Lights Bring Sparkle Back to Siem Reap
Photo shows Siem Reap city at night. Photo by Chamna
- By Ky Chamna
- April 6, 2022 3:52 PM
Province emerges from COVID darkness
When foreign travellers and tourists were forbidden to cross borders due to COVID health concerns, the lights at Siem Reap city were turned off. Lights on the streets. Lights on the bridges. Lights in restaurants and hotel lobbies.
For two years or so, lights have shone only during major festivals as local tourists relaxed and enjoyed themselves in this city of Angkor. Before the public health crisis, lights in Siem Reap brightened every night of the year.
However, as the city becomes healthier, the days of living in a cocoon have largely passed. The recovery, like a butterfly that has emerged from its pupa stage, is flapping its wings for all to see.
Light shows how lively a city is. At twilight, Siem Reap starts to sparkle. Headlights from cars from this province and from others flood the roads. Lights from restaurants and hotels assist sidewalk lamps in brightening pedestrian pathways.
Parking lots begin filling with cars and platoons of vehicles clog intersections.
Foreign tourists, the bread and butter of Siem Reap’s tourism income, have finally returned after COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed. Backpackers and vacationers, alone, as couples and as families, are gradually becoming more visible on the well-constructed pedestrian sidewalks and in the refurbished traditional-style Cambodian restaurants.
Music from food vendors and the chit-chat of souvenir sellers compete with the cries of cicadas. At the focal point of the city, webs of LED lamps criss-cross the width of Siem Reap Stream with a multitude of small Cambodian flags attached. The reflection from the water defies the idea of up and down.
Under the shimmering light of Chandra, or the moon, young people sit in groups discussing school life while couples sit in pairs romanticising long-lasting love.
Families drive around the newly laid tarmac roads seeking places for their children to run around.
During the day, along the Siem Reap stream, although the month of April is quite scorching for most people, natural leaves accommodate you at the bottom from earthy soil and at the top from heated sunray.
The beauty of Siem Reap province is still seeking a place in the hearts of people from around the world. Despite the awful darkness and death of the past few years, with the return of love and life, light will once again, bring hope to this province.
