Cambodia Part Two

I have had to wrest the blog back from Bob because he was spilling too many secrets. On Sunday we had a great day out on the Mekong. Jenny arranged a cruise up to a floating village and to a silk village on solid land. The boat was a traditional high sided wooden craft capable of seating about 20 but we were the only passengers. The water was calm, we had shade, cold drinks and comfortable seats. At the floating village I started to feel embarrassed that we were intruding when we pulled right up to one of the houses. Then the captain explained that it was his house and in about 30 seconds a large block of ice was passed to the mate and we were off again.
At the silk village we walked up to a particular house and were welcomed as old friends by the two young women who operate the business. Jenny has taken about 7 groups of Aussies there and has become great friends with the family so you can understand the welcome was for her.
We first went for a walk around the village to the temple which is beautifully decorated. There we saw some of the long boats used in the water festival and Bob and Wayne inspected them closely to try to work out how they are constructed. Apparently it takes about 100 villagers to roll them down to the river for launching.
The rice paddies and the lake are just past the temple and there we found three buffalo tethered. Their horns are rather intimidating so we approached cautiously for photos. Just as we were leaving two young boys who looked about 5 and 7 years strolled up, untethered them and climbed aboard for the ride home.
Lunch was chicken and fish cooked in the traditional Khermer way and we were introduced to several new flavours. Apart from rice we had steamed morning glory vine, grated green mango with the fish, green mango with salt and chilli pepper for afters. This was as well as bananas, oranges and slices of a fruit which has no translateable name and which leaves your mouth feeling slightly swollen, furry and a bit numb. It was all tasty and we all ate too much.
It was shopping time after lunch and Jenny and I had a great time although space in my case dictated purchases rather than price. Bob couldn't resist a nice silk and cotton shirt though it might have been the sales woman rather than the product that tipped him into buying mode.
We were all rather somulent on the trip home.
Yesterday Bob and I caught the bus up to Siam Reap. This is a return trip for us but we wanted to spend a bit more time here. This morning we read up on options for activities and decided to go out to Preah Khan temple. This is an 11th century temple a bit further out than Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom that we visited last year.  We went early to avoid the heat and the crowds and it was a pleasant shady tuk tuk ride out there. The ruins have been partially restored by a  privately endowed American group who have trained local people to continue the work. The original settlement was huge but isn't likely to be restored in the immediate future. The temple complex was built to celebrate a successful battle and the history is known because a stele was found inscribed with the story in Sanscrit. We enjoyed walking around the complex which still has a lot of engraving visible and has an interesting construction with a huge passage through an east-west alighment and a shorter one going north -south. There are four gates with suitable guard houses and awesome figures carved into the sandstone for protection. There was also a firehouse to provide access to fire for the villagers and residents of the temple.
Tomorrow we take the boat from here down river to Battambong and from what we hear that is likely to be an adventure.
Ciao, Gail