We checked out of our hotel at Siem Reap at 7:30am for what turned out to be a leisurely drive to the capital, Phnom Penh, a journey of 330Km (206mi) which, with stops, would take 10 hours!

Once again, 4G all the way, even though Cambodia is considered more of a third-world country than Vietnam. 

The reason that we went by road was so that we could see more of Cambodia and stop at some of the landmarks along the way. 

It’s very noticeable that Cambodian homes in general are much more substantial than those in Vietnam where the majority are just corrugated roofs on scaffolding with a few nice, modern houses sporadically interspersed. 

Here, houses are still small, but built of wood and occasionally brick, in a distinctive style and quite attractive. 

Along the road in one area there were around twenty or more stalls which seemed to be selling fat bamboo sticks about a foot (30cm) long. They can be seen on the shelf in the photo below above the lady’s head.

We stopped to take a look, and they are actually selling steamed rice. They stuff the bamboo with rice, pour in coconut milk, palm sugar and black beans, stuff the top with rice hay to seal it, then they put them in the fire for twenty minutes.

Once cooked they shave off the burnt outer charcoal, which is what she’s doing in the first photo, and then put them on the stand to sell. People driving past take them home for a meal, like a takeaway. It tasted really nice and must be extremely popular as there’s so many sellers.

We then arrived at the famous stilt houses along the canals and riverbanks. The stilts are necessary as the local water table can rise 4 meters. I thought there would be just a few houses but there were miles and miles of them. 

After a couple of hours we arrived at Kampong Khleang

There’s three things to see here. The first is ‘Wat Kampong Khleang’ a golden temple complex, and I’ve never seen such bright golden temples as they have in Cambodia but, to be honest, we are templed out. 

The second is the street market, which is unlike anything I have ever seen. 

There are probably fifty or more ‘stalls’, though I use that term loosely as almost all are just one person sitting on a rug, offering for sale whatever they’ve caught or grown. 

Usually these places are the same,  targeting the tourists, but this is definitely not a tourist market as no tourists would want to buy anything they sell, unless they were going to live here. It’s called a street market but there isn’t even a street, it’s just a clearing with a dirt road.  

There’s all the basics of village life for sale. Rice piled high that you buy in scoops, a lady gutting small fish on the floor,

an old man chopping firewood,

another riding his scooter along with 5 metre-long bamboo canes attached, apparently to sell to the rice steamers.

There’s chickens being slaughtered, fruit in piles and all the while children playing around you, and scooters and bicycles driving through. 

I’ve visited many markets as I really enjoy them, but I’ve never experienced anything like it. 

Oh, and we thought this was cooking oil but it’s not, it’s the petrol station. The bikes pull up, buy a bottle and pour it into their tank.

The third thing to see here is the floating village on Kampong Khleang lake. The unusual thing about this lake is that because it is connected to the Mekong river via Tonlé Sap lake, the water flows in and out depending on the season, so it can go from being four metres deep to being virtually dry. 

Floating on the lake is an entire village. Complete buildings, but on on boats. 

In the dry season, when the water flows out, the floating village simply starts its engines and moves itself towards Tonle Sap lake.

The houses, schools  and shops are mainly self-propelled, though some need towing but off they go and park up, downstream until the water returns in June and July. 

All kinds of boats travelled around us, people just going about their daily life on the water

Tonle Sap lake itself is vast. The name means Great Lake and it’s the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and one of the most productive ecosystems in the world.

It looked like the ocean as we arrived, we could see as far the horizon everywhere ahead.  It’s 2700 square kilometres, although that halves when summer comes and the water drains into the Mekong.

Continuing our journey, half an hour away from Phnom Penh, we arrived at Skuon Market where they sell some very nutritious products indeed.

Tarantulas are eaten here because food was very scarce during Pol Pot’s regime so people ate them rather than starve. They then got a taste for them, so this is where they come to buy.

Personally, after eating Rat the other day, I decided spiders was a step too far.

My justification is that you wouldn’t eat a pet and I did once keep a Tarantula, though it was a Mexican Red, so, thinking about ‘Terry’, I just couldn’t do it.

Also, the fact that I had read that they are disgusting didn’t help either.

Crunchy legs with a gooey centre, so not for me.

Even Brigitte, who routinely eats things with more than four-legs wouldn’t have a nibble.

They are cute though, and so I let a few have a walk up my arm before they got fried, and I suddenly realised how much I missed Terry.

…and fried water cockroaches garnished with a scorpion or two.

I would have eaten all the others but I’m trying to lose weight so I’m avoiding fried food!

Then it was back in the car and onto Phnom Penh where we received a customary greeting…

… and where it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We ate at the hotel. We knew that we would arrive late so I booked in advance, at the same time as all the others and, because they’d asked, I told them we were celebrating Brigitte’s birthday.

They confirmed the reservation by email and even confirmed our celebration meal.

We are staying at a very famous hotel, purportedly, the best in Phnom Penh but, the reality has been, what we call in Yorkshire, fur coat but no knickers!

It’s the only one where we have told them about Brigitte birthday celebration and they didn’t even mention it, plus I didn’t get free cake 😩. I do realise that I’m obtaining cake by fraudulent means but nevertheless…

Fruit quiz

Thank you for pointing out that I forgot the fruit quiz yesterday. I don’t know what happened but I’m sorry to cause you all to miss one of your five a day.

Here’s an easy one if you’ve been paying attention..

Tomorrow we tour Phnom Penh.

Phnom means ‘Hill’ and Penh means ‘Grandmother’, so it’s Grandmother’s hill, named after a wealthy local lady in the 14th century.

Granny’s Hill, 28th November 2024.