Shopping Districts in Siem Reap & Angkor Wat
A visual guide from the Siem Reap and Angkor Wat travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
Hup Guan Street is two blocks long and does more for Siem Reap's shopping reputation than any mall could: a row of low shophouses repainted white and mustard, holding a silk atelier, a homewares shop, a couple of small galleries and an Australian-run espresso bar, all within a three-minute walk. Traders christened it Kandal Village, though nobody lives in a village there. Five minutes south, the Old Market still smells of dried fish and lemongrass at seven in the morning and is selling scarves to visitors by ten.
The districts
Kandal Village, on and around Hup Guan Street, is the boutique end: textiles, ceramics, lacquer and design-led homewares from small independents. Psar Chas, the Old Market by the river, keeps a genuine wet market at its core and rings it with krama scarves, carvings and pepper, spilling out into Alley West and The Lane behind. The Angkor Night Market off Sivatha Boulevard and the riverside night markets open from late afternoon and lean heavily towards souvenirs. For an unfiltered version, Psar Leu sits east on National Road 6 and sells gold, hardware and produce to residents rather than travellers.
How to shop it well
US dollars are the working currency and riel comes back as small change under a dollar, at roughly 4,000 to the dollar. Haggling is expected in the markets and mildly out of place in Kandal Village boutiques, where prices are fixed and the makers are usually named on the label. The rhythms differ: Psar Chas is busiest for locals before eight, while the night markets run from about four until late. Genuine antiquities cannot legally leave Cambodia, so treat any carving sold as ancient purely as a reproduction. Artisans Angkor on Stung Thmey Street runs a workshop that can be walked through before buying.