Beuk
picked us up as usual for our final day of touring some of the
temple sights. Our first port of call was Prasat Kravan, a small
site with a few brick built towers. Next up was the more intriguing
Ta Prohm. Like Preah Kahn it was mostly overtaken by jungle but it
has now been cleared, except for the trees that are now supporting
structures. Many people are familiar with this temple without
realising it as some of the scenes from the Tomb Raider film were
shot here. One of the gates into the temple had a little help from
Hollywood’s scenery teams to hide the decay and damage it has
suffered over the years.
From the work that Beuk has done with a Japanese photographer
he knows some really good places to take shots of the temples. The
only problem was waiting for the hordes of Korean tourists to pass
by and leave them free of people. Stef started to get a little wound
up by them as they seemed to have no idea that there were other
people around and kept walking into his line of shot.
From Ta Prohm we went on to Banteay Srei, a small and compact
site but one known for the quality of the carvings on the lintels
and pediments. It was also unique because it had been constructed by
a wealthy and powerful priest not a king like the others. It is
about a 20km trip out of town passing through rural villages and
scenery along the way. The tourist trade has probably been key to
the road being improved last year from a pot holed rough track to a
good quality tarmac road. Not so long ago the road was bandit
country and before then it was part of the territory of the Khmer
Rouge. Beuk told us about a group of backpackers who were attacked
and killed along this road a few years ago.
After Banteay Srei we stopped at one of the small rural houses
along the road. Most of the houses have a small stall outside from
which they sell very sugary sweets wrapped in banana leaves. We
watched as the lady of the house transferred a huge wok style pan
from a fire, where she had been melting a concoction of sugar and
fruit sap, to a cooling stand. She then has to sit and stir it non
stop until it cools and thickens and the sweets can be made. We
tried some of the warm liquid which was incredibly sweet and bought
some sweets before we left to thank them for letting us see what
they did.
We headed next for a local silk farm passing some fantastic
scenes of normal daily rural life along the way. A chap cycled past
us with a pig strapped onto the back of his bike. The pig was pretty
well trussed up and seemed to have given up all attempts at a
struggle. No doubt it could sense its imminent fate. There were
people working in the paddy fields, boys taking a bath in the local
reservoir and one poking his head cheekily out of the basket on the
back of yet another bike. All typical scenes here but very remote
compared to what we are used to at home.
Our next stop was at a silk farm. The farm has been set up to
help people in the local villages to acquire new skills and to
become self sufficient in producing and weaving silk. They have a
range of different type of mulberry bushes that they are growing
which presumably produce different qualities of silk. The leaves of
the bushes are the staple diet of the silk worms that grow very
quickly changing in a few days from tiny worms to big fat juicy
ones. When they make their cocoons part of the crop continue on to
become moths and continue the reproduction cycle but about 90% are
taken to make silk.
The cocoons are boiled in water to start the process of silk
making. Raw silk is the outer layer of the cocoon and is a coarser
silk. The fine silk comes from the inside of the cocoon. Various
stages are then followed in the process to spin the silk into
thread, dye it using natural dyes to produce a wide range of colours
and then wind it onto bobbins ready for weaving. With some of the
patterns they make the skein of silk is dyed with different colours
so that when it is woven a pattern emerges. Its pretty clever stuff.
People from the local villages spend a few months here
learning every stage of the process. The finished products they make
are available in a small shop on the premises and they range from
cushion covers to bed spreads, clothes, bags and all sorts of other
bits and pieces. The profits are fed back into the scheme to again
help the local villagers.
From the silk factory Beuk took us to the western edge of the
Western Baray another huge reservoir. A huge dyke was built around
the reservoir, and the eastern reservoir which we passed yesterday,
to retain the waters from the wet season. It is now a huge flat lake
which partially dries out during the year. On the western edge there
is a small beach lined with snack stands and places where you can
rent a hammock for the day or a large inner tyre to mess about on
the water. Stef tested the water and as it was warm was happy to
paddle for a while.
A girl came by selling what Beuk tried to make us believe was
a tasty local snack but it’s not one that he chooses to eat himself!
She has a plate full of dead beetles and despite her best efforts we
declined the opportunity to taste them, it was too far a stretch of
the getting in touch with the local cuisine for even Stef to give
them a go! Beuk told us about a Belgian wrestler who was once a
guest in his restaurant and who, fuelled by several beers, munched
handfuls of these beetles.
Beuk dropped us off at our hotel where his nephew in law Mark
was waiting to meet us. Beuk has lined him up to be our tuk tuk
driver for tomorrow so we had a chat over a drink to agree what we
wanted to do and what time Mark should pick us up. True to the
family mould he was very friendly and welcoming and spoke good
enough English for us to communicate easily with him. We said our
farewells to Beuk giving him a few small gifts to show our
appreciation for all that he has done for us over the last few days
as well as a tip that he seemed embarrassed to receive. He is
certainly someone we would recommend to anyone going to visit the
Angkor sites.
In the evening we made it out into the town for dinner a
little fed up of eating in the hotel. Our tuk tuk took us to the
main street that Lonely Planet recommends for eating and drinking.
We opted to get away from there pretty quickly and found a quieter
bar just around the corner, still geared up totally to tourists but
away slightly from the main drag. A few hours later another tuk tuk
took us back to our hotel tired and ready for bed after another very
enjoyable day.
