MARKETS IN SIEM REAP

Siem Reap is the city you'll most likely fly into if you want to head to the magnificent temples of the Angkor area in Cambodia. The city has around 300,000 inhabitants and, as tourism booms here, it keeps growing and growing. I stayed four nights and could probably have managed a few more days here. For one thing, I'd have set aside even more time for exploring the temples, and then I'd have had more time to look around the city itself. That I ended up at a local market in Siem Reap was pure chance.

On my last day, on the way by tuk-tuk to the more distant and smaller temples, I passed the market. So I arranged with the driver to stop for a moment, letting me pop through the market and take some photos. Even though Cambodia is a very poor country, at the market you'll find an inexhaustible abundance of fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. There was lively bustle here in the morning, and my eyes could hardly take it all in. I don't think I'd ever seen so many different things for sale in one place. One market woman was selling little catfish, another gutted frogs....... Some kinds of vegetables I didn't even recognise.

Markets are truly a feast for the eyes and are without question among the most interesting places you can visit in Asia. Alongside the outdoor market, where mostly vegetables, fruit and meat are sold, there's an indoor market. There, who would have expected it, are many stalls selling gold jewellery, which is not only sold here but also made. And besides gold, you can buy pretty much anything you can think of here. From shoes to pots. And when hunger strikes, there are several eateries right here where you can eat your fill. I tried green mango with chilli, sugar and salt.

Then it was time to head back among the ancient temples, but I'd taken such a liking to the market that I immediately arranged with the driver to come back here on the way home. I wanted to walk through the market once more and soak up more of the local atmosphere that had so amazed me that morning. I write about the temples in various other articles from Cambodia, so I won't dwell on that here and will skip straight ahead a few hours to when we were returning to Siem Reap and stopped at the market for a second time.

It was already past noon, so the bustle here had calmed down considerably. Some stalls were already sold out or even closed. Suddenly the market had a completely different atmosphere. Only a few customers wandered around; some were having lunch in the eateries, others were leaving for home with their shopping. And it's from this very moment that the opening photo comes — the butcher woman who has strung up a hammock in her stall and is resting. I really love this photo; there are so many different details in it to discover. I'm already looking forward to printing it in large format, because all those little things will then stand out even more. It's a kind of embodiment of well-earned rest, because many market traders begin their work the night before, when they go to buy goods at some wholesale market, then set everything up at their stall and spend the whole day trying to sell it. Back in Vietnam I'd already thought to myself what demanding work it is to do this day after day, getting up at 3 a.m. and coming home at eight in the evening. There, all the women selling refreshments by the busy roads operated in a similar way. On top of that, they had to breathe in clouds of fumes all day from the thousands of motorbikes passing by.

I have to say that meat and fish markets in particular always strike me as the most photogenic of all. In fact, to this day I've never quite understood how the locals manage to keep the meat, because after it's been on display at the stall all day in such heat, it must be all but inedible. I have a theory that they only ever sell roughly enough meat to last a single day, and then fresh is brought in. As for anything being kept in chilled boxes or refrigerators here, you can only dream of it.

Get up early and arrange with your driver to start your day right here at this market. Experience the authentic atmosphere and bustle of an absolutely fabulous, large market — sadly the kind that is dwindling all over the world as trade moves into shops and supermarkets.

Make it clear to your driver that you really want a market for locals, or you may easily end up being driven to some touristy souvenir market. The market lies in the city along the road toward the Bakong and Preah Ko temples.

Gear: Because part of the market is roofed (so there isn't much light) and it's certainly not comfortable to fumble around in that hustle with a lot of big gear, I warmly recommend shooting here with a fast prime lens. A 50mm f/1.8 or 35mm f/1.8, for example, are great for this kind of photography.