Cambodia’s Green East Co. has targeted the Siem Reap temple tourism market by launching 21 weapons of mass attraction, in the form of “historically designed” boats.

The Kungkea-Angkor Boats, as they are officially called, will ply the waters of the moat on the southwestern side of Angkor Wat from July 7 onwards.

Sam Sothearit, chief of the personnel department at Green East told 7Days that the boats were modelled on renderings from Bayon temple’s sculptures.

Each boat cost just over $2000 to build, and foreign tourists will be charged $15 for a roughly 1.8 kilometre trip. Khmers will be charged $8.

Sam Sothearit, smoothly settling into his sales pitch, said, “I do believe that guests will come to ride and enjoy, and this project will succeed.”

He said a good sign was that some foreign tourists had already asked to rent the boats since the company brought them to Angkor from Phnom Penh in May.

He added that the company’s second phase will be to introduce rowboats on the Angkor Wat moat, but that plan is still on the drawing board.