Phonm Penh to Siem Reap

A slow bus took us to Siem Reap over a period of about 7 hours. The bus meandered through the countryside and small towns and exposed us to a fascinating cross section of Cambodian life. Most of the houses in rural areas are built on stilts. This provides a room under the house which is shaded and used for activities during the heat of the day, the stilts also protect the house and inhabitants from flooding caused by monsoons and provides a shelter for livestock at night. People fish with hand thrown nets in most reasonably sized bodies of water

Transportation styles can be varied 🙂

Our first stop was at a country market. The long history of war and strife in this country has resulted in an interesting diet. One vendor sold deep fried insects – the cockroaches were 3 inches at least and the tarantulas even bigger. There were also a lot of bugs I couldn’t identify – must admit that I didn’t try very hard 🙂 .

We rolled into Siem Reap about 4 pm, had a quick rest and then caught Tuk Tuks and went out to a dinner at a local house in a village bordering the town. What a magical evening. Our hostess was a young woman who after learning english and getting a good paying job, returned to her village and is now sponsoring and educating 20 children in the village. Our group went for a village walk, met the children and their parents. We were then served a wonderful home cooked meal. We headed back to our hotel under a lovely orange moon and a cool breeze.