Day Two - Russian Markets and Mekong

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Today we had the morning free so a group of us decided to go to the Russian Markets. I still haven’t figured out why they were called the Russian markets, since there doesn’t seem to be anything Russian about them!

The stores were jammed packed in and out of a covered area. There was a silk corner, a wet market, home wares, fakes (of course), electrical goods, machinery and silverware.

Wandering around, I couldn’t figure out how any of them make any money! When you have 20 stores, all crammed into a small aisle, all selling the same thing, how do you choose which store to buy your silk pyjamas??

I was well behaved and only purchased items for house building. Ant on the other hand, made his way through his list and came back with a bag full!

The wet markets were interesting, not to mention putrid! We as Westerners could learn a lot from the Cambodians with regard to waste. There is not one part of the pig, chicken, fish or other unidentified creature that they don’t use or sell.

You’ll see from the pictures (which I'll upload when we get back as the connection here is too slow!) some of the amazing colours in the fruit and flower stores. Beautiful fresh home grown products.

In the afternoon we went out on a boat on the Mekong River with our local distributor. We actually stayed moored to the dock for the first hour while we waited for the rain to subside. Everyone tried to find a spot where the roof wasn’t leaking on them!

When we got going, it was amazing to see river life up close. There were tiny little huts on stilts on the edge of the water right next door to massive, modern mansions.

Although we were told we could swim in the water, no one was game to dive into its brown, murky goodness.

We headed to bed early, as tomorrow we have our first day of house building and we want to make sure that we are 100%.

I’m no longer anxious about the house building or heading out to the rural area. I just want to get there and get started.

Off to bed now.

Kel

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Comments

[Sam]

Wow Kel, you sound like you are having an amazing, life changing experience. Keep up with the updates, they are great to read. Sam xx