Good Luck to You!

Supermarkets are good hunting grounds for discoveries with a local colour. A big one we explored in Siem Reap seemed to be rather more Chinese than Cambodian, but had some nice products for sale. Who can resist the Want Want crackers (they were really tasty!)?

And who is not tempted by the happy pig holding the flag Best and wishing Good Luck to You. As someone who doesn't eat much meat I actually didn't put this product in my shopping basket. 

But most people do their shopping in markets or in stalls along the streets. 

These young ladies provided excellent laundry service even though it was a bit surprising at first to see one's underwear hanging to dry on the sidewalk.

The outer petals of lotus flowers can be folded - it makes them even more beautiful, I had to touch and check that they were actually real. The ones below were sold in front of a temple, to be used as offerings.

Everyday life

Travelling by car we caught glimpses of everyday life. The lady below is preparing rice flakes with the help of two young men, who operate the foot driven device. 

The end product: 

These young men weren't successful when we watched their fishing but proudly showed some fish (alas almost invisible in the basket) that they had caught just before we came.

The rice paddies had an almost fluorescent colour. 

Sticky rice with some kind of beans was prepared and sold in bamboo tubes. 

 

Unfortunately we had just had breakfast, otherwise I would have devoured this - a real treat! The haze in the picture comes from the usual morning fog on my camera lens. I couldn't wipe it off, it would come back immediately. 

This young a lady is preparing palm sugar, a common sweet and the usual sweetener. Note the simple mould in the top right hand corner of the second picture.

Number nine

This is Number Nine, Mr Issaro, tuk tuk driver in Siem Reap. He became our faithful driver, taking us to and from dinner every day. Why he was Number Nine I never really figured out, but somehow the drivers were assigned numbers. He arrived on the minute, didn't expect any tip (and therefore got a lot) and was a careful driver, something that can't be said about the majority out in the streets. Number Nine had a very friendly smile, but suddenly, like so many Cambodians, became very serious when I wanted to take a picture.

One morning we learned from our talkative waiter at breakfast that this rainy season isn't rainy enough for the rice to grow as it should, at least not in the region where his parents are rice farmers. I can certainly confirm that most days have been rather dry ones, but had not given a thought to the fact that this actually is a big problem for a large part of the population.

Talking about breakfast: I have never seen such choice of fruit anywhere. Here is my plate from a random day.

Jackfruit, mangosteen, dragon fruit, rambutan, papaya and a little banana. 

Cockfighting is a popular sport. Here is a muscular cock preparing for the next match.

Two pigs on a lake

There are floating villages on the biggest lake in Cambodia. The people really live their lives on the lake: there are schools, shops, temples. As the lake swells - enormously - during the wet season they move to new waters. 

By chance we found a great book shop today. They also sold some cd's with Cambodian music. We wanted to buy one or two, but as we had no idea what the music would sound like we asked if we could listen. They got a bit bewildered as they had no listening equipment but after a short consultation in khmer among the staff they asked us to follow one of them out of the store. We ended up in the back alley where the shop owner had his office and his computer on which he let us listen to the music. That's what I call client service!

We had a slight temple fatigue yesterday, so today it was nice just to relax, and to shop a little. We walked by a shop that sold Buddha heads painted in fluorescent colours. I loved them! And of course bought one. But back to less materialistic things: the greatest temple we saw (apart from Angkor Wat) was also the oldest one, more than 1000 years, and with the most gorgeous carvings very well preserved.

Three pigs on a moped and a frog on the foot

Things you can transport on a moped: three pigs, dozens of chickens and ducks hanging upside down, three king size mattresses. 

Number of people you can be on a motorbike: five.

Interesting to know: it's the oldest daughter who inherits the farm or the rice paddies, as she is the one who is supposed to take care of her parents when they get old. 

When we were in the hotel in Kampong Thom we had a loud frog concert every night. Here in Siem Reap there is no such thing but as we were having dinner tonight in a very nice and rather elegant restaurant downtown a frog landed on F's foot.

We have witnessed three road accidents the last three days: our car hit a dog. It died. A guy on a motorbike fell. He got up after a couple of seconds as though nothing at all had happened. A car with tourists had been hit by a bus. Nobody seemed to have been hurt.

In a village market we visited today a tourist was a rare sight. Children got scared at the sight of blond hair.

809

I'm still recovering after having climbed the 809 steps leading up to a pagoda. Even though the place offered a fantastic view and even though the pagoda was worth a visit, the best reward for the physical effort was on the way down, where a man sat playing the traditional instrument 'tro' on the steps. The tune was a lullaby, and his music indeed seemed to have its effect as sleeping monks was not an unusual sight.

The pre-Angkorian site Sambor Prei Kuk in the jungle, which had been a Khmer Rouge stronghold and therefore heavily bombed, proved to be as amazing as I had imagined it to be. Very few tourists (I saw only two) but instead some herders and their cattle made the scene quite pastoral. A few children used the site as their playground - and source of income. For some reason they all sold little scarves and in the end it was inevitable to buy one. In fact I got two.

That's peanuts

Oh, how yummy, said our Cambodian guide as we walked through the market in the village Skon. Everywhere were spiders, cockroaches, crickets, most of them fried with chilli and garlic, but some of them, the giant spiders in particular, were very much alive and kicking, as it were. I usually don't hesitate to go local, but here I did not.

Peanuts, peanuts, peanuts and more peanuts. All put out to dry along the road. And corn, corn, corn and more corn, neatly packed and waiting to be loaded onto trucks: We passed through a very fertile area near the Mekong.

The temple and pagoda visits today (with monks playing with monkeys and elderly followers enjoying a nap in front of the Buddha) will have prepared us for the upcoming visits. I now recognise the Angkorian smile and have learned that the name 'Angkor' comes from the Sanskrit word for 'city', nagara.

We are now between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, in Kampong Thom, where we will stay two nights.

And so far today (it's now 5.30 pm) it hasn't rained on us! We saw only the wet road and the puddles that the midday monsoon downpour had left behind. But it isn't too late yet ...

PS We just had some of the local peanuts - they have nothing at all to do with the stuff we buy in sealed plastic bags at home. These were divine.

  

Oh what a day

The Royal Palace, a pagoda with the floor covered with five thousand silver tiles, the Choeung Ek killing fields, a little snake, the Tuol Sleng detention and torture center, a lively market and 2000 years of history in the National Museum.

I had feared seeing the killing fields and the old school in Phnom Penh which thousands of prisoners passed through and of whom only seven, yes seven, survived. And it was a difficult experience. I somehow found it typical that the third snake I have seen in nature in my whole life suddenly appeared in front of my feet in the killing fields. It was just a very tiny one, but still.

I couldn't take pictures, it felt disrespectful to take glossy photos of places which had seen such cruelty.

The barbed wire around the detention and torture centre is still there.

To those who survived and to those who did not.