Mandy: 7th – 12th December
Arriving in Siem Reap late afternoon after an eight and a half hour journey was a wonderful sight after the smelly dirty streets of Phnom Penh. There were even more Tuk Tuk drivers there but they were so happy and friendly it was difficult to be irritated by them.
The little boy selling these creatures could not stop picking and eating the little fish and bugs!
Our first sight of fried Tarantula spiders….but not our last.
There’s nothing to indicate how big these bugs were but trust me they were the biggest we have seen. We saw an Asian guy buy a bag and stand there In the street eating them and spitting out…what I assume were legs!
River snakes on a stick! Yummy!
Although Siem Reap is very touristic it still has a market for locals. The smell along this street selling dried fish and dried sausages was horrid. I had to hold my breath as long as I could…. and it’s a long street! People were actually buying this stuff! Trying samples and feeling it for some reason before they did! They looked like Japanese tourists.
We have seen this fish drying in the streets and in little areas behind houses on sitcks. We can never understand why the local cats and dogs don’t eat it! Not sure why they cut the fish into these shapes before drying. It looked like torture!
Seriously smelly!!!!!
Siem Reap was beautiful late afternoon and at sunset. During the day it was too hot!
Like I said before we don’t always tell you about the funerals we see. We saw lots of them on the journey up to Siem Reap and also weddings, although it’s difficult to tell the difference just by looking at the fancy colourful structures they put up. The only obvious way to tell is the sight of a young couple stood at the front (they seem very young too!) or the different music. However we feel we need to mention one we experienced in Siem Reap. We had a peaceful first day in our lovely hotel which was by the entrance to the Art Night Market on the quiet side of the river away from ‘Pub Street’ We could see the local’s houses from our balcony (we were upgraded!) and we could hear Cockerels of course but that wasn’t a problem. What was a problem is when VERY loud music started playing one morning at 6am and went on all day until just after dark. We found out that when someone dies they put a loud speaker on a tall pole by their house and play loud music and chant etc the whole time the body remains in the house before cremation. It was interesting to see the preparation from our balcony and to watch the final procession to the cremation. The man who died was 76. It was a one off chance to experience a part of Cambodia’s culture…..or so we thought.
However, we woke up the next day to the sound of even louder music than the day before and the ornate long thin ‘flags’ that were hanging to the right of the street last night were now hanging on the opposite side, slightly nearer to our hotel. We spoke to the young guys on Reception who told us that during the night of the funeral a neighbour died! He was only 54! So the music and preparation started over again. Now the reason they play the music, and play it so loud apparently is to frighten away the evil spirits becuase they are frightened that someone else may also die. Surely this has proved that the loud music did not work!?
Luckily, having visited the amazing Temples of Angkor (next blog after this one) we were leaving that morning to travel to Battambang. (smile)
What a stunning first photo!!
I know lauren, some of the photos just don’t look real. It’s just perfect timing and luck with some of them xxxxx
😫I would have been on the first tuk truck out of that town!! X