Siem Reap
Day 1:
- Silkworm farm
they are ready to be left alone to spin when they turn yellow
coccoons
extracting the fine silk
After they are dyed, they are spun into smaller bobbins for weaving.
The silk farm utilises traditional methods and instruments were crude. To extract the raw silk, workers would just throw silk coccoons in a bowl of hot water and patted the coccoons using a wooden U-shaped paddle. The fibres when passed through the narrow crevice would then be spun into a thread of raw silk.
They separate the raw sillk (outer layer of the coccoon) from the fine silk (inner layer of the coccoon) by looking at the colour. When all the raw silk have been extracted, the coccoon will be very yellow and the texture will be different. That is when the extraction of fine silk begins.
The silk threads are dyed with bark or various other organic material to achieve the colour that they want. However the colours are all so vibrant that the threads don't look as if they have been dyed with mere bark or grasses.
The fabrics are hand-woven and it is definitely a complicated process. It can take them 3 to 5 days to finish weaving one piece of fabric depending on how intricate the design is. However, hand-woven silk scarves (cheapest in SR) can be bought so cheaply there (2 for 5USD), it makes me wonder how do we attach the prices to labour..
- West Baray
I didn't take much pictures at the West Baray because it was noon and freaking hot. The picture is a river leading from the Baray. The lake is much bigger and it even has an island. The place has not much shade and many stalls with not much tourists, probably because we went at noon. However, there were still people taking boat rides and playing with the water. Gan and I got good deals for our silk scarves and fisherman pants. I think if it was cooler, it would be a good place to just sit and look at the sky.
(courtesy of half of Gan's stitched picture)
- War museum
Somehow I feel that we got duped into visiting the War museum. I guess we thought that it was about the wars in Cambodia and all. It was actually just a big compound showcasing old war equipment.
Ok, I wasn't really sure if there were land mines there or they just put up the signs to be funny. However I was careful not to step there and took a calculated risk in putting Evil on the signs. Maybe only guys will be interested in old war machinery, detailing when they were manufactured and destroyed. It was interesting no doubt but I wouldn't pay 3 USD (if i didn't remember wrongly for the admission.
Reaching for a gun...
It was only till later on then I came across a sign
that we are not supposed to help ourselves to them..=P
The gun was superbly heavy, it was a wonder people could aim with them...
An old helicopter outside the compound.
- Wat Thmei
The driver asked if we wanted to visit the Killing Fields and we agreed. However, it is not similar to the one in Phnom Penh. It does have a monument that consists of bones but it is located within the grounds of a temple to commenmerate the mass graves that was near Siem Reap. The temple murals were interesting. However without a guide or signage to explain, we felt quite.. well lost there. The place was also quite quiet with only a few pockets of Korean tourists with their guide on a short trip there.
We then went back to the hostel to rest because it was so hot and sunset was still far off. We napped before trudging down to an oily dinner at a nearby eatery and boarded our tuk-tuk at 4.30 pm. Portions are usually generous and oily. We orderd a platter of fried dumplings and there were puddles of oil on the plate. On occasion, oil would drip from the dumpling and not to say the least, there was a layer of oil on the sauce of vinegar when we were done.
The driver drove us to get temple pass. It was 20 USD for a day and the cost was proportional to the number of days you require at least up till 3 days (I didn't bother to look at the cost of temple passes for a week). We bought a 2 day pass. However the start selling at 5 pm or 5.30 and the thing kicks in then so a 2 day pass is good for 2 days plus an extra sunset. We had to linger around and wait along with everybody else for them to start selling. They needed a photo go with the temple passes previously but now with technology advances, they have upgraded to using web-cams to take still grainy shots. It takes a while before the big floppy laminated paper pops out with your picture but otherwise its not too bad a wait...
-Sunset at Phnom Bakheng
the world at Phnom Bakheng
The sunset was nice but the place was choked full of people. It was quite a walk up and since by the time we got there it was already sunset, we didn't get down until the sun had almost set. It was quite a feat trying to navigate the rocky road in semi-darkness and we had to be careful lest we slip on a loose rock and turn an ankle on the first day of our trip. An advice is to bring a torchlight if you are planning to stay late. The ruins does offers a different sort of charm in twlight.
We asked our ever-friendly tuk-tuk driver to bring us shopping so we could buy washing powder to wash our dusty clothes. I swear that if Gan had given me a hard pat on the back, she would see a cloud of dust form.
We also went to the night market to walk and I got silk scarves and a painting of Angkor Wat. We then headed back to the hostel to wash our clothes and rest. Gan was vastly amused by 'Mythbusters' on Discovery telly. In fact, come to think of it, she was very amused by the telly in the entire trip in Cambodia. Her excuse was that she doesn't watch telly in Singapore. I think on one occassion in Phnom Penh, I started blinking at her, appalled when she flipped the channel to TCS 8 showing the drama starring Li Jingmei and Edmund Chen..because it was easy to watch. I think the title was Birds of Paradise (which I also believe to have ended its run before we reached Cambodia.
*shakes head...............anyway then its off to bed with us...
Incidentally I was quite pleased with our guesthostel, recommended by YJ's friend. Our room was quite big and airy and had clean white sheets and white tiled floor. The fridge, the television, well everything worked fine. We actually took our shoes off in our room. The toilet was also reasonably clean and had hot water. The guesthouse was a tad spartan but for 10 USD a night for the both of us, it was good enough. Oh and they clean your room everyday. =)
It's just one or two streets away from Pub Street (the 'happening' eatery place). If anybody is interested, the guesthouse is Seng KY guesthouse (or something like that)
Tel: (855) 63 964 034
H/p: (855) 12 630 943
Address: #15 , Sivatha street ,close to OLD MARKET, next door to Carnets d'Asie.
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