Wat Bo Pagoda, near the Siem Reap River on the east side, is one of the oldest in Siem Reap and a peaceful place to escape and take a break to visit the main sites of the nearby Angkor temple.

Immerse yourself in a culture sometimes requires getting away from tourist honeypots. Wat Bo, which gives the area of ​​the city the name where a backpacker accommodation center can also be found, is a quiet pagoda that is worth stopping if you are interested in connecting more with the spiritual side of Cambodia.

The country may be Buddhist, but this eighteenth-century pagoda is particularly notable for its detailed wall paintings depicting Reamker, the Cambodian version of one of the great Hindu epics, Ramayana. The mural mount of intricate Khmer art is finely painted on the walls. Although, for some, time has had its impact, many are still well preserved. That being said, not everyone can be seen easily and not just because it is gloomy inside, but because you would need to be on stilts to see tall.

The patchwork of paintings is especially interesting here, as it also depicts daily life and shows how scenes, such as shopping in the marketplace, have changed little over time. You will also see the aliens painted in hundreds of strange scenes, such as a row of French soldiers - there are some eyebrow raising clothes to be seen, as well as customs, such as smoking suspicious substances ...