Not only Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s famous ancient temple, beach town in Sihanoukville is just another emerging tourist destination. Lately, in a bid to welcome more visitors to Sihanoukville, an airport has been reopened.

On the southern part of the country is Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s “beach town” or “port community” which sits in the center of a small peninsula jutting into the gulf of Thailand… You know what’s the only problem with Sihanoukville? Alas, there’s no Internet! That’s okay. We had a very relaxing weekend where we immersed ourselves in the sun and the sea and oh those sumptuous lobsters!

And yes, one of the most interesting things about Cambodia is: a good place to stay and to take photo. Let’s take a look at some beautiful snapshots by Ian Miller.

Sihanoukville airport in Cambodia’s main coastal city has reopened in a bid to attract more visitors as part of the government’s open sky policy. The first air link between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap would encourage visitors to extend their stay to enjoy Cambodia’s sandy beaches after touring the temples.

A Soviet-made Antonov-24 plane belonging to a locally owned airline company landed at the Sihanoukville airport following an opening ceremony Jan. 13, said Norinda Khek, spokesman for Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports, or SCA, a subsidiary of the French construction group Vinci.

Experts say Cambodia should not heavily rely on great Angkor Wat temple to survive its tourism sector, and suggest that more destinations needed as well.

The country’s tourism sector has been developing rapidly in the past few years, becoming a major source of income for the cash-strapped Southeast Asian country. About 1.7 million tourists visited Cambodia last year, roughly a 20 percent increase over 2005. About half of the visitors went to see Angkor temples in Siem Reap province, Cambodia’s main tourism hub.

Analog Cambodia posted an interesting piece of story about a local market in Siem Reap, Cambodia’s largest tourist center. For tourists who don’t want to be fed up with too many gifts and hassled by vendors, Big New Market or Psar Leu Thom Thmey would be a good place.

This is the other local market in Siem Reap. The one that is not filled with souvenirs or tourist junk, where products are a reasonable price and you don’t get hassled by vendors trying to sell you a soapstone Buddha, woven hammock or Angkor Wat t-shirt.

Wonder how you can get around Cambodia? There is no underground, no subway, and very few railways. Take TukTuk then.

You could use one of these tuktuks… their equivalent of our tricycle. This picture is courtesy of Bobby Viceral, outgoing President of the Samahan ng mga Pilipino sa Cambodia.

Scam scares tourists all the time, especially first-time travelers. The beauty of the country is one thing, but the way a few local people treat tourists is just another way. Every tourist look for welcoming smile from the place they visit. In Siem Reap, one of the largest tourist destination, with no surprise, scam is just starting to grow. However, being informed of the situation is likely the most important thing of wise travelers.

The scam involves offering a ridiculously cheap bus fare to get you on board then extorting money from you by forcing you to buy visa’s at inflated prices, exposing you exclusively to their money changers and delivering you to their guesthouse in Siem Reap which of course is inconveniently located outside of town. The whole racket is obviously quite profitable for nearly everyone involved. Easy money like this is rare in poverty stricken Cambodia.

Statistic tells the fact. Tourism of Cambodia agency’s statistic indicates that more than 1.4 million Koreans, Japanese and American tourists visited the country in 2005.

Angkor Wat remains the jewel of the nation’s tourism industry. Several more historical temples like Bayon and Banteay-Srei, and the scenic beaches of Sihanoukville and the French colonial architecture in Phnom Penh complement the travellers’ itinerary.

Rat meat is not food to most people, but not to some in Battambang, Cambodia’s second-largest city. Without surprise, the province is widely known for its producitivty rice output, where rice fields are home to rats. And During the Khmer Rouge era, from 1975 to 1979, most Cambodians got used to this delicious food.

And with rice comes rats – grain-fattened paddy rats that connoisseurs say are delicious barbecued, boiled or roasted in a heady mixture of lemongrass, turmeric and garlic.
‘The last rice has just been harvested, so the rats are ready. They are coming onto the market now, and the next three months while they are in season are very good business for us,’ says restaurateur Chhrut Hen, 24.