Markets, crafts and what to bring home

Cambodia has a real craft tradition — silk, silver, stone carving, ceramics, pepper — and a large parallel trade in mass-produced goods shipped in and sold as local. Telling them apart is not difficult once you know what to look at, and the difference in what your money does is considerable.

The markets worth your morning

In Phnom Penh: Central Market for the 1937 art deco dome as much as the goods, Russian Market for silk, silverware and the best browsing, and Orussey for the version locals actually use. In Siem Reap: Phsar Chas, the old market, in the morning before the tour groups, and Made in Cambodia market for vetted local makers.

What is actually made here

Kampot pepper, with its protected designation, is the single best thing to bring home and weighs nothing. Cambodian silk — look for the ikat weave, hol, where the pattern is dyed into the thread before weaving. Silver betel boxes and bowls. Stone and wood carving from the Angkor workshops. Palm sugar, prahok if you are brave, and rice-paper baskets.

And the krama, the checked cotton scarf, which is worn by everyone here for everything and costs two or three dollars. It is the least touristy souvenir in the country precisely because it is not a souvenir.

Bargaining

Expected in markets, not in shops with fixed prices. Ask the price, offer around sixty percent, settle somewhere in the middle, and do it smiling. Walking away is a legitimate move and is often met with a better price, but only walk away if you actually mean it. Do not grind someone down over the equivalent of fifty cents: the gap that feels like a win to you is a meal to them.

What not to buy

Anything presented as a genuine Angkorian antiquity — exporting antiquities is illegal and almost all of it is fake anyway. Ivory, and any wildlife product. And the branded electronics and cosmetics sold at improbable prices, which are exactly what they appear to be.

Common questions