Angkor Silk Farm

ARTISANS D'ANGKOR | ARTISANS D'ANGKOR

True inside and beautiful outside, Artisans Angkor

Artisans Angkor was created in 1999 to help young people find work in their home villages, allowing them to practice their crafts while providing them with a vocation. It was created as part of a three-year project to integrate young artisans trained by the Chantiers-Ecoles de Formation Professionnelle - whose objective is to revive traditional craft skills (stone carving, wood carving, lacquering, gilding and silk processing). they place a strong emphasis on the authenticity of its products to the Khmer culture. In 2003, they became a limited company with minor public participation and are now completely self-financed.

They have created over 1,000 jobs for both artisans (657) and non-craftsmen in rural Cambodia, by investing in new apprenticeships and skills creation via continuous training and setting up new village workshops.

Thirteen workshops are currently operating in 12 villages in Siem Reap province, including silk, wood carving, stone carving and finishing workshops (polychromy, lacquering, gilding). Young apprentices aged 18 to 25 are selected from rural areas through skill and motivation tests, and undertake six to eight months of free training. They are trained in groups of 15-30 people, and receive a living allowance for the duration of their training.

They contribute to the development of rural areas in Siem Reap province through the social, economic and professional advancement of the artisans, and pioneering a new social policy in Cambodia, guaranteeing levels of pay and social and medical welfare. The artisans have formed an association called Artisanat Khmer which has a 20% stake in the company, giving employees a voice in the decision making process.

At their main boutique and workshops in Siem Reap, discover the traditional Khmer techniques used for stone and wood carving, lacquering and gilding, as explained by their experienced guides. Complete tours of the workshops take you from raw materials to splendid craft-wares. Tours are available in Khmer, English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai daily from 7.30am to 5.30pm for the tour of the workshop, and to 6.30pm for the boutique.

Angkor Café, opposite Angkor Wat, displays items from its own collection as well as tableware products and Khmer scents and flavours selected by Cambodian artisans. Open daily from 8.30am-5.30pm.

Angkor Silk Farm at Puok District, 16km from Siem Reap town, is a centre of exhibition on silk processes and production. Located on an 8 hectare site, mulberry fields, silk worm breeding and silk weaving using traditional Khmer knowledge are highlights of the centre. Open daily from 7.30am-5.30pm.

They have three Duty-Free Boutiques located in the Phnom Penh International Airport, Siem Reap International Airport, and Hong Kong Airport.

Article Credit: Tourism Cambodia

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Cambodian Cultural Village

Welcome to Cambodian Cultural Village

Cambodian Cultural Village situated in Siem Reap province along the road number 6 distanced 3 Km from International Siem Reap Airport and 5 Km Angkor Wat temple the world heritage with 210.000 square meters complexes. CCV assembles all the miniatures of famous historical buildings and structures, local customs and practices of all races.

Jayavarman VII Show in Cambodia Cultural Village

There are 13 unique villages, which represent difference cultural heritages with 8 scenes of show performance. At each scene, the tourist will be able to enjoy with traditional dancing perform by our dancers that suitable to find out, the lifestyle landmark providing completed facilities and recreation services for both tourists and local community. Just a half day visit Cambodian Cultural Villages such as travel over Cambodia and getting to know about Cambodia, Cambodia Culture, Cambodia ethnic, Khmer Traditional, the significant people in Cambodia and more.

The village where you can find all the significant people in Cambodia. Come and visit us, it like you have traveled all over Cambodia in haft day. Cambodian Cultural Village welcomes the visitors all around the world.

Article Credit: Cambodian Cultural Village

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Pub Street Area

Pub Street and Angkor Night Market, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap offers a wide range of eating and drinking options with new businesses at all price ranges opening almost daily it seems. The Old Market area is, depending on your perspective, either an exciting and vibrant place offering a vast selection of eating and drinking options that is not to be missed, or a tourist ghetto offering a vast selection of generally non-authentic eating and drinking options that should be avoided at all costs. More likely your reality will lie somewhere in between, closer to which side is entirely up to you. Personally, I would neither over nor under-emphasize the area. Go at least once and draw your own conclusions and don't feel ashamed of your opinion no matter which side of the spectrum it should fall.

The growth of the area started on what is now almost officially (there's a sign up now) known as "Pub Street"; or "Bar Street,"; depending on your choice of terminology, but food and drink options have since spread to a number of surrounding streets as well.

"Pub Street" itself would at this point, probably be more accurately known as "Food Street". With two exceptions, The Angkor What? Bar and Temple Club, as the emphasis here is now almost entirely on food opposed to drinking. That said, in the alleys and streets running both parallel and perpendicular to "Pub/Bar/Food Street" you can not only find more restaurants but many bars as well. Drinking until the wee hours of the morning remains a very viable activity here. The alleyway to the north of "Pub Street" has recently seen several new bars open, while the alleyway to the south has been filled up with restaurants.

There are also a number of restaurants along Sivatha Blvd (the main north - south road a block or so west of the market) offering a variety of Western and Asian cuisines. And more recently a string of garden style restaurants have appeared on Wat Bo Road, east of the river.

