street’ and along Sivatha Blvd. Make sure to set aside one dinner to attend a traditional 'Apsara' dance performance. Listings in maroon offer traditional performances. See Traditional Performances for more details.

Siem Reap Nightlife and Bars

Siem Reap’s nightlife stretches to near dawn these days with Pub Street coming to life around dusk and the last bars and clubs in town closing as late as 4:00AM. Nightlife venues are scattered across the town but many are clustered in the Old Market area, especially along Pub Street. The bars in the Pub Street area offer amazing early evening happy hour deals and some places stay open well into the wee hours. But the action is not limited to Pub Street. Less crowded, less touristy, more individual places can be found in the Old Market and Wat Bo area, along the river and Sivatha Blvd. And for something completely different, the Cambodian discos such as Zone One and Martini get going around 10:00PM and close by 2:00 or 3:00AM. There's more live music in Siem Reap nowadays with The Blarney Stone and Red Orchid offering Filipino bands playing live popular music every evening.

Do and Don’t

Similar to Vietnam, it is impolite to point your feet at anyone, or touch them on the head. Keep clothing modest. Showing too much skin (especially for women) is considered very offensive as are public displays of affection.

Remove your shoes if you enter someone's house or a temple and keep your voice low in places of worship. If you smile and employ common courtesy, things will generally go better.

Pre-20th-Century History

Very little is known about prehistoric Cambodia, although archeological evidence has established that prior to 1000 BC Cambodians subsisted on a diet of fish and rice and lived in houses on stilts, as they still do today. From the 1st to the 6th centuries, much of Cambodia belonged to the southeast Asian kingdom of Funan, which played a vital role in developing the political institutions, culture and art of later Khmer states. However, it was the Angkorian era, beginning in 802, that really transformed the kingdom into a political, cultural and spiritual powerhouse.

Forces of the Thai kingdom of Ayudhya sacked Angkor in 1431, leaving the Khmers plagued by dynastic rivalries and continual warfare with the Thais for a century and a half. The Spanish and Portuguese, who had recently become active in the region, also played a part in these wars until resentment of their power led to the massacre of the Spanish garrison at Phnom Penh in 1599. A series of weak kings ruled from 1600 until the French arrived in 1863. After some gunboat diplomacy and the signing of a treaty of protectorate in 1863, the French went on to force King Norodom to sign another treaty, this time turning his country into a virtual colony in 1884.

Modern History

Following the arrival of the French, a relatively peaceful period followed (even the peasant uprising of 1916 was considered peaceful). In 1941 the French installed 19-year-old Prince Norodom Sihanouk on the Cambodian throne, on the assumption that he would prove suitably pliable. This turned out to be a major miscalculation as the years after 1945 were strife-torn, with the waning of French colonial power aided by the proximity of the Franco-Viet Minh War that raged in Vietnam and Laos. Cambodian independence was eventually proclaimed in 1953, the enigmatic King Sihanouk going on to dominate national politics for the next 15 years before being overthrown by the army.

In 1969 the United States carpet-bombed suspected communist base camps in Cambodia, killing thousands of civilians and dragging the country unwillingly into the US-Vietnam conflict. Sihanouk was overthrown in a military coup in March 1970 and his successor General Lon Nol moved closer to the Americans. Sihanouk forged an alliance with the Khmer Rouge communists and the small guerrilla force swelled to an army of thousands in a matter of weeks. American and south Vietnamese troops invaded the country to eradicate Vietnamese communist forces but were unsuccessful; they did manage, however, to push the Vietnamese and their Khmer Rouge allies further into the country's interior. Savage fighting soon engulfed the entire country, with Phnom Penh falling to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975.

Over the next four years the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot's leadership, systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians (targeting the educated in particular) in a brutal bid to turn Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. Currency was abolished, postal services were halted, the population became a work force of slave labourers and the country was almost entirely cut off from the outside world. Responding to recurring armed incursions into their border provinces, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, forcing the Khmer Rouge to flee to the relative sanctuary of the jungles along the Thai border. From there, they conducted a guerrilla war against the Vietnamese-backed government throughout the late 1970s and '80s.

