Exploring Sihanoukville, Cambodia - pt 1

Today was our first and likely last time to visit Cambodia. We had originally booked a 6 hour tour, but decided to change it to a shorter one, given the heat we’ve been having.

In driving through the city, we saw many, many tall “see through” buildings. We asked our guide the reason for this and his full explanation was “unfinished.” We saw a strong Chinese influence here (many buildings have Chinese lettering on them). We guessed that the Chinese were building them when Covid brought everything to a halt. We later learned that more than 200,000 Chinese lived in Sihanoukville until the online gambling ban; now only a little over 1/10^th of those remain. Our overall impression was that Cambodia is not nearly as developed as Thailand or Vietnam.

We were first driven by the Golden Lion Square, then on to the Phsar Leu market. Upon our arrival, people were snapping our photos just as we were snapping theirs! Lol Perhaps they don’t see a lot of tourists? Our guide told us that 85% of the population are farmers, so it’s no surprise to see a huge market with lots of produce for sale. As you can see from the photos I took, the Cambodian people are industrious and very hard working.

 

Golden Lion Square (example of empty high rises)

 

 a policeman snapping our picture

 

outside the busy Phsar Leu market

here a tuk, there a tuk, everywhere a....

children entertaining themselves with a game of "kick the shoe"

I observed some kids playing “kick the shoe” with one of their flip flops. Most of the vendors who were not actively working were looking at their cell phones, as were younger children who had to stay closer to mom. This was a huge bustling market with plenty of food items, flowers, clothing and more. In 30 minutes, we saw only a fraction of what was there. Along the backside of the market were tiny “stalls” for nails, hair, etc.

 

need shoes?

flowers for sale

fresh crabs here

vendor passing time on her phone

fresh seafood

pork and seafood for sale

pork or seafood, no? how about chicken?

fresh market produce

and...more seafood

beautiful produce

produce galore

temple flowers

futile attempt to communicate with pharmacist

 

to market, to market (3 generations)

nail salon open for business

single chair beauty salon