After a couple of days in Cambodia things are much more relaxed. The Cambodians or Khmer as some prefer to be called seem to be pretty laid back and very friendly. After an efficient access to the country, no more that an hour and a half to exit Thailand and to enter Cambodia, we got to the road and the change of landscape is evident, much poorer country, less cars, more bikes and scooters. On the road we happened to ride into a wedding party in full traditional regalia at an auspicious Buddha statue. The members of the family and guests were carrying some flowers or fruits and the last offering was the cooked full head of a pig. I wished I could have gate crashed the party (maybe next time). The temples seem very different than the ones in Thailand and definitely much poorer, as is the country. We are approaching Christmas and not symbols of it, except in the Santa hat of a couple of westerners and some commercial parade from a merchandising firm. The temperatures (30 C. Yes, above for all of you Canadians thinking of snowmobiles) made us not to expect a white Christmas either. Christmas Day. A perfect tourist day, that started with the most ridiculous thing, the so called Bamboo Railway, and it was ridiculous and it was fun. Followed by a ride to view the fruit bats and visit two temples, to wet our appetite for Angkor Wat, with a passing serious look at one of the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. In wanting to celebrate the season we were looking for the most delightful of seasonal eats. We arrange with a tuk-tuk driver to get us anyplace for our decided Christmas dinner. After a while it seemed that our choice would not be possible, so Yvon, my French Canadian friend from the Okanagan Valley, and I accepted the alternative and we found excellent crickets and very tasty quails all enjoyed with copious amounts of Angkor beer. Yes it was not rat or snake as we wanted but it made a nice Christmas celebration. As the pictures show that rats would have made a better dinner, but as the Rolling Stones say “You cannot always get what you want”. So we kept drowning our desire for rat with lots of beer and searched our souls to see if we could see any rat within our hearts. (Remember that a rat is the obedient mount and apprentice of Lord Ganesh). A lovely Christmas day. Boxing day we spent it in a boat on the Tonle Sap Lake, very interesting from any point of view I can think of (google: images for Tonle Sap Lake). Unfortunately I was not able to find my camera and thought it lost, to happily find it at the hotel at night. Finish the day with a lovely bicycle ride trough the rice fields and coconut palms of Siem Reap, where the dust was edible (not palatable) and its colour a reddish ochre that made us looked like the explorers of old and as dirty. Now resting and getting ready for the most expected of all visits of this trip.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 11:21:01 +0000
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