Any weekday evening, Siem Reap’s Road 60 night market is a sprawling web of pop up bargain clothes and shoe stalls, fruit vendors, drinks sellers, kids amusements and also delicious foods and snacks.

To reach, Road 60 market (named after the long road on the edge of the city around which all the stalls are arranged) is an easy 30 minute trip by bicycle, or else a 15 minute tuk-tuk ride.

We started with exploring some of the clothes and snacking on a few new varieties of fruit. A little further  on begins ‘BBQ alley’, a one hundred metre stretch packed full of stalls selling a variety of mysterious barbecue meat. The picture above shows our final selection: a whole grilled quail, some grilled chicken leg, grilled frog filled with a ‘Khmer style stuffing’ of peanuts, ginger, lemon-grass, galangal and turmeric. Mouthwatering. And skewers of tender juicy chicken offal (hearts, livers and the female chicken reproductive organs complete with partially formed chicken eggs – I know it sounds disgusting but if you have an open mind I promise you that these are actually the most delicious parts of a chicken and they’re wasted on dog and catfood).

After picking our feast and checking the price (knowing a few words of Khmer really helped us here) you can choose to takeaway your food for later, or to sit and enjoy your meal complete with rice and sauces on a nearby ricemat, for a tiny additional cost. We decided to sit and enjoy the food Khmer style and we rewarded by some free Khmer sauces, salt and pepper into which you squeeze some fresh lime juice, and a simple sweet chili sauce. Sharing this meal between four people we paid a total of $8. For $2 per person we were extremely satisfied.

After an amazing meal, we strolled on to explore the amusement park section of the market. On offer is everything from bumping cars, coconut shy and balloon pop styled contests where you can win not only a cuddly toy but a range of kitchen equipment such as Tupperware, gas stoves and giant decorative ceramic animals. Further on were a dozen rentable trampolines packed with bouncing children, some merry-go-rounds and a giant bouncy castle slide crowned with a giant squatting Spider-Man which comically appeared to be pooping out toddlers.

For those interested to see the market but not sure where to start, a few hostels in town also offer tours to the market where they will show you around and encourage you to try some lesser known delicacies (spicy fried crickets and silk worms anyone?) They’ll also help you to buy or haggle for anything of interest and guide you through the process of how to order and eat dinner at one of the many street vendors. On our evening here we bumped into a tour being organised by the super enthusiastic and friendly guide ‘Jim’ from Siem Reap’s Downtown hostel (http://www.downtownsiemreaphostel.hostel.com). 

However you get to Road 60, it is well worth a visit!