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Day 25: 3/7/13
We weren't leaving until one today so we could sleep in a bit. I woke around half nine and had to take my malaria tablet. Lots of people on the tour aren't bothering with them at all actually. Anyway, I stayed awake then and caught up on a good few of the blogs.
We left at 1 and went to a silk farm. They showed us the mulberry bush and the little silkworms. They were on a tray with leaves from the mulberry bush - they looked like little maggots! There was a big wooden circular thing hanging on the wall then where they make their cocoons and you could see all the yellow cocoons on it. They had empty cocoons there too that the worms/moths had left. We went to another room the where they were getting the thread from the cocoons. They boil the cocoon and use a fine brush then to tease the threads out and out them on a spinning wheel. Once the cocoons become transparent they have taken all the raw silk off and another person will take the fine silk from the cocoon in a similar way. They had a really big spinning wheel that they put it through afterwards and then they died it. The next room had looms where people were using silk to make scarves and things. There are different ways to make the patterns. Some were doing a tie-dying type of process where they tied strips of plastic bags on the silk so when they'd die it the pattern would come out. Other looms had different colours attached to different levers and they had pedals to put the colours in or not- it looked very complicated! There was a shop afterwards where you could look at the finished products which were beautiful. It's hard to imagine how the silk on the loom ends up being a beautiful scarf or an outfit but they are obviously very talented!
We drove towards Tonle Sap lake then. It's the only lake in the world with a reverse flow. In the wet season the water flows from river to the lake in one direction and in the dry season it goes the other way. There are lots of fish in the lake and lots of fisherman work there. When the lake dries up a bit they hunt for water snakes. The river is a tributary of the Mekong river which flows up as far as China. There's talk of putting a dam on the river which would change this lake and river completely.
On the bus the guide told us a little about the education system (see notes).
We got to the lake then and the reason we were going there was to see the floating village. People live on boats on the lake. They move their boats nearer to the shore or the centre of the lake depending on the season. Now that it's the start of rainy season they had just moved closer to the shore. We got a boat to drive us through the village to see their houses and things. The boats were small but you could see whole families on them- there were lots of food, water, clothes, etc all around the place. The clothes hanging outside I dry made them look very colourful. There were fishermen working aswell which meant that they stand in the river with nets- they had water up to their necks! There were other people in the water aswell who seemed to be making sure their anchor was down properly. Some houses even had a DVD player or a tv! There were young little boys in big bowls paddling around in the water. There were lots of children begging for money too. Two boys came on our boat trying to give everyone a massage but they would have expected money for it as our guide said we weren't to give then any money as they won't go to school if they can earn money from tourists and sometimes their parents get really cross with them of they don't earn enough. A boat pulled up alongside us aswell which had a mother and some kids. One of them had a live snake around her neck and was posing for photos- but they want money for the photos too. We passes a school and some shops, a police station and even a Catholic Church, all floating on the water.
We pulled up at a port where we could get drinks and souvenirs. The guide showed us the area they kept the catfish. She threw some of their food in the water and they jumped up to get out- they were really big! In the next area they had crocodiles that they had caught and were fattening for selling. They were sort of under us on the boat! I can't imagine how any of them swim in the water when there are crocodiles somewhere around! She also showed us how they clean their water for washing and cooking. The water is completely brown. They buy blocks of aluminium sulphate and twirl it around in the water for a minute. It makes the dirt separate from the water. Within five minutes the dirt had settled and if you sivved it you would have perfectly clear water- it was very clever! There was an upstairs area aswell with good views out over the lake, but it was extremely windy- my hair was blowing everywhere!! We sailed back then through the village again and could see all the people washing, cooking, chatting, etc on their boats. Some are big enough that you could stand up in your house but others would have to kneel most of the time. It's a completely different way of life. It's a lot like the Uros islands in Lake Titicaca but their islands and houses were all made from reeds where as these are made from wood. They use batteries to have electricity and everything. There are five of these villages on this lake along and many more in Cambodia. I suppose in a hot country it's vital to be near water so maybe they have the right idea!
We went to the Supermarket quickly when we got back as we were told to bring breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. They have some big enough supermarkets and a lot of similar stuff to us- they are probably for tourists anyway!
Straight afterwards We went to a Circus which was good enough. The performers were all young Cambodians that went to a school for poor families and orphans. There was a normal primary and secondary school as well as an arts section where they studied music, visual arts and circus acts. They were good performers. They weren't the best I've seen but they were having a ball doing it and roaring laughing and cheering- it was contagious. They had a story to the show about a hunchback being an outcast and they didn't accept him. After some drama they did at the end. They were mostly doing acrobatic stuff- tumbles and spins. There was jiggling aswell- balls and fire. One guy had a Diablo and did amazing tricks with that. Another guy was able to bounce about 10 different balls at a time. They had a see-saw type thing where two guys jumped on one side and sent another guy tumbling high up in the air. Between the acts they were cheering and dancing and even threw in Gangnam style- it was great fun!
We went for dinner afterwards in a restaurant called Red Piano. Again the food was lovely- it's all curries really I've been having. This one though was supposed to have mushrooms and I didn't really see anything that resembled a mushroom but there was long thick strings of squidgy stuff that wasn't a nice texture and was really hard to chew. I think that must have been the mushrooms! My stomach didn't feel great afterwards so maybe no curries for a few days!
I'd say Pub street would be a nice place to explore. There's an Irish pub and everything- Molly Malone's, but we didn't really have too much time. It was 11 already and we had to pack up again to leave at 6:45 in the morning! It feels like we haven't a minute to sit down and sort ourselves- hence why the blog is so far behind!
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