We wanted to spend a bit of time seeing the centre of Siem Reap; what we briefly saw yesterday impressed us. We set out to hit a few of the local markets and get some lunch. First point of call was the central market. Compared to yesterday's, this was more like the Asian markets we were used to. People just shouting at you to come and look at their wares, as if their particular tatty elephant statues or the multitude of silk scarves were somehow different from the 90 other people selling them. We did buy a few gifts; we displayed incredible negotiation skills by just remaining silent, suddenly we would get 50% off #madskills.

We wandered a little around the centre, which was clearly just made for tourists, but was done with a little more class than most places; it didn't look like it had sold it's soul (despite having a place named Pub Street). However, it's supposed to be quite a lot different in the evening, so we'll reserve proper judgement until then. With our choice from many decent lunch spots, we went to a reasonably local looking one, which turned out to be the absolute right choice (it usually is). 

That evening we headed back to the centre, which had indeed changed. Lots of lights, tuk tuk drivers and stall owners trying to encourage you to buy their stuff. First was tea, which usually in anywhere like this would involve being ripped off six ways from sunday. But when a) there are so many choices and b) being ripped off would mean an extra dollar or two, it doesn't really matter. So we went for a traditional Khmer BBQ (if there is such a thing). It was very good and alongside the $1 beers, a pretty good meal overall. Fed and watered, it gave us the strength to have a look at everything else. To our surprise, it wasn't as tacky and gaudy as these things can sometimes be. Pub Street looked very cool, lots of lights on the bars and people having a good time, still grilled tarantulas for photos at a price, but no ridiculous music and people drunk out of their mind.