Well, halfway through our ride, we stopped for a half hour rest. We went into a nearby restaurant and had a beer and went to the bathroom. I tried an anchor beer:
Well, after this we walked around outside and saw some interesting sights. Right outside our bus, there were street vendors selling "scrumptious" snacks for the bus-riders to enjoy on the second half of the trip!
Some street vendors are portable, using their bikes to sell food. However, many of the street vendors are stationary. Just setting up along the street selling food that is usually fried right in front of you.
This European couple bought some fruit.
This native Khmer woman is not buying fruit. Instead, she is buying..........
CRICKETS!!!
GRASSHOPPERS, ROACHES, AND YES, GIANT SPIDERS!!!!I don't know how people enjoy eating these fried critters, but I couldn't help taking pictures. The spiders definitely creeped me out the most. I had been prepared to see crickets because I had read about it, but when I saw the roaches and spiders, I have to admit, I gagged a little. I just don't know......
Well, after a few more hours, we arrived in Siem Riep (which is the city where the temples are). Here is a picture of the Dara Inn, where we stayed for three nights:
There is my room right on top at the corner of the building!Once we arrived, we had some time to ourselves in our rooms to unpack and relax a little. So, I unpacked and found a TV station that played American shows and sat on my bed to watch a little TV. Well, as I was watching TV, I heard a shrill chirping sound near my window. At first, I though for sure it was a loud bird outside my window. So, I continued watching TV. A few minutes later, I heard the noise again, but it sounded like it was right behind me. So I looked behind me and noticed my bed was against the curtain of another window, so I thought it was still a bird outside the window. Well, a few minutes later, I heard the noise again, and this time, I knew it was not outside my window. I could tell that the sound was coming from inside and behind the curtain, like some kind of animal was crawling around on the window. Well, I wanted to look, but if you know me, you know I am deathly afraid of spiders, and my imagination sometimes gets out of control, so I couldn't bear to make myself move the curtain out of fear that some huge, jumping spider would jump on me or something. So, I went next door to find Minh and have her sit with me until we heard the noise again, so I could get a second opinion on whether the noise was inside or outside. I was secretly hoping Minh would check behind the curtain, but no luck. So we sat and watched TV and heard the noise again. She said it was coming from inside. We were both afraid to look, so we just went downstairs to wait for the rest of the group to come downstairs so we could get on to our next travel stop.
Well, we all walked to a landmine rehabilitation center. We had a tour of the facilities and learned about the effects that landmines have had on Cambodia. We also learned about the great things that are done for free at this rehabilitation center. At the center, any person who is missing a limb can come to get a prosthetic limb and stay for up to 3 weeks learning how to use the limb. We saw many types of limbs, of which some were made to have attachments to help people function in a work or farming environment. The center also does parent eduction for parents with children who have disabilities. The center is doing great things, all free. Here are some pictures of the rehabilitation center.
These are some of the attachments for the prosthetic arms.And here, people can practice walking through a number of obstacles with their new prosthetic legs.
These are what some of the landmines look like.
You can see that most of the landmines had been placed along the Thai border, which is where the Khmer Rouge began and ended their operations. They left all these mines so that people would not be able to escape to Thailand.Well, after we visited the rehabilitation center, we went to dinner at a local Khmer restaurant. We had an important dinner date that evening with Dr. Lida, who is a cardiologist at the Angkor children's hospital. We wanted to ask him about the identification and treatment of children with heart problems in Cambodia, like the children that Hearts Without Boundaries is helping. We learned about the process for some of the children, like Bun Lak, to get identified as having a severe need for heart surgery that the Angkor children's hospital is just not qualified to perform. Dr. Lida was very gracious dinner guest as he answered many of our questions, and we asked a lot! Well, that was pretty much our day on Tuesday. Not too much happened as we spent so much time on the bus. Stay tuned for more!
Oh, and here is a picture of what I had for dinner, a traditional Khmer dish called Amok fish, very similar to a mild curry, and yes delicious!
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