Spiders for Breakfast? Cambodia

Need to fast forward to Cambodia!  It's been absolutely amazing!  We spent 3 days in Siem Reap and visited the world renown Angkor Wat temples, among others.  Pictures will follow.  It has been incredibly hot and I am truly wilting!  I'm just not used to 36C + weather.  Nonetheless, we are totally in awe of the ancient technology used in building these massive temple complexes.  It is not unlike the feeling you get at the pyramids or Stonehenge.  The amazing detail of all the stone work, the huge design of buildings and the layout on the properties is hard to take in.  They are beautiful in their own way, even with the various bits that have worn in the past 1000 years.

Fast forward - we drove down from Siem Reap beyond the Ton le Sap Lake to meet up with the riverboat on the river.  The lake is too low to accommodate the boat right now.  The rainy season is around the corner. The farms here are dry and brown versus the very green fields we saw in Vietnam.  The Cambodians just don't have the irrigation systems the others have.

Enroute we had the dubious pleasure of checking out what the Cambodians call KFC (Kambodia Fried Crickets!) and OTHER delicacies!  This is "too much information" for me but I enjoyed seeing the fruits and vegetables the locals had for sale at this little coach stop.  However, members of our group thought trying the spider legs and crickets would be a fun challenge - good for them.  Pictures are enough for me!

I'm so blessed not to have lived in Cambodia in the Khmer Rouge days when it was absolutely crucial for people to eat this type of "protein", just to survive.  As I said, fruits were better for me!

Not long after this stop we got to our embarkation point at Prek Kdam.  We enjoyed the cooling rest and lunch break on the AMA Lotus River boat (our home for the next 7 days) and then were off to a very poor, floating fishing village near Kampong Chhnang.  This was our first true sight of Cambodians living on their boats and will be the subject of another post.

All for now...