Noodle Nose

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We booked a guide for half a day and he was highly recommended on tripadivisor reviews. Nicky took us around in a tuk tuk to see some traditional Khmer livelihoods and way of life. This included some very significant levels of poverty and, as in other places on this trip, the poverty is always accompanied by smiling faces.
Our first stop off was to see some rice paper being made (which is used for making spring rolls). They use the rice husks to eat a fire which creates steam to cook the rice paper circles, these are carefully placed on bamboo drying racks and left out in the sun to dry. The finished rice paper is very thin and surprisingly bendy.
Further along the road we stopped at a house that dried banana. Very thin strips were laid in an overlapping pattern on bamboo racks and they dry to form a continuous sheet. The finished product is like mild banana toffee - delicious.
We declined to stop at the fish market to see how they prepare and dry the raw fish. I think it could have put the kids off fish for life. I saw a saloon car boot being opened and it was crammed full to the brim with large fish. The proverb are sardines in a can came to mind. The smell was also very strong, it was the right call!
I saw a small river and the occasional bamboo bridge, perhaps bridge is an overstatement more 'lashed poles'. I asked to stop so that Ed and Hat could do an Indiana Jones crossing. It so happened that this particular bridge was beside a food vendor and we got some tasty snacks which included fresh sugar cane juice (sweet with a herbal hint) and sweet sticky rice that had been steamed inside bamboo tubes that were laid over charcoal.
We then took a long dirt track through a very deprived area and arrived at a house where the famiky made rice noodles. The father pressed the noodles, the young son (Ed's age) cooled them in water baths and the mum and daughter portioned and packet them into wicker baskets lined with large locust leaves. Ed and Hat both got to sit on the pole that creates the pressure to force the noodles through the mold. They both got a piece of the rice putty and proceeded to make all sorts of shapes as we travelled including some funny moustaches and droopy noses.
We had lunch in a little street shop and tried a selection of dishes which had great flavours. Before heading back to the hotel we stopped off at the markets to get a bunch of lychees and some mangosteens.
A really great day out.

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