Our room is being fogged each day, so that seems to have put an end to the mosquito or spider bites, although I had to get up during to night to rub some anti-itch cream on the bites on my red and swollen ear.
Today we are going to a fishing village at the mouth of a tributary to the Tonle Sap Lake. This lake is the 4th largest in Asia. It's banks can extend another 20 km. in the rainy season, causing the road to this village to flood. Each year the road needs to be rebuilt. Consequently, you have to pay $20 each to visit here, supposedly to fund the construction of a permanent road.
On our way to the fishing village, Em (the tour guide) asked if we wanted to stop at a local village market and have a look. Market? We're in! Wow! That was an eye opener as to how people here live. It had a very primitive feel, muddy dirt track, scrawny, dirty chickens running around, lean-to/shanty type structures with some goods sold right from the dirt floor and yet others neatly organized in baskets. There were flies buzzing around, but it didn't really stink much until we got to the booth selling fermented fish paste, and fermenting crab. Em was nibbling from a number of booths and insisted on buying us a chicken shish-kebab barbecuing over wood in one of the booths. I have to admit, it looked and smelled delicious if you did not look at anything else around it. If ever there was a recipe for a hospital visit from which we may or may not recover, this was it. It was pretty shocking by our standards.
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse than that, we arrived at the river bank to catch the boat that will tour us around the fishing village. The river didn't seem very wide and was a depth of 1 to 1 1/2 meters. There were many boats wedged against each other along the bank, all pretty much the same. The water looks like liquid mud. It is the source of the village's drinking water, bath water, sewage tank and food source. I was concerned about slight overspray splashing on my face as we passed other boats or turned corners. They have a floating restaurant, market, gas station, pig pen, garden, etc. The village was an appalling sight of shanties on stilts, in some cases up to 50 feet above ground. The odd person was swimming in the water, some were fishing. People were going about their daily lives without electricity or running water. Some used car batteries to power their black and white TV. This was definitely a display of hardship. Part of the village is an island and that where we got off the boat. There really wasn't as much garbage strewn about as you would expect. Of course another mud street. There was a school, a store, police station and free clinic staffed with volunteers that is only open 3 or 4 times per year. The clinic happened to be open when we were there and that was our first stop. Most of the nurses were young with British and Australian accents. Patients are sitting on chairs in a covered outdoor balcony. The nurses are checking pulse. There isn't any privacy that I could see, everyone questioned where they sat. Em tells us many are diabetic or hypertensive and don't know it. The Dr. was an elderly man who looked completely overwhelmed and confused. No regular access to medical care certainly explains the high mortality rate in 3rd world countries.
from there we walked down the street to have a look around. I was immediately approached by a woman selling books for the local school. Em did not seem in favour, but I wanted to buy something for the kids. We decided to buy some candy at the local store and give it to the little ones. Forty lollipops were $1 US, so we bought a jug of those. The only criteria was that they had to say thanks in some way. Most clasped their hands like praying, grabbed the candy and ran, some said thanks in Cambodian. Em made sure of that. Then school let out and some bigger kids came. I was swarmed and the kids were yanking on my clothes, pulling at the jug and taking them away from the little ones. There were maybe a dozen left and I just had to drop the bucket and walk away. We saw an older girl walking down the street happy to have the bucket, while one boy had a fistful of candy. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Laid out on tarps on either side of the street were tarp after tarp covered in little shrimp drying in the sun.
From the fishing village we Went to lunch in a nice restaurant in the country and like all of them on the tour days, it was set in lush surroundings. On the menu was a cashew shake. I had to give it a try. It's hard to imagine, but it was full of cashew flavour. It was delicious!
We stopped at 2 more temples and then into town for a pit stop at the old market to buy some cashews. The last stop on the tour was the Artisan shop. This was really interesting. It was set up so that each building in the complex had its own specialty. There was wood carving, metal working, silk painting, stone carvings, lacquerware and Cambodian silk. The artisans were there working on their craft so you could watch. There were also signs explaining the steps involved in the process and of course a large gift shop. The handiwork was extremely well done and the prices of most of the items was fairly reasonable.
We did some research online and chose a traditional Khmer massage place. It was the best massages that Dave has ever had. Similar to a Thai massage where the press on your muscles to relax them and then stretch them. The spa was very zen and the staff was professional.
it was getting late and we saw a table of people eating a thin crust pizza, so that's what we had for dinner. It was good. Our table was at the open air railing so we had a view of the street below. Cambodia really gets going at night. All sorts of booths and restaurants and pubs and markets. Lots of neon and noise! From our table we could observe the food carts below. They have something new here. It's a food cart with a round pizza pan shaped freezing area for making ice cream rolls. You can choose 2 flavours like banana and Nutella. The bananas are thinly sliced and mashed using what looks like 2 wide putty knives. Then they pour on some milk with a little eagle brand and mix this together with a chopping of the putty knives. It's like playing the drums, rat a tat tat, mix, rat a tat tat and eventually spread it out in a thin layer. They use the putty knive to scrape it off the freezing tray, which causes it to roll up. It's quite the show and costs $2.50 US. Delicious! A guy came and moved his cart in between these ice cream carts. He was selling fried tarantulas, cockroaches and I don't know what else. I didn't see any takers, so he moved on.
It was a really interesting and fun day.