Escapisms

2017 was welcomed in as a group with dinner on the River Front in Touk to see the masses congragating outside as well as the fireworks which seemed to begin off all over the place including from boats on the River.

I seemed to set a tradition for myself by finding myself on water for the second New Years Day running as we took tuk tuks down to a river boat as some of us took the optional extra of taking in the views of the city skyline from the Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong River over to Koh Dach which is known by foreigners as ‘Silk Island’. The life is far more rural and rustic compared to the hustle & hustle of the busy city and moped & tuk tuk laden streets.

As you can imagine from the name a lot of silk weavers inhabit this island and we were here to visit them, do some shopping and find out more about their fascinating trade. We heard all about how the silk is made and the cycle of the bug to cocoon to moth to egg to bug etc and saw how by creating the cocoons is where the silk comes from and what they have to do to get the various forms of silk – as in raw, fine, coloured and so on. It was amazing to watch the ladies at work all hand made silk and cotton that would take a couple of days work to create such beautiful end results.

It was baking hot it must be said but that deterred none of us from shopping for a bit of silk. We were told why there was cheaper & more expensive piles – one was factory made and some were handmade there. We all flocked to that table to ensure that the money that we were paying was supporting the family and local economy rather than the factory made goods. It’s an amazing craft and I could have spent hundreds of dollars on gifts for all they were all so beautiful.
From here on the island we walked on a little bit further to see the Pagoda and temple. I don’t know but it kind of gave me the feeling of being in a neglected theme park with statues all over the place looking weathered and a big reclining Buddha. We saw a monk wander past evey now and then as Art was telling us more about the religion of Buddhism and how most Cambodians have volunteered as monks at some point in their lives. Be it a day, or two. A week, or two or indeed a month or two. There is no time limit as to how long you need to be one for. He was also telling us about how he went to a school taught by the monks as a child and how his parents are illiterate which fascinated all of us.

We were all melting at this stage, the sun was at it’s peak and we were all feeling it quite strongly. The beads of sweat were even starting to appear on my eyelids which is the strangest sensation ever!! We headed back to the boat and the journey back to the mainland for mid afternoon. