the search for eatable insects

the next day was a relaxed day and we started late.it was the first time since we had been on our trip.in the morning we walked for miles in the markets of phnom penh to get a new memory card for jens camera.after that we decided to go to the post office and fight our way through the queues and chaoes of a third world office.we both expected a crowded and unorganised place like in india but wait-it was a nice empty place.we didnt have to queue at all as we were the only ones there.what a surprise but my postcard never made it to england-here we are.never mind.
this was the day-we decided to try to eat fried insects.our guide book recommened a village around 20 km from phnom penh.this village is famous for its different kind of fried insects(on one of our bus trips i saw a guy buying Tarantulas which are delicacy here.but he ate them hidden in his seat and i couldnt see how the hell he ate them.in another place we saw people eating boiled eggs which is normal but when we looked closer we could see the little body of a duckling and the people enjoyed sucking the little bones-its a different world out there)
here we were again-in a tuk-tuk on our way to the village.it took us about an hour to get there and suddenly we were in the middle of nowhere.out here nobody spoke a word of english but everybody smiled and was polite.you can feel when you are welcome in a place.no other foreigner around and i was excited about the place and ready for my insects!lol.it wasnt a village it was more like a little food market along one of the streams of the river mekong.
we walked through the market and kept our eyes peeled for fried yummy insects but nothing.we found everything from fried fish,lovely prawns,pickels,fresh fruit and even fried cute turtles but not even one bug-b*****.
at the end of the market we saw all those little houses on stilts which you could rent and have a picknick in.people from the market would bring you food or sellers would come in their boats up to you showing their fish and cooking it in front of you.such a lovely place.
we decided to rent one of those houses from a litte cute lady.she spoke no english at all and we discussed the prize with our fingers and we all kept laughing as it wasnt so easy but much fun.
she showed us our place and put some matts down to make it nice and cosy for us.in india you would have 100s of people around trying to sell you something-here it was peaceful.one or two boats came up and showed what they had and went.jen bought some fresh fuit and we enjoyed the little paradise on earth.we also had some cute local kids around who were curious and keen to get our left overs(can of limonade)we shared our fruit with them and showed them pictures we had taken of them.
those houses are houses on stilts and are built into the water.the liltte kind of bridges which led to the houses were very unstable.through the floor and the wood of the house you could see the water and i wasnt sure if it could handle a forgein weight like mine but acutally it was very comfortable and such an special and exotic place.i had never dreamed that i would sit in one of those houes on stilts in the middle of cambodia.wow we loved the place.after a while we climbed over the barriers of the house and took a boat trip on one of those little local boats.we couldnt believe our luck.the scenery,the beauty and the peace of the place was incredible.HEAVEN ON EARTH!!!!!
later that day we went back to phnom penh where i eventually downloaded some more pictures.it took lots of time and patience but people back home kept asking for more pictures from our trip to the south east.
in the eve we treated ourself with a lovely meal and a vodka orange in one of the better restaurants next to the river.(im sure i also forgot to mention that we had a lovely full body massage the other day-it was my first one and you should have seen my eyes and face when she started to walk on my back and when she massaged all the way up to my bum-everybody in the room laughed.it was fun but massages dont make any difference to me)anyway this evening it was dancing time.after the meal we walked over to the crowd and joined them.it was an amzing experience-little beggar kids,teenagers and other cambodians danced all together.it is a kind of arobics and streetdance.you have 2,3 groups,each of them have their own music system and speakers and a dance leader and off we go.we wiggled our hips to bollywood music(funny enough we could understand the lyrics but not the cambodians),cambodian and western music.we enjoyed it that much that we danced a whole hour.
we were the attraction of the eve: 2 CRACY FOREIGNERS, A HANDFUL OF BEGGAR CHILDREN AND ANOTHER 100 CAMBODIANS DANCING BOLLYWOOD STYLE ON THE RIVERBANK UNDER THE MOONLIGHT.
we loved it and the cambodians loved watching us.they showed their thumbs up and were impressed with our relaxed happy attitude.
what a great idea to keep fit and socialize- an experience which i will never forget.something so simple.
after an hour of dancing and laughing we went back to our hotel as we needed to pack-it was time to leave cambodia behing and to explore vietnam.
we made our way thourgh cambodia-from north to south in such a short time and we had millions of new impressions to take back home.it has been amazing.and even for my friend who traveled to 19 counties it was something new to cross a border by foot.
i loved every min of it but also looked forward to seeing vietnam.
we decided to go from phnom penh to chau doc(vietnam) by a local boat.the trip would take 6 hours and we would cross border by boat on water.a lovely crazy idea.
so the next morning we started our long way from phnom penh via chau doc to ho chi mingh.
a new counrty