August 28, 2008

Other attractions of Siem Reap – Part 2

Friday, August 10

A new attraction in Siem Reap, the Cambodian Cultural Village is intended to introduce visitors to Cambodian culture and history. As you enter, there's a wax museum housing exhibits on wildlife, ancient jewelry and tools, and waxed figures from throughout Cambodia's history. Once we exit the wax museum, there are a number of ethnic villages with full scale models of a variety of Cambodian architectural types, including different styles of huts and homes, hill tribe houses, pagoda and mosque.





The colourful costumes of various Khmer tribes


There's a live performance at each of the different villages and we moved from one village to another trying to watch all the shows. The most impressive had to be the traditional Khmer wedding ceremony.





I also liked the performance at the Kola Village, Kroeng Village and Panorng Village, as the costumes were really colourful and eye catching.



The last performance wrapped up at 6.30pm and by then, it was too dark to have a good look at fascinating 1/20th scale models of sites such as Phsar Thmey and the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh and the hills and temples of Oudong.

Dinner was at Pub Street, adjacent to the Old Market area. We walked around, couldn't quite decide which of the many restaurants to go into. We finally just picked one and had no regrets. The Khmer Family Restaurant offered great food in a pleasant relaxing atmosphere. We chose to be seated on the first floor near the balcony from where we could watch the world go by the liveliest street in Siem Reap.



Sis and I shared the Khmer set which comprised of curry chicken, fried pork with Khmer spices and spring rolls. The curry was not too spicy, but it was very fragrant with spices and tasted great. So was the pork. Mum ordered grilled chicken thighs and they were grilled to perfection, not too dry and the seasoning was so tasty that we didn't need to eat it with the accompanying sauce. Hubby ordered pork ribs steak and again, it was excellent. I would rate this meal as the best we've had in Siem Reap.

We walked a bit around the area after dinner before heading back to the hotel on a tuk tuk.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i haven't been to siem reap yet. your posts certainly aroused my curiousity. it could very well be our next holiday destination!

mimi
www.sleeplessinkl.com

Anonymous said...

Mmm...I think the grilled chicken thighs look good too!

Have just been trawling for a simple, easy recipe coz Lucas has taken an interest in chicken drumsticks :P

How did you all communicate with the locals?

A Mom's Diary said...

Mimi, it's quite nice but I don't think it's suitable for young children so you may not be able to bring along your younger ones.

Kittycat, at the restaurants, most can speak a smattering of English. At the bazaar where we shopped, surprising there were a lot of Cambodian Chinese so we managed to get by.