Our Workaway Gig at Otres Beach Market Cambodia

Otres Beach Market Cambodia

Saturday’s Traveler Magnet

We landed a Workaway gig in Otres Beach, and out of our tiny window we could see the building site, and the trucks rolled continuously throughout the night delivering building materials. The dirt road through the town was potholed and uneven because of these big trucks shattering the peace. But it didn’t quash the laid back vibe of Otres.

The highlight event was a weekly Saturday market called Otres Market, which has a distinct festival feel of multiple live music performers, a lively cocktail and bar scene, and an eclectic mix of international cooking stalls.

Otres Beach Market Cambodia
The Bar menu chalked on the wall

It starts around 6pm, and when the live music ends around midnight, the DJ kicks the party into gear. There’s also a collection of stalls selling clothes, jewellry, bags and other nicknacks to entice you to wander around this enclosed venue overlooking the river.

Otres Beach Market Cambodia
Live bands each week at Otres Beach Market

If you happened to wander through town on a Saturday, you could mistake it for a ghost town, but up a side street, and sig zagging towards the river, is a dusty track that entices all those who live life, to eat, drink, and listen to their hearts content. What we loved about Otres Beach was the mix of people who live or pass through here.

Otres Beach Market Cambodia

Old. Young. Trendy. Techie. Hippy. Druggie. Bohemian. Creative. You name it, you’ll find them here. And you’ll find them mixing with each other and breaking down social barriers. People have a thirst for life here. They’re not sitting staring at a cell phone seeing what’s happening on Facebook. They’re interacting for real. We met such an amazing mix of travellers who were traveling through, and ended up putting down some temporary roots.

Otres Beach Market Cambodia
Stage area of Otres Beach Market

As Red said on more than one occasion “Otres Beach puts it’s arm around you, and entices you to stay awhile”. There wasn’t any cliqueiness, and there weren’t age barriers, social barriers, or personal philosophy barriers. It was a pure environment of live and let live.

You’re living a little on the edge when you spend your evening at Otres Market. There’s no food safety certificates given or displayed for any of the stalls, and the food vendors have carte blanche to cook whatever inspires them.

The brainchild behind this successful Otres experiment are Australian buddies Dave Allen and Salty (Andy) Mann. Salty has been in Cambodia since 2008, and met Dave after a couple of years. They rented a piece of riverside land and started formulating the concept of Otres Market.

Otres Beach Market Cambodia
Otres Beach Market in the day time – Red renovating our clock tower

The building is a mis-mash of levels and buildings, where bamboo and wood is the material of choice, and building regulations were as scarce as food safety. Where there was once a clock tower in the centre of the market, now there’s a enticing looking donut stall that Red and I renovated, and manned each Saturday selling donuts, iced coffee and tea, Bagels and Quiche.

Otres Beach Market Cambodia
Me working the stall at Otres Beach Market selling donuts

There was no escaping the heat and humidity at the market, and it’s river’s edge location meant the mosquitos were as prevalent and hungry as the stoned revelers. The stall was perfectly situated for a birds-eye view of the stage, and because people had to pass our stall to get to the toilets, we met so many different people from all around the globe.

We did a 6 hour shift, and packed up when the last music act left the stage and the DJ started spinning rave music. By that time I was usually dying for the toilet, because there was no chance I was going to use the toilet at Otres Market—I’ll leave the state of that to your imagination.

Once back at our accommodation, we’d be in dire need of a shower to wash of the sweat from our repellent ladened bodies.

Then it was time for one final gin and tonic before crawling into bed.

Exhausted.

Working a saturday night shift at #otresbeachmarket manning the clock tower stall selling donuts and quiche. #Workaway #Cambodia #volunteering Share on X

Flashpacking through Cambodia ebook cover for Baby Boomers on a Budget
Flashpacking through Cambodia

Flashpacking through Cambodia: For Baby Boomers on a Budget is my latest Roving Jay travel guide full of travel tips, advice, and sample itineraries for flash packers who want the back packing experience without foregoing some of life’s creature comforts – like a comfortable bed, a hot shower, free wi-fi, and somewhere to plug your electric toothbrush in.

I spent almost three months backpacking around Cambodia in 2017/2018 to research this travel guide, and I share insights and first hand knowledge of tourist traps and off-the-beaten-path discoveries. We ate street food, drank 50c beers, and travelled by train, bus, minivan and tuktuk to identify the best ways to get from A to B.

If you’d like to receive a free Review Copy ahead of the general public release, please click here.

Here’s my Cambodia posts on this blog:

 


 

Author: Roving Jay

Jay is a project manager who swapped corporate life for a nomadic existence as a travel writer. She works with authors and entrepreneurs to help them achieve their self-publishing goals and reach their target audience through content marketing. Jay has published a series of travel guides, a travel memoir, and nonfiction books about travel writing. She housesits and volunteers around the globe with her husband, a Hollywood set painter, and she’s never more that 10 paces away from a wi-fi connection.

22 thoughts on “Our Workaway Gig at Otres Beach Market Cambodia

  1. That market looks crazy! You must have had a fun time selling those donuts and listening to music. I’d love to hang out at a place like this.

      1. This is such an amazing experience. The atmosphere of the market and the live music and the fact that people are not glued to their phones is really amazing

  2. What a fun experience you had, minus the lack of clean toilet facilities! I bet it was a busy night with all those revellers especially on the doughnut stall. A fun piece to read about.

  3. Love that market scene and the stage area with live music. It’s so apt when you say : “They’re not sitting staring at a cell phone seeing what’s happening on Facebook”……we are so used to people doing that everywhere and anywhere. Here, people seem to be totally immersed and enjoying the experience. I would love to go to a place so full of life! 🙂

  4. Seriously Jay, you have such an interesting life! That stage with live music and so many colours seems like it is all in a day’s work + fun. I would love to do one of these workaways but I don’t think I can cope with the humidity. I am all for that gin & tonic anytime 🙂
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    1. Yes Cambodia was a cheap place for buying alcohol, no tax and really cheap. The beer was even cheaper than water, and a happy hour G&T was only $1.50

  5. What an adventure! I can just imagine the characters you met at the market 😂 Personally I love a night market, not sure I’d have been able to stay awake for the rave, but I’d definitely have given it a go!

  6. This sounds like a great adventure. I love how you immersed yourself in the local scene and manning that shop selling donuts must have been such a great experience!

  7. I love weekly funky markets with some music and great food and so visiting weekly Saturday market – Otres Market sounds tempting. Catching some unique festival feel of multiple live music performers, a lively cocktail and bar scene, and an eclectic mix of international cooking stalls must be fun here. Wow you sold donuts at your food stall too, that’s great.

  8. Once again, I appreciate your honesty, “building regulations were as scarce as food safety.” But the market at Otres Beach does sound like a lot of fun! Though not sure I could manage all the mosquitoes. I continue to enjoy reading about your workaway adventures.

    1. When you pop in and out of a destination it’s easy to focus on the positives and see it through rose tinted glasses, but when you slow travel I think you get more of a realistic impression of a place.

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