Siem Reap

Siem Reap is a small tourist city on the northern side of Lake Tonle Sap, about 300 km northwest of the capital Phnom Penh.
Such a small town will be the base for sightseeing in the Angkor ruins.
With a population of about 200,000, it is the fifth largest city in Cambodia and is considered to be a city that supports the nation with huge tourism income.

The Siem Reap region was once a vassal state of Siam (now Thailand) for centuries.
For this reason, Siem Reap literally translates to "the place where the Siamese were defeated" and has a history of being named after the victory of the Khmer over the army of the Ayutthaya dynasty.

In addition, this city is the land where successive royal families built the capital as if competing for power, and many castles from that time are still preserved as the Angkor ruins.

However, the Cambodian civil war that began in 1975 under the Pol Pot regime made this city no exception.
The city of Siem Reap and the Angkor archaeological district, which were damaged at that time, have undergone a lot of restoration work to this day, and are steadily recovering.

When the government began to allow foreign tourists to enter the country, many tourists came to stay in Siem Reap as a base for sightseeing in Angkor, earning a stable income. Partly because of this, hotels and restaurants are being built and renovated, and the city is showing rapid changes every year, developing as a tourist city year by year.
However, the charm of this city is not limited to the Angkor ruins.