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Published: April 8th 2008
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silk thread ready for weaving
From right to left: raw unwashed silk, then washed, then dyed with both natural and chemical dyes Another bright sunny day in Siem Reap, another delicious breakfast (I heartily recommend toast topped with mashed banana, cinnamon, and palm sugar), and another set of adventures to be had!
We hired our tuktuk driver from yesterday, Mr. Snar, to take us to the silk farm about 16 km outside of town and then to
Artisans d’Angkor. Both these organizations train young Cambodians in traditional arts and crafts so that they will have a trade to take back to their home villages. While originally started and supported by the Cambodian and French governments, they are now self-sustaining. Students study from 6 months to a year or more, earning a small living allowance while apprenticing, and then may earn up to $100 a month if they stay to work at either site as artisans or weavers.
The silk farm was fascinating. Our tour began with the fields of mulberry bushes, where they experiment with different varieties to learn what makes the best silk. (Mulberry leaves are the silkworm’s only food.) We saw moths, caterpillars at various stages of development, and cocoons, and then could watch each step of the process as the silk cocoons were transformed into thread (300 meters
of continuous thread in one cocoon!), which was then woven into various types and patterns of cloth. All of the work is done with simple tools and wooden looms. It is a rare privilege to see the entire evolution of something from raw materials to finished product - so often I have no idea how things are made, or by whom. There are so many steps in the process, and the end result is so beautiful. They had an elegant gift shop, where the prices reflected the high quality of the goods hand-produced here.
The
Artisans d’Angkor is a training school for silk painting, and wood and stone carving, and it was also interesting to see the steps in the process of turning a raw block of wood or stone into an intricately carved Buddha or elephant or other figure. Again, a beautiful gift shop with prices to match the quality. Just as well - I’m pretty sure those stone cavrings I so admired would put my luggage over the weight limit.
On the way back to the hotel, we asked the driver to stop at the market for a few minutes so we could make one last-ditch
Hanging out with mom at work
It's not uncommon to see young kids hanging out with their parents at work, and lots of kids play on the street outside shops during the day. effort to find the clothing shop that had eluded us yesterday. He dropped us off at a slightly different section than where we had started before, and (just as in the dream I had last night) we walked in, turned left, and there it was! (Before you think we are complete idiots for not finding it yesterday, let me clarify that today we were actually dropped off at a section of the market completely across the street from where we kept looking yesterday, which explains why we couldn’t ever find it - but I guess that proves that we
are complete idiots, now that I reflect on that.) And as expected, when we found the shop, it wasn’t actually as deliriously wonderful as we remembered. It did have some pretty clothes, unlike any we had seen elsewhere, but when I asked about sizes, the shopkeeper said, “One size fits all!” Maybe one size fits all Asian women, but one size will not fit me, and even my mom didn’t think she would have any luck. There was no dressing room, so there was no way to try things on. We were pleased to have found the shop and sorry not
The elusive shop
If "one size fits all" applied to us, we would have bought some things! to have found it as wonderful as we remembered.
In our travels along the roads outside Siem Reap today, we saw a one-legged man riding a bike while carrying a simple wooden crutch over his shoulder. Downtown I often see an armless man selling books from a basket hung around his neck. While most of Cambodian’s landmines have been cleared, those mines certainly left an unforgettable legacy of victims.
On a more light-hearted note, I saw two other new sights around town in the last 24 hours. While I’ve become accustomed to seeing families of three, four, or five people all riding on one motorcycle, or two or three kids on every bicycle, I was most impressed (and a little nervous) to see a man riding his motorcycle holding his naked baby of about 6-8 months old in one arm while steering with the other. Every small child I’ve seen on a motorcycle has either been sandwiched between two adults or has been big enough to straddle the seat in front of the driver, so this was a new technique. The other sight novel enough to cause a double-take was a family of four people
on a motorcycle: two adults, one young child, and a nursing baby in mom’s lap. If you can balance on a moving motorcycle while holding your three-year-old and nursing your baby, you are the best multi-tasker I’ve ever seen!
More rural countryside on the way to the silk farm today meant more animal sightings. There were plenty of cows and dogs wandering along and across the road, and a few water buffalo wallowing in big a mud hole. I saw one pig, who didn’t look too happy. He was trussed up and lying on his back crossways on the back of a motorcycle with his feet in the air. I can’t imagine what he was thinking, but I suppose he won’t be thinking it much longer.
Someone asked me about monkey sightings on this trip, and there haven’t been many. We met the gibbon at Wat Hanchey, and some macaques at another temple. We saw a couple of monkeys at Angkor Wat the other day, but only in the distance. So not nearly enough monkey sightings yet, but plenty of monks.
Tomorrow there’s a big surprise in store for mom, and as the day approaches and I try to get the details all worked out (which is proving slightly trickier than originally expected), I’m getting excited and nervous. Stay tuned for an unexpected twist - though some of you already know what it is!
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Miriam
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You trump Tony Bourdain
I watched a long show on TV yesterday with Tony Bourdain traveling to Vietnam and commenting on the food that he ate. I never would have watched this show had it not been for you. In any case, he ate a duck cooked in clay. Feathers, blood and all. He is not nearly as thought provoking as you are. Your blog continues to be fascinating.