Friday, Oct 7 - Siem Reap Cambodia

Needless to say we slept in late today to try to get over jet lag.  However, that means we missed breakfast so we just had some fruit the hotel supplied in the room.  We got ourselves organized and then met Tara and our other traveler, also a Mary, from San Jose, and headed out to a local restaurant for lunch.  The food was very good with egg rolls, a delicious soup, veggies, tofu curry and mango with coconut milk for dessert. 

Then we headed out of town to one of the floating villages on Tonle Sap (which translates to Fresh Water Lake).  The village had about 6000 people, a large percent of which are Vietnamese.  

The village included houseboats...

a "gas station" with fuel in various and sundry containers...

floating shops...

and a floating school.

The entire village moves 15 to 18 times per year with the relocation's driven by water depth.  The level of the lake and surrounding rivers and channels varies depending on the monsoons and dry spells.  

We stopped at one large boat shop that catfish pools and crocodile pools extending into "cages" built into the decks.

Some of the boats used to get around the lake.

On the way back to town we saw a gigantic field of blooming waterlilies so we stopped for pictures.   

Along the field were small covered platforms where people could have a meal served from a small roadside restaurant.

Among other things that were grilling on the BBQ was rat.  Yes, rat.  To each his own.

When we got back to Siem Reap we were dropped off in the market area and we spend some time wandering the shops.  

Paul bought a larger cell phone holder (brightly decorated bag with a strap so you can hang it around your neck or on your shoulders) that had two other zipper pockets.  Paul already had a small one, but uses that for sunglasses.  

The street scene was lively and colorful.

Many of the restaurants featured crocodile...including crocodile burgers and pizza.  We passed.

We then had dinner, walked back to the hotel and piled back into the bus to go to a circus.  The performers are students at a school dedicated to training artists and acrobats.  The circus theme was roughly based on a story written by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge.  The performers were primarily acrobats plus a contortionist. 

One woman stood on her hands, managed to put a bow and arrow in her feet...

and shot an arrow that popped a balloon.  Pretty amazing.

While the acts were going on there was an artist that painted four large paintings that went along with the story.  One was of a Buddha, representing the early history of Cambodia.  The next was bombs raining from the sky, representing the revolutions and wars.  Then he painted an interesting abstract that, when he turned it over, turned out to be a large skull on a black, red and yellow background…really interesting.  The finale was a bucolic country scene with a grass hut in the foreground and skyscrapers in the far distance, representing today and the future.  The performers were very good and the two musicians were exceptional.  Then it was time to go back to the hotel and try to get enough sleep before our early start tomorrow.