On one sunny day in Siem Reap we decided to hit up West Mebon Lake. There are certain places that no matter how hard you look you will only truly discover if you have a local fixer. It was via a newly recruited food explorer that we headed to find the culinary delights of West Mebon lake…
Getting to West Mebon
If you’re driving you need to head yourself out towards the airport before on the final road to the airport heading left to West Mebon (Baray) lake, rather than Siem Reap International airport. via grab you’d be close to a $10 ride.
West Mebon lake
You park on arrival to which you are already greeted by street food stands, but it is the main drag when you climb up to the lake when you are greeted with street food heaven!
Street Food at West Mebon Lake
So, this sit here I got all excited and did a lot of filming! There’s huge whole chickens, deep fried quail and of course lots and lots of river fish, some steamed, or smoked, with others being full fish that are just fried and eaten whole!
We started with sweet sticky rice that was cooked in bamboo and then served hot, filling and a real favorite of the area. We then moved on to some small whole fish, which were a bit sour, but certainly flavoursome.
And they got bugs….
Eating bugs in Cambodia is not weird, it is not a delicacy it is just food. We only tried a few, as we were going to go on a big frenzy later, but in many ways salted bugs do taste like you’re eating crisps………..
And then there was boating…..
The river looked amazing and as well as having covered areas for people to chill had kids swimming and enjoying the weather. Amazingly you could RENT swimming trunks, although due to hygiene reasons we decided against.
You could though go boating and for $10 a guy agreed to take us to an island, a nice if not rough 15 minute journey before we were met by some bat shit crazy amphibious rice farming type vehicle that would take us from the boat to a temple. The temple at West Mebon was not all that great, but the boat trip combined with the amphibious vehicle, and of course stunning scenery made it all worth while.
Overall opinion?
An amazing place with amazing food! We were here during the Khmer New Year holiday, so much busier than usual, but still a really relaxing vibe and somewhere I would love to head back to with an empty belly and my swimmers!
The Street Food Guy like West Mebon lake!
