Very much like in Tsukiji, the wholesale market takes place between 2 and 5 in the morning, followed by the regular market which i visited at 6:00AM
At 6:00AM, the streets are pretty quiet but the food market is already buzzing.
Store owners are opening up while most fruit vendors are already set.
He insisted on paying that coffee and i felt really dumbOn my first day, i made an interesting encounter. While passing by a coffee stand with my camera, someone hailed at me in a very good english asking if i wanted a coffee. Truth is that at 6am, it’s hard to refuse.. So i sat down, got an amazing iced coffee (similar to the Vietnamese ones) and started a very nice conversation with a man named Narith.
Making a really dark and rich coffee
He insisted on paying that coffee and i felt really dumb – western guy with a nice camera getting his coffee paid by a local – so i told him that my customs commanded me to return the favor and that i would buy him coffee the next day. He conceded that he was there every morning at 6AM, but i think he didn’t really believed me.. Surely enough, i was there the next day, waiting for him and we had an even nicer chat!
As the sun rose on the habitation buildings surrounding the market, it felt time to explore it…
The market and its people
The outer edges and outside galleries are mainly reserved for fruits and veggies vendors.
Cambodia has a long tradition of vendors selling directly on the ground.
Round shapes: rambutans, lychees, and duck eggs
Shredded lemon grass and carefully selected chilis for the best curries!
The inside area is split into 2, a big open area for meat and fish vendors and a few inside galleries for clothing and supplies stores. Although it might sound organized, a beautiful chaos is really taking place.
Inside, the Meat and Fish sections. What i loved is how scooters come and go everywhere to pick-up or drop-off stuff.
Nothing to hide it’s all in front of your eyes!
Shop owers, womens hard at work. The lady on the left getting grumpier every morning at the camera while her neighbor kept on socializing!
i might have a thing for butchers..
The Northern section is dominantly occupied by breakfast vendors cooking meals on the spot.
You’d pass through stands of fresh soya and noodles waiting to be fried up together.
Along the narrow alleys of vendors, it’s a range of colorful products and delicacies that jump to the visitor’s eye.
And always a candid eye to the visitor taking interest at what they are doing.
It’s easy to get curious about products and how they are displayed.
or sometimes it’s the local sense of fashion that stops you.
Kids are also very open to foreigners and making faces or blinking provokes laughter on both sides.
Sometimes in places you dont expect them to be!
After a couple hours, it’s time to head back. Compose your sleepy sweetheart’s breakfast as one should never come back from the market empty-handed.
If you can deal with the smell and sight of the market, it’s definitely worth going back several times. People felt much more at ease with me taking pictures after a few days, when i knew their names or what they were selling.
And yes, i have a thing for butchers..