One of my favorite things to do upon arriving in a new city, is find out where the locals shop and socialize. I have found that there is no better way to quickly immerse yourself in the local culture than to find the city market, shopping district, or wherever the local hangout spot is. You get sights, smells, tastes, and wonderful people watching.
After a hot, sweaty, and tiring morning climbing all over the temples in the Angkor Archeological park, I asked my tuk tuk driver to take me to the Phsa Leu market outside of Siem Reap. He looked at me questioningly as it’s not a normal stop for tourists. There are the night markets and old market in the town center, but these are filled with kitschy crafts, mass produced buddha heads, and prepackaged fruit and nuts. Phsa Leu on the other hand is a crowded, smelly, chaotic mess of people, stalls, and mopeds.
I spent an hour meandering through the crowded walkways seeing only two other westerners getting an authentic Cambodian experience. I found this boy walking barefoot through the center of the main hall with his shiny new sneakers looped over his handlebars. On each side of him are combination jewelry dealers and money exchange booths stacked with $100 U.S. bills sitting in their glass cabinets.