In mid-1993, UN-administered elections led to a new constitution and the reinstatement of Norodom Sihanouk as king. The Khmer Rouge boycotted the elections, rejected peace talks and continued to buy large quantities of arms from the Cambodian military leadership. In the months following the election, a government-sponsored amnesty secured the first defections from Khmer ranks, with more defections occurring from 1994 when the Khmer Rouge was finally outlawed by the Cambodian government.

The uneasy coalition of Prince Ranariddh's Funcinpec and Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party fell violently apart in July 1997, and when the dust settled Hun Sen assumed sole leadership of Cambodia. Elections in mid-98 returned Hun Sen to this position, despite grumbling from opposition candidates about dodgy electoral practices. While his democratic credentials are far from impressive, the one-eyed strong man has proved to be something of a stabilising force for Cambodia.

Pol Pot's death in April 1998 from an apparent heart attack was greeted with anger (that he was never brought to trial) and scepticism (he has been reported dead many times before). The UN has pulled out of trials of other surviving top level Khmer Rouge leaders on war crimes charges because the independence of the tribunals is doubtful.

Recent History

Future stability is tied to improving the country's long-suffering economy, eradicating the entrenched culture of corruption and impunity, reducing the size of the military and creating a democracy that is more than just a ballot.

Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won elections in 2003, but political stalemate lasted until June 2004, when Hun Sen found a coalition partner and could resume his prime ministership. In October 2004, King Sihanouk announced his intention to abdicate on account of ill health and annoyance at the country's political infighting. He was succeeded by his son King Sihamoni. Defamation was used as a political tool by the CPP government to clamp down on opposition activity during 2005. 2006 witnessed a turnaround and reconciliation of sorts between Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy, while the royalist party Funcinpec imploded with infighting. With elections coming up in 2008, it looks set to be a two-way fight between the CPP and Sam Rainsy.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap is the gateway to the temples of Angkor, Cambodia's spiritual and cultural heartbeat. A sleepy backwater until a few years ago, it is fast reinventing itself as a sophisticated centre for the new wave of visitors passing through each year, with restaurant and bar prices climbing weekly. If Cambodia is hot right now, then Siem Reap is boiling over. It's the one place everyone hits during their visit, mainly due to its proximity to Angkor Wat. Pleasing remnants of the past, like French shop-houses, tree-lined boulevards and a gentle winding river, nestle up to pointers to the future.

Angkor Wat

Prepare for divine inspiration! The temples of Angkor, capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire, are a perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion. The Cambodian god-kings of old each strove to top their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world's largest religious building, Angkor Wat, and one of its weirdest, the Bayon.

The hundreds of temples surviving today are the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that stretched from Burma to Vietnam and which, at its zenith, boasted a population of one million. The temples of Angkor are the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia, a source of inspiration and national pride to all Khmers as they struggle to rebuild their lives after years of terror and trauma. Today, they are a point of pilgrimage for all Cambodians, and no traveller to the region will want to miss their extravagant beauty

Angkor Thom was established as the capital of Jayavarman VII's empire, and was the centre of his massive building programme. One inscription found in the city refers to Jayavarman as the groom and the city as his bride. (Higham, 121)

Khmer capital on the site, however. Yasodharapura, dating from three centuries earlier, was centred slightly further northwest, and Angkor Thom overlapped parts of it. The most notable earlier temples within the city are the former state temple of Baphuon, and Phimeanakas, which was incorporated into the Royal Palace. The Khmers did not draw any clear distinctions between Angkor Thom and Yashodharapura: even in the fourteenth century an inscription used the earlier name. (Higham 138) The name of Angkor Thom — great city — was in use from the 16th century.

The last temple known to have been constructed in Angkor Thom was Mangalartha, which was dedicated in 1295. Thereafter the existing structures continued to be modified from time to time, but any new creations were in perishable materials and have not survived. In the following centuries Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom in decline until it was abandoned some time prior to 1609, when an early western visitor wrote of an uninhabited city, "as fantastic as the Atlantis of Plato" which some thought to have been built by the Roman emperor Trajan. (Higham 140)