Tonle Sap lake and Banteay Srei (May 27)

We spent part of the morning getting acclimated in Siem Reap.  Our hotel is beautiful, as I mentioned yesterday, and the first thing we did was to wash clothes.  This has been our modus operandi on this trip: new hotel, new city, first thing -- wash clothes and hang them up to dry.

Next, we visited the huge community of floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake, designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1997.  We took a bus and then got on one of the local "tour" boats and headed out of the canal to the lake.  There was lots of construction going on because apparently they are widening, lengthening, and deepening the canal so that cruise boats can come in.  The lake is huge -- one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world when it is at its highest in the wet season. The floating village communities are around 170+ strong, and around 1.2 million people live in floating houses in those communities on the lake.  The floating houses work well because the lake is shallow and smaller during the dry season, but gets immense and deep during the rainy season, so the houses dont have to worry about flooding; they just rise and lower with the water.  Unlike the reed islands in Lake Titcaca, these are all separate boats with separate houses, with only one thing per boat -- family house, school, restaurant, etc.

These are the kind of boats we go on for our tour of the floating village (we only went to one of them).  The lake is so vast, it's the only village we could see.

unique anchors

These boats were in "dry dock" being repaired so that they remain sea worthy

This is the boat where you can buy wood (bamboo, I think)  for construction of fish traps, etc.

a house with a large fish trap

There are pythons in the lake, and we saw boats filled with kids with pythons wrapped around the kids so that tourists would pay money to take a picture.  Fortunately, the phythons' mouths were taped shut but still . . . .  These kids and other boats were trying to make money from tourists who were stopping at the floating community store.

Lots of little kids floating around in these rubber ends of barrels.  Scary.

It was fun to see people tossing out nets to catch their dinner.

Then in the afternoon, some of us did a special tour of one of the sites in the huge Angkor Watt complex -- Banteay Srei, one of the oldest and most beautifully preserved temple sites in Cambodia.  Built in AD 967, Banteay Srei means "Citadel of Women" and is recognized as a tribute to female beauty.  It is also special because the stone used was pinkish in color, indicating it was the hardest of the sandstones, making it more difficult to carve but also long lasting.  The result?  Beautiful in-depth bas-relief carvings, some as intricate as woven tapestry.

our guide, Rath, tells us about construction of these early windows.  Rath had done considerable study of architecture and art, so for Harold and me, he was the perfect guide. 

the laterite, often used as the solid base of ancient structures in SE Asia

the carvings were amazing, especially considering this is a very hard limestone

On our way home, we stopped to see how palm sugar is made (and yes, we definitely tasted it, and even bought some) and we learned how to make rice noodles.  These first couple of pictures are of palm trees, and if you see bamboo posts running up the side, you know it is for climbing to the top to get the sugar of the palm.  Then they run it through a process to make a somewhat hard sugar candy, sort of like hard brown sugar.  It's okay -- if you like the kind of thing.

Our guide, Rath, climbing up the tree trunk.  Not for me.

We also stopped at a place and went through the entire process of making rice noodles.  Then we made a soup and everyone had a bowl -- delicious.

the rice was softened and made into dough

the dough was cooked

We pushed this wooden contraption around and around and while doing so, the rice was squeezed through tiny holes so that it became long and thin.

then the rice was dropped into hot water and cooked

note fire -- no gas ranges here!

and presto -- the soup was spiced up and eaten

bus trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (May 26)

We got up and set our suitcases outside our door again.  They were picked up and delivered to our bus.  We piled in and headed for Siem Reap – a 6-hour drive without stops, but we made several.  We left at 8:00 and got to our hotel at 4:30.

Our first stop was at a woman’s house who took us out to her backyard where we searched for tarantulas – seriously.  She found a large one, and she already had a bucket full of them, as well as a few scorpions.  Before she dropped this one in the bucket, she showed us how to clip them so that they were no longer poisonous.  Then we went back to her front yard where she cooked them in oil and garlic until they were crispy.  Then – you guessed it.  We tasted them -- seriously.  I only had one tarantualla leg – quite crispy and quite tasty.  Harold thought they were great and had several – seriously. We also tasted some rice wine that had tarantuallas soaking in it.  Supposedly this is really good for aches and pains. . . .

a tarantula hole.  It was covered by leaves.  She used a twig to brush the leaves aside and searched inside the hole to see if there was a tarantula big enough to eat.  The first one "we" found was small; the second one was large enough to eat. . . .

clipping off the poisonous fangs

She cooked up some scorpions too.

Harold still lives after at least one tarantula and several scorpions.  I had one tarantula leg and no scorpions.

Our second stop was at a group of artisans who were all a part of the same family.  They made decorative copper, silver, and brass pots, plates, containers, and various other decorative items.  Quite an involved process from the flat sheet all the way to the finished product.  We saw all the steps.  Julie bought a brass graceful container that had a lid.  This container holds water and is used by a couple who is getting married.  They put scented water in the container and sprinkle it on everyone.  The container then has spiritual significance for the couple, and they keep it forever.

Lunch was in a thatched roof restaurant by the water.  They also had a large shop; Julie bought a blouse for herself and a couple of post cards for Quinn and Julian.

Last stop was at a bridge built in the 12th century.  Quite an amazing structure, and it’s still solid although no large vehicles can go across it.  The rock base was quite similar to the Incan mortarless structures we saw in Peru.

Our hotel is beautiful – the Angkor Regency, large rooms, great swimming pool, beautiful lobby, etc.

We went out for dinner, and Rath, our guide, gave us a bit of a narrated tour of the city of Siem Reap as we were driving.  Quite a touristy city, but it’s going to be a great location for the next four days.  Sat with Jeanette and Hal at dinner. and had a nice time talking with them.

Then it was home to bed.