Stores, Malls or Markets in Cambodia

Les Artisans d'Angkor is a craft school in Siem Reap that trains young rural Khmers in the ancient Angkor-era skills of stone carving, wood carving, lacquer, and silk weaving. Funded largely by European donors, the goal of the school is to encourage a revival in these traditional crafts while at the same time creating a generation of self-supporting skilled craftsmen. Most of the work produced is in reproductions of classic Angkor-era art, including stone elephants, wooden apsaras, silk clothing, and lacquer dishes displaying scenes taken from temple bas reliefs.

Upon visiting the school, you will be given a brief tour through the various workshops where you will see the young craftsmen and their teachers hard at work. Then you can browse the showroom which contains many fine pieces created by these talented students. Tours are available in English, French, German, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Khmer, daily from 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Crafts from Les Artisans d'Angkor can also be purchased from their duty-free shops in the Siem Reap and Phnom Penh airports.

What to buy: Hand-carved stone animals (elephants, turtles, etc.), stone plaques with relief carvings, wooden statues or relief plaques, laquer dishes and bowls, silk clothing.

What to pay: More expensive than most souvenir shops in town, but good quality. Most importantly, it is non-profit and supports a good cause.

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In the main shop located in front of the provincial hospital, a large range of nice silk clothing available ''made to measure'' in 24h. You can also come with your own model or drawing for tailor made.
Samatoa do their own quality silk in the village and tailor the clothes in Siem Reap. They support fairtrade and their way to process natural silk seems totally ecological.
A second shop newly opened is located in the ground floor of Lucky Mall and proposes a collection of silk handbags, scarves, purses...

What to buy: Tailor Made silk dress

What to pay: 80-180 USD

You can almost everything here at a very cheap price. Do some bargain. But don't rely on your Cambodian guide to bargain for you because they simply wouldn't do that. Why? I think because Cambodian is a very proud people. The don't beg and they don't bargain....hmmm.... But personlly you can do it yourself. The shopper are friendly.

What to buy: Opss refer above

What to pay: Everything is in USD. But with USD 50 be prepared to bring back lot of clothes.

Silk can be found in cheap or expensive forms. Tablecloths, cushion covers, purses (as low as $5 as high as $30 or $40).

Raw silk blouses and shirts at Russian market for $6 each (maybe less) -
Also wrap around skirts, great looking, long, design on the bottom.

Wonderful pieces of silk with ikat, you can tie it like a sarong. All the same items were in the market at Angkor Wat.

Then, also at the high end, there are artisan shops - as in a workshop you can visit in Angkor Wat. Or at Khmer Attitude - fancy shop

What to buy: I really liked the silk blouses with long belled sleeves and wrap around, so they are snug at the waist. These were expensive at Khmer Attitude and well-made. They had cute silk purses
plain brigh colors, $30, but I bought cheap ones for $6 in the covered market.

Pepper - Definitely! Ground or whole. It is not expensive.

A kind of balm like tiger balm for sore muscles -

Also there are very cute pictures in a stylized, brightly colored, child's perspective. Seem perfect for people with smaller children.

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Samatoa is a community group that specialises in producing silk clothing. Their desire from the start has been to re-introduce the unique quality of natural Cambodian silk using the knowledge of skilled weavers and tailors.
I found the shop wonderfull and the service of tailor-made highly professional.

What to buy: Natural Silk Clothing
Natural Silk Fabrics
Natural Silk accessories (silk scarves, silk handbags....)

What to pay: from 20 to 200$

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Between Phnom Penh and Siem Riep, about an hour before you get to siem riep you have a small village where the inhabitants have specialised in carving things in stones.
It's really an odd sight coming through this little village where you have large newly made buddah staues sitting all over and dozens of guys working on new ones.
The big statues are mostly sold to wealthy cambodians and to temples, but they do carve smaller things too that you can carry as a tourist and the prices are very resonable.
I bought myself a freshly made little elephant statue for 5 dollars the last time i was there.

Store No. 983,984,985,986 in the Russian Market in Phnom Penh. Outstanding prices on silk by the meter. Much cheaper than in Siem Reap. Go check it out for youself!

What to pay: You wouldn't believe me if I told you...

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Phsar Tmey aka Central Market. Its a nice shopping place but ccan be a little to hot and humid in there. I cant stand to shop for more than 30 minutes inside there. Shop owners call for you too look at their stuff its worse when they know you are a cambodian traveller. Phsar Tmey has travel books such as Lonley Planet for $5. You can find many khmer art, flags and souveniers. Whne you go inside you can find electronics accesories such as batterys, cassetes and dvds. Also They have lots of stalls that sells jewlerrys. I bought a camera stand from there, a luggage bag, a cambodia flag, 2 pair of jeans and 2 shirts. I think it costed me under $35.

Phsar Orusey on the oustide has fruits and vegetables and food. When you go inside you have plenty of household items such as pots and pans, towels and kitchen appliances. Upstairs has jewlerrys and clothes. My uncle has a shop up there he sells cargo shorts and random shirts. My mom and dad spent close to $100 on "kroma" or cotton scarf.

Phsar Soriya is the most modern mall in Phnom Penh. Its a 4 or 5 floor building to go along with escaltors for every floor. They have electronic shops with plasma tv and HD camcorders, nice designer clothes and shoes. Also they have a burger king look a like inside and a food court that looks like north america. This is the shop for the rich :). I spent close to $150 bucks at this mall on DVDs, Jeans and shirts.

What to buy: Most of the markets sell the same stuff. It is very organzied liek one section will sell only clothes, one section will sell only jewlerys, once part will sell only electronics. This is also the same way for the street shops. If you want to get your pictures printed you will have 5 stores that can do that for you, all side by side. Or if you want a DVD player or TV, a street will have 10 shops side by side that will have what you need. Its very neat.

What to pay: All items adn products at there shops and markets are negotiable. But remember when bartering with them try to put yourself in their shoes when 50 cents to us is nothing but a lot to them. Try to be generous and help them out they have kids to feed. But bartering is fun....hehe