I just relaxed in the hotel for the afternoon, making use of the gym to try and run off some of the huge meals I've eaten this holiday. At 5.30, it was time to meet in the lobby for a visit to the confluence of 4 rivers, and a meal on a boat. Once again most of my old group chose to do their own thing, with only me, Stephanie, and the 6 new people going for the boat trip, but I thought it was good to get to know the new people more, and had a great time.
We just caught the edges of sunset from the boat, and after that there wasn't too much to see, except lightning from pretty much all sides (though it never did end up raining). Instead we just enjoyed the ambience of the boat, a couple of beers, and some spider wine which a lady brought out. It seemed to be more or less just Vietnamese (as opposed to Japanese) style rice wine, with a load of spiders in the bottle. The lady fished one out, and Bryce, Geoff, and I all put it in our mouths for some nice photos.
After returning to dry land after a couple of hours, we went up to the bar for one more drink before going down to get some packing done, since we were setting off at 7am the next morning.
The bus we got to ride in this time was a 50 odd seater, much bigger than the minibuses we had had previously, and giving everyone plenty of room to spread. It is 6 hours from Phnom Penh to Siam Reap (the city nearest to Angkor Wat, and our base for temple exploration this time out), but we had plans to stop at a silk farm, floating villages on some lake, and most importantly, given the assurances I have given to many back home, a quick stop for some deep fried spiders!
The spider stop was actually first, after about one and a half hours. It was just a little local market, and some annoying kids made small talk with us before sticking to our sides like glue and demanding we buy some pineapple and/or give them money. The child who had stuck to me showed me where the spiders were, fished a live one out of a barrel for me to hold, and helped me buy a deep fried one (one spider and one cricket for $1, bargain!). I told him truthfully that I didn't have the $1 he was pestering me for ($5 was the smallest I had) and he said I could give him Dong (the Vietnamese currency). I had a few small notes left over, so I gave him some, and when I handed it over he looked confused. Turns out maybe that wasn't what he wanted after all, but he got what he asked for!
I didn't get any pictures as I was eating the spider/cricket, instead I got a video, so nobody can claim I faked it. I will show it to anyone who wants to see back at home, since I don't think I can upload it to here. The cricket was horrible, all husky and chitinous, but the spider actually wasn't too bad, at least until some local person kindly pointed out that what I had just eaten was where the eggs are...
Back to the bus then, and another two and a half hours of rice fields and exceedingly creepy scarecrows before we stopped at a silk farm, where we would be having our lunch. We got to see the silk worms at various ages and sizes, up to where they form cocoons. Next up we were shown how the cocoons were unwound to give silk of different qualities (rough and fine), before we saw some weavers in action. It was quite interesting, I do like to see how things are made like this, and silk isn't one I've seen before.
Lunch was a buffet style affair, with some hopeful cats (and strangely catlike ducks), and all the free coffee you could drink, if you could drink some of the weakest and worse coffee I've ever tasted! The food was very good though, with the exception of a curry which seemed to consist entirely of chicken (good), and raw lemongrass (not good).
I had a nice nap for most of the 2 odd hours to the lake (whose name I just couldn't catch!). We went directly to the boat, for a couple of hours out on the water. Our captain was a 14ish year old in an old Chelsea shirt with 'Torres' on the back. I wonder how much he was being paid to wear that? We exited the village which was composed of houses on stilts, and out onto the open water.
We saw a small floating village of around 100 houses (they were more like houses than boats), and then set off for a big settlement of 1,000 houses. Unfortunately our boat broke down! Some of us sat on the roof whilst Torres and co tried (and failed) to sneakily read what footballer I had on my back. I don't think they've heard of Walters. We must've been sat for half an hour before whoever was working on the engine succeeded, but it was a nice temperature up top, so it was okay.
We had no time left though, and had to return to port without visiting the giant floating village. We did get out onto the open lake though, and it was big enough that you couldn't see the shore in any of the 3 other directions, so I might stand half a chance of finding out it's name at some point. At this point we were only an hour out from Siam Reap, and it was 5 o clock so getting on for tea time. On the way we stopped so some people could get some sticky rice, a kind of mildly sweet dessert served in bamboo. I didn't want to spoil my tea, but the lady gave the group 5 for free because we more or less bought her out, so I ended up eating half of one.
I can't believe you've been eating spiders!!!!!!!
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