The first stop was at the roadside, where we sampled the local favourite of fried banana and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. Not to everyone's taste, but for a quick snack it is very popular with the locals who stop at the various stalls set up along the roads.
The roads are in quite a bad state in some places, with several pot holes, which made the bus driver swerve to try to avoid them and us to be thrown about a bit within, especially as the buses are not fitted with safety belts. Watching some of the over taking along the road is also quite interesting. There doesn't seem to be any right of way for anybody, but somehow it all works. There are a lot of motor cycles and mopeds on the roads, with sometimes up to,four people riding on each, often parents and very young children, no helmets or safety seats, handlebars or clinging on to each other will do.
Our second stop was at a small silk farm, which was set up 19 years ago by an ex-Vietnam American soldier, who wanted to pay back to Cambodia some of what had been destroyed during the war. He runs this project with his Cambodian wife and employs about 20 local people, mainly women and girls. Everything is done by hand, with simple tools, often made from left over bits and pieces, like old bicycle wheels. We were shown the whole process of how they make the silk, from the larvae feeding on the mulberry leaves, the spinning of the fibres from the pupae, to the weaving of the incredibly fine silk threads to create beautiful scarves, which they sell. We were also invited to stay for lunch, which was a traditional buffet Cambodian meal and very nice.
After lunch we set off in the bus again and stopped at a small market, where we were asked if we wanted to try the local delicacy, fried tarantula! Only two braves in our group, yes you guessed right, Mike was one of them.....and no, the other one was not me. Bun, our guide thought it was probably best to try to eat just the legs if you weren't used to eating tarantulas (who is?...), but Mike and the other Mike decided to eat the lot! Yummy!
We didn't need the sick bags for the rest of the journey and arrived in Phnom Penh earlier than anticipated. There are lots of people here this weekend, because the old king, who died in October is being prepared for cremation and he is lying in state until then. Strangely there is more of a festival feel in the air, with street sellers and fire works.
No comments:
Post a Comment