The listings here are only a sampling of what is out there and the best course of action is simply to wander the neighborhood and try out a few places, whether they are listed here or not. The temptation is to allow the Old Market/Pub Street magnet suck you into this tourist ghetto, and while definitely a worthy endeavor for consuming alcohol, you might consider that by and large, the best food options are *not* found here, but rather spread around town in less congested areas where there is less price competition that can result in an inferior product. This is not to say that there isn't good food in this area, but that there are some excellent opportunities found elsewhere - in particular farther up Sivatha and over on Wat Bo Road, and a few places like Abacus and The Touich that aren't near anything but themselves.

Article Credit: Tales of Asia

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War Museum Cambodia

The War Museum in Siem Reap is the only War Museum in Cambodia. It offers visitors a unique and insightful view of the perils that Cambodia faced during the last 3 decades of the 20th century. It gives also visitors an excellent opportunity to learn more about what actually occured during Cambodia’s ‘war years’.

It has a unique collection, you will also be able to see war machines like the tank T-54, the jet fighter aircraft MiG-19, the helicopter Mil Mi-8 and the field artillery gun 85-mm divisional gun D-44. Before used in Cambodia, some of these war machines have even seen action during World War II. Among the collection there are also many sorts of landmines and rare photographs from the defined period of time in Cambodia.

You can take a free guide to lead you around. Each of the guides has his own unique background: war veterans, eye witnesses of the war and landmine victims. Therefore, not only they could tell you about the last 3 decades of the 20th century history of Cambodia and about the collection of the museum, but also about their personnal experiences during the defined period of time.

You can hold small arms, from a M16 or a AK-47 (Kalashnikov) till a machine gun like the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). You can even hold a rocket launcher! Before used in Cambodia, some of these guns have even seen action during World War II.

The purpose of this museum is to keep the memory of such an important episode in the history of Cambodia alive and to preserve the unique collection for posterity.

Article Credit: Tourism Cambodia

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Angkor National Museum

ANGKOR NATIONAL MUSEUM - SIEM REAP

Visiting the Angkor National Museum was an eerie, surreal experience. For the first 45 minutes of our trip through the mammoth, 20,000-square-metre building, we didn't spot another visitor. The museum opened in November 2007, and its freshly painted, shopping mall-like feel contrasts with the thousands-year-old artifacts contained within it. A visit is a comfortable, air-con alternative to visiting the temples themselves, and a nice educational supplement to the history of Angkor if you visit the park without a tour guide. It's composed of eight separate galleries, all connected by a vaulted corridor with a series of fountains and lined with what seems like all the Angkorian limestone lion and demon heads missing from statues at the temples. After an explanatory film screening called Story behind the legend, you're pointed toward the galleries:

Gallery 1: 1,000 Buddha Images

This is the only gallery that's just one large room, rather than a series of maze-like alcoves, and the sight of all these Buddhas at once is striking. Hundreds of small and miniature Buddha figurines, made of metals, jewels and wood, all individually illuminated, line the walls here, identified according to the period they were made during and where they were discovered. In the centre, life-size and larger Buddha characters are displayed. The display includes Buddhas from Banteay Kdei, Bayon, Angkor Wat and Preah Vihear.

Gallery 2: Pre-Angkor Period: Khmer Civilisation

This gallery and all the subsequent ones combine mural-size explanations and short films through maze-like rooms explaining Angkorian history. The styles of figurines precede the trademark Angkor style, and there's a large collection of lingas, lintels and colonnettes.

Gallery 3: Religion and Beliefs

This room explains several of the most significant Hindu and Buddhist religious stories and folk tales depicted on Angkorian temples, including the most memorable Churning of the Sea of Milk carved into the rear wall at Angkor Wat. Carvings of Buddhist and Hindu religious figures are concentrated here as well.

Gallery 4: The Great Khmer Kings

The gallery focuses on King Jayavarman II, Yasovarman I, Soryavarman II and Jayavarman VII, those most responsible for Angkor's greatest constructions. Figures of the kings and relics from the temples they commissioned abound.

Gallery 5: Angkor Wat

There's a large film gallery inside this section of the museum. It features beautiful, panoramic images of the temple and explanations of how it was constructed. There are also many restored figures from the temple itself as well as post-Angkorian wooden statues used for worship at the temple until several hundred years ago.

Gallery 6: Angkor Thom

In addition to recovered artefacts from Angkor Thom, this gallery includes a history of and artefacts from the vast irrigation projects commissioned by the king who built Angkor Thom with his smiling face looking out from every tower: Jayavarman VII.

Gallery 7: Story From Stones

This room is one of the most interesting. It's a collection of stone pallets with ancient Khmer and Sanskrit inscriptions. The writing on each slate is explained on placards below. The writing on them includes the declaration of the construction of a new hospital, lists of slave names, mediations of land disputes and adulations of kings and gods.

Gallery 8: Ancient Costume

From Apsaras and kings to princesses and warriors, this room contains the busts and statues of distinct fashions and styles as they evolved throughout Angkor time. There's also a collection of ancient jewelry and headdresses. It's a clever segue to the final room -- the gift shop -- where upscale imitations of these fashions abound.

It's $12 to enter the museum, plus another $3 if you want to bring in your camera and another $3 for an educational headset. Sadly, like ticketing and management of the Angkor park, the museum is owned and run by a private company, so little of your admission money goes to Cambodia or to temple restoration (though what the company paid for the concession might). Still, it's perhaps better than these artifacts remaining in the hands of private collectors. A connected mall is still under construction but has a few open stores, including a Blue Pumpkin satellite, several souvenir shops and the sure sign of apocalypse.

Article Credit: Tourism Cambodia

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