Khmer cuisine is closely related to her neighboring countries Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Even though it is similar, there are still many special foods in Cambodia like Amok, Tirk Kreoung, Curries, Lap, Phlea, Samlor Kor Ko, Sach Ko Luc Lac, Bok Svai Kchei, Samlor Macho.

Khmer food takes influences from a variety of countries. Cambodia was a French colony for many years and also has many Chinese immigrants, so both French and Chinese foods are widely found. In the west of the country, the cuisine is, naturally, influenced by the food of neighboring Thailand while in the east the flavors of Vietnamese cuisine are more evident. Coastal towns such as Sihanoukville in the southwest are famous for their seafood, cooked in many styles, including Japanese and European. Common ingredients in Khmer cuisine are similar to those found in other Southeast Asian culinary traditions – rice and sticky rice, fish sauce, palm sugar, lime, garlic, chilies, coconut milk, lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime and shallots.

The food was delicious. I am not adventurous with food in Singapore but over in Cambodia I was willing to try their unique dishes as I found them very visually appetizing. There was one paricular dish that left a deep impression of the Cambodian food in me. It was stir-fried duck feet. It looked very tasty but it did not go well with my taste bud. There was another unique way of cooking food which was called Suki hotpot. We took the raw food before we put them into the boiling hotpot. The hotpot used pork fats as the substitute for oil. It was sumptuous meal after all. XD

The Cambodians were influenced in terms of cuisine from the western, Chinese and Japanese. They have sushi, salads, dim sum, French breads, hams, congee and spaghetti from the various other cultures. They use chopsticks, which is Chinese influence; and knife, which is western influence. For buffet style, most dishes are put in covered up food containers and kept warm, while others is arranged on big plates in fanciful manner, arranged accordingly to main course, soup dishes, desserts, salads and drinks. Examples of some desserts are green bean soup, tau suan, and ‘Bobo-chacha’.

Interestingly enough, for restaurants where you order food courses, their rice is being scooped from a big tub, or bowl, onto the plates at the table by the waiter, instead of carrying out plates of rice like that in Singapore restaurants does. All dishes have a serving spoon. Their meals comprise of at least a soup, noodles, fish, chicken, vegetables, tofu and egg. The dishes are a mix of sweet and salty flavours, and chilli is usually left up to the individual to add them. Coconut milk is the main ingredient of many Khmer curries and desserts, and they have a lot of different other unique sauces for food items; while in Singapore, it is seldom to find a great variety of sauces. They even have glass-bottle sodas, which is difficult to find in Singapore!

Khmer royal families are very in tuned with elegant style of costumes and members of the urban middle and upper classes may wear Western style clothing at work and more traditional clothing at home. In rural areas, working men and women may wear loose-fitting pants and shirts or blouses. The third essential part of Khmer dress is the krama, or long scarf, that is worn around the neck, over the shoulders, or wrapped turban-style around the head. The conical hat of the Vietnamese has been adopted to a certain extent by Khmer in the provinces adjacent to Vietnam.

Angkor Wat, built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II, honors the Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Hindu cosmology. Consisting of an enormous temple symbolizing the mythic Mt. Meru, its five inter-nested rectangular walls and moats represent chains of mountains and the cosmic ocean. The short dimensions of the vast compound are arranged in a particular order to give observers a three day anticipation of the spring equinox.

Ta Prohm's walls, roofs, chambers and courtyards have been sufficiently repaired to stop further deterioration, and the inner sanctuary has been cleared of bushes and thick undergrowth, but the temple has been left in the stranglehold of trees. Having planted themselves centuries ago, the tree's serpentine roots pry apart the ancient stones and their immense trunks straddle the once bustling Buddhist temple.

During half-millennia of Khmer occupation, the city of Angkor became a pilgrimage destination of importance throughout Southeastern Asia. Angkor was forgotten for a few centuries but it was due to some wandering Buddhist monks who came across the awesome ruins. The restoration has continued to the present day, excepting periods in the 70's and 80's when military fighting prevented archaeologists from living near the ruins.

In Kampong Cham Province, there was a cotton-spinning textile factory, some silk-weaving operations, and an automobile tire and tube plant. Batdambang Province had shops for repairing farm implements, a cotton gin and textile mill, a jute-bag factory, an automobile and tractor repair plant, and a phosphate-fertilizer plant. In the municipality of Kampong Saom and in the neighboring Kampot Province, rice mills, lumber mills, small brick and tile factories, power plants, oil refinery, a tractor-assembly plant, cement and phosphate factories, and a refrigeration plant used for storing fish were reported to be in operation.

In the important industrial center of Ta Khmau, Kampot Province, there was a tire factory (possessing its own generator, but lacking rubber and spare parts), several mechanical workshops, and warehouses. Small family-run businesses and private enterprises specializing in weaving, tailoring, and small manufactured products grew rapidly. Industries also contributed significantly to the economic recovery. Output value of local and handicraft industries together amounted to 50% of the value of production in state industries in 1984. In Phnom Penh alone, there were 1,840 handicraft shops whose output value rose from 14 million riels in 1981 to 50 million riels in 1984.

In 2006, Cambodia's mineral resources remained, to a large extent, and unexplored. What are foreign investors interested in? Offshore oil and gas, as well as such land-based metallic minerals as bauxite, copper, gold, and iron ore, and such industrial minerals as gemstones and limestone. Identified mineral resources in Cambodia were bauxite, carbonate rocks, natural gas, gemstones, gold, manganese, petroleum, phosphate rock, salt, silica, and zircon. Mining activities involves the production of laterite blocks (red soil), limestone for cement manufacturing, sand and gravel, and crude stone as construction materials. Other minerals, such as gemstones and gold, reportedly were mined in the central province of Kampong Cham and the North Eastern provinces of Mondol Kiri and Ratanakiri

Cambodia's export-oriented garment industry has contributed greatly to poverty reduction in the country through employment of the poor. The entry-level workers receive wages far above the poverty line. The females make up the predominant share of the main category jobs in the industry. Barriers to employment and to promotions up to certain job categories are not high in terms of education and experience. Cambodia's pattern of industrial development led by a labor-intensive industry is similar to that of neighboring countries in East Asia which earlier went through the initial stage of industrial development, except that Cambodia has lacked a strong government industrial promotion policy which characterized the earlier group