4 Best Sights in Cambodia

Here at this lively flea market, you can practice your bargaining skills and get lost in a maze that includes a food hall, massage stands, bars, and an enormous variety of clothes, accessories, souvenirs, food and cosmetic products, jewelry, and more.

An inescapable sightseeing destination in Phnom Penh is the colonial-era Central Market, built in the late 1930s on land that was once a watery swamp. This wonderfully ornate building with a soaring dome retains some of the city's once prominent art-deco style. The market's Khmer name, Phsar Thmei, translates as "new" market to distinguish it from Phnom Penh's original market, Phsar Chas, near the Tonle Sap River; it's popularly known as Central Market, however. Entry into the market is through one of four grand doors that face the directions of the compass. The main entrance, facing east, is lined with souvenir and textile merchants hawking everything from cheap T-shirts and postcards to expensive silks, handicrafts, and silverware. Other stalls sell electronic goods, cell phones, watches, jewelry, household items, shoes, secondhand clothing, flowers, and just about anything else you can imagine.

This historic central market, built in the art deco style during French rule, is a great spot to buy fresh foods, gems, and Battambang's famous fruit—lime-green oranges. Vendors sell everything from tourist souvenirs to electronics imported from China. Some stalls have textiles, but most of these are imported.

This popular covered market earned its nickname in the 1980s, when the wives and daughters of Russian diplomats would often cruise the stalls on the lookout for curios and antiques. Today the market has a good selection of Cambodian handicrafts and produce for sale. Wood carvings and furniture abound, as do "spirit houses" used for offerings of food, flowers, and incense. Colorful straw mats and hats, as well as baskets, are in high demand. The market is one of the city's best sources for art objects, including statues of the Buddha and Hindu gods; you can also buy old Indochinese coins and paper money printed during different periods of Cambodia's history—though note sometimes these are just replicas. A jumble of stalls concentrated at the market's south side sells DVDs, videos, and electronics. It's also a great place to buy overstock clothes from Cambodia's numerous garment factories at a fraction of their official retail price.