Monday 4 February 2013

Would you like some black pepper or Parmesan with your tarantula?

And so we were all up early and sat on the private bus on our way to The Homestay in Kampong Thom. It was a five hour drive down through the countryside, but we did manage to stop off for our 'Happy Toilet Stop' at a little lay by, packed with traders selling fruit, souvenirs and other snacks. Primarily having the choice of either deep fried tarantulas, deep fried crickets, deep fried water beetles or deep fried WHOLE sparrows!

My gag reflex started to kick in as I stared with morbid fascination at the trader while he showed us how to peel and eat the insects. And even then I can assure you they didn't look appetising!

Sam walked over and smiled, he told us they were ok to eat, nothing special, except that the water beetles were kind of creamy when you bite into their bodies ... That was just a little too much information for me and I stepped back and wretched quite loudly! Luckily we were in Asia where a little bit of public flatulence is quite common, so no one even batted an eyelid at me!!

(Apparently eating insects dates back to the war when food was very rare to find, so the people had to resort to eating insects.)

We all piled back onto the bus and travelled along for another couple of hours before stopping off at a market and restaurant area for lunch. I wasn't hungry, I still had insects flying through my mind, so I settled for a bag full of Rambutan, (tropical fruit that looks similar to Lychee) and slowly picked at them for the rest of the journey.

A few hours later we stopped off at Sambor Prei Kuk, to take a look at a few of the 100 ancient brick temples scattered around the forest. These temples and monuments were built approximately five centuries before those down in Angkor. Looking around at them, stood amongst the trees in the forest, they looked like something out of an Indiana Jones film.

Our guide met us as we disembarked from the bus and within a few minutes we were surrounded by the most gorgeous, cute looking children aged between five and eleven. All grinning up at us and chatting away as they held out various bright coloured scarves to sell for $1 each. (The currency in Cambodia are Reils and/or American dollars!) They impressed us with their grasp of basic English, as well as French and German!

They followed us around as we were taken to see a few of the larger temples; Prasat Sambor - a group of temples dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Then there was Prasat Yeay Poeun, whose Eastern Gate is supported by a strangling fig tree, it's roots having wound their way through and around the brickwork.

The children pointed out bomb craters that were quite close to some of the temples. The craters yet another permanent reminder of the war against the Khmer Rouge.

I smiled down at one of the little girls as she held out her scarves, suddenly there was another standing on my other side. Her little face looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. To quote from The Lonely Planet: " Some travellers find them (the children) a distraction. But others, after warming to their smiles, have been known to leave with a pile of cheap textiles". Guess which category I fell in to?!

The days Temple Tour reached its end and the ten of us - and our scarves - climbed on board the waiting bus and we were taken off to the Home-stay in a nearby village.

This particular home stay belonged to our guides mother in law and her seven children! It was a large wooden building built on stilts and when the temperatures got too high, the family would sleep in their hammocks underneath. In fact both the kitchen and living areas were all under the house too.

Chickens ran around freely, cows were grazing in the yard nearby and one of the locals was climbing up a palm tree to collect the sweet syrupy juice from its flowers.

I climbed the outside stairs and went up to inspect where we were going to be sleeping for the night. There was a set of double doors on the side of the building, I opened the, and entered.

Inside was one extremely large room. There were thin mattresses with a pillow lying on the floor, running either side of the room, sectioned off by curtains made from sheets. It probably sounds quite ghastly, but actually looked quite fun - particularly the ones with the pink mosquito nets!

Downstairs in the main courtyard was a brick building divided into two rooms, in one room was the toilet, (luckily a western style one) and the other was the shower room, which basically consisted of a large trough filled with water and a plastic pan to scoop the water with. THIS probably sounds quite ghastly, but it looked quite interesting! (I was quite pleased I had washed my hair at the hotel the night before, cause there was no way I would be able to shampoo and condition my frizz with a plastic saucepan!!

Sam was cooking dinner that night, the choice was chicken and beef or vegetarian curries. Like most men, he made a big deal about the fact that he was the chef for the night and that we should watch him at work and admire his culinary talents. (I know I am being sexist, but lets face it, it's bloody true!). But first, our guide walked us through a large field of grazing cows, so that we could watch the sunset over the lake. It was absolutely stunning to see.

By the time we got back to the Home stay, the cooking was well under way and Sam was hard at work on his chicken curry, bubbling away in a pot over the fire. I nervously asked the guide if the chicken was one of the ones running around the Home-stay. He smiled at me and said "Yes". My face dropped and I responded "You could have said no!" He smiled at me and said "No".

I turned to Nicola (the vet brought up on a farm) stood next to me and said in a shocked tone, "They've just killed one of these chickens!" she smiled and nodded "I know, I think that's why we were taken for a walk just before".

I had the vegetarian meal that night.














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