On the Road to Siem Reap (includes big spiders and wood carvings)

Well, if anyone had told me that I would be making road side stops to visit the local insect market I may have laughed out loud. But, that is exactly what we did on the road to Siem Reap. We made a number of interesting stops but I must admit that the insect market most likely topped the list of ‘Oh my Buddha’, mouth agape, really!?

Yes, there were tarantulas! There were many ‘creepy crawlers’ with numerous legs, some were already fried and ready to eat and some were …well, not so much so! As one of our group commented that “the red ants were not nearly as tasty as the cockroaches”; a phrase I can admit I never had thought I would actually hear in my life time.
I held a tarantula on my arm and suddenly there were two on my arm. I am not afraid of spiders (or most other things) and the silkiness of the tarantulas and their furry little legs made them seem more like an animal than an arachnid. I enjoyed it immensely! Some other members of our group who weren’t so fond of the critters had a quick therapy session on holding a spider and not fainting.

The stop at the silver smith workshop was very interesting as we watched them hammer out their craft. Beautiful! I bought a pair silver leaf earrings that were as light a a feather and a small silver ‘unicorn’ for our collection of ‘odd and interesting things’ that we have gathered at home from many trips.

We also stopped at a workshop where a group of artisans made wood carvings. Beautiful would be an understatement as these were exquisitely formed and carved pieces made by excellent crafts-people. We enjoyed watching them work and finding out about the different kinds of wood they used in their work.

We passed the Tonle Sap Lake that rises and falls over great distances with the back wash of the Mekong River. Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonl%C3%A9_Sap

Once we were finished our road trip we ensconced ourselves in our lovely hotel rooms at the Nagara Angkor Boutique Hotel for a quick shower and a cold drink. Check out our accommodations here: http://nagaraangkor.com/

Another long but interesting day where we learned a lot and experienced even more!