Today we traveled from Kampong Thom along the National Highway 6 through dirt roads and unfinished sections of roadway. We saw quiet a number of fields as we drove by clearly marked with the “land mine” danger signs. This intrigued our students some what and brought back a few memories from the Siem Reap landline museum and again re enforced just how far reaching the remnants of war have badly scarred the countryside and the people. CMAC (Cambodian Mine Action Centre) is currently de mining in the area and we could see a few of their vehicles off in the distance.
About half an hour later, our bus pulled into a small market just a couple minutes past the remote town of Bang. Our Cambodian guide Houte (Richard) explained that the local market was famous for collecting big spiders. A few of our students seemed to have developed an interest in big banana spiders.
In fact a very special variety of South Asian Tarantula. So we stopped and….. well…. I think you’ll just have to see our included pictures to get the idea. Just one piece of information, these spiders are very easy to handle and are usually sold in US and Canada as pets. In addition this market also cook these big spiders as well for food. A few of our students tried this popular dish as well. It is surprising that the meat tastes a lot like…crab!? It does!
We were also quickly surrounded by market children which was another experience that the student have gotten use to. Some of our students are practising their Khmer language to converse with the these children. Poverty is rife over here, but these market children all tell stories about how they love school and totally enjoy speaking English. They don’t get to see people their own age from other countries so they were ultra friendly to our students. A big round of applause for Jane Meng today for talking with Sriel, a 14 year old market girl who has been working at the markets every day since she was10 years of age.
Next we hopped on a bus and headed south for Phnom Penh. The road is quiet bumpy but very scenic.
