Traditional cuisine

Cambodia’s Asian cuisine shares similarities with Thai and Vietnamese food but is by no means a lesser version. Soups, noodles, stir-fries, curries, fresh vegetables and tropical fruit are a plenty. Rice is a given staple at every meal, including breakfast. Pra-hok (a pungent fermented fish paste) and kapi (fermented prawn paste) are both regularly used to flavor dishes. If these acquired tastes are not to your liking, you can find multiple restaurants serving international cuisine, and many options to meet vegan, vegetarian or halal dietary requirements.

Landscape and wildlife

As the biggest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, the fascinating Tonlé Sap Lake in Siem Reap is filled by the only river in the world to flow in both directions; after draining in the dry season, the vast quantity of water in the Mekong River causes the Tonlé Sap River to reverse its flow during the rainy season. A diversely rich ecosystem results with a multitude of wildlife species, including Siamese crocodiles, Irrawaddy dolphins, Indochinese tigers, Asian elephants and sun bears.