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On the road in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Trips & Sights
Travelling in Cambodia is something that takes time. The roads are often in a good condition, but the people here are not used to speed. People, cows, water buffaloes, bicycles, carts, chicken & dogs on the road make it hard to speed. However, taking its time can have big benefits for the western traveler. It is hard to see how countryside live has been in the last decades in Asia, and here it is still unchanged through centuries, mostly because of wars that hindered the progress you can observe in Thailand today.


Cambodia is a very green country, and the bright green of rice fields can be seen everywhere. The soil and climate would support three harvests a year, but due to missing irrigation systems its only one.
For most, the bicycle is the main mode of personal transport. Of course, also goods are taken along as possible. Sometimes a bit more than possible though...
Next choice would be a motorbike, attached to a cart. The amount of goods transported like that astonish, but then again you see many of them on the side of the street beeing repaired. Car batteries are a widely used source for electricity, even for TVs and radios.
One can observe, even from the window of a car, many details of life in cambodia. The main components of a house are a clay oven, a wide frying dish and hammocks.
Many kinds of home-produced goods are sold on the stretside, specially on the way to temples and other siteseeing places. People weave goods from palm leaves and straw, make palm sugar and charcoal, collect firewood or even build concrete pillars for housing. What is not beeing bought by tourists, is sold and carted off periodically by trucks.
Other elements of Cambodian housing are the small shrines for worship, here sold in a shop, stilts for cooling, water & tiger-protection (not many tigers are left though) and fuel for motorbikes sold in bottles...
Please see also these articles about Angkor Temples:
Angkor Wat | Sunrise at Angkor Wat | Reliefs of Angkor Wat
Banteay Srei Temple | Preah Palilay Temple | Bayon Temple | Ta Phrom Temple
These are more articles from Cambodia:
Khmer Dance | Floating Village | Royal Palace | On the road | Hotel de la Paix

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