West Baray

I love to see and experience what locals do. It’s a reservoir that provides water for most of Siem Reap and a place where many locals meet on weekends. There are lots of things “built for tourists” in Cambodia, and it’s a great way to just spend time with locals and see how they enjoy the good times. During the dry season, you can walk or ride through the reservoir and see a temple on a small island. Man-made reservoir, but really big. Khymer in Siem Reap uses this as their beach. About 10 km from the city. Really worth seeing. Many people swim here. Quite safe. There are boats for rent. Many local street food here are cheap. It’s cheap to rent beds here and must be rented. It’s going to get hot here so the shades are very important. Most of them are Khymer families. Some small restaurants on the lake and river are back in Siem Reap. Really cheap. Highly recommended.

Xichi is a result of the Angkor Kingdom Water Conservancy Project. See the introduction, in the 1st century AD, Angkor vigorously built water conservancy, and built the East Pool, Xichi, Beichi, Luolaichi, Royal Bath and Angkor Temple moats, Tongwangcheng moats. The grand water system that communicates thousands of small pools and pipes. This huge water system, in addition to irrigation for farmland, also takes into account the water and drainage of cities and temples, is the contribution of the Kingdom of Angkor to human civilization. But now the water project has been ruined, leaving Xichi to prove the existence of the water project. Now Xichi is more a attraction for local residents to relax here, like the beach in Siem Reap.

If the tour guide did not tell me that this small lake is called Xichi, in the history of Cambodia is very famous Xichi, maybe we will not notice it at all, after the tour guide explained that everyone was a little surprised, this pool was once a small part of the huge water conservancy project in Angkor City, The water in the pool was said to treat various diseases and contribute to local irrigation.

Xichi is a relatively large artificial lake in Siem Reap, very beautiful, more people go

Because it's far away, it's interesting to see the lake and the people who live here when I come. Along the occasionally bumpy long and rugged road, take a relatively long TUK TUK to get here.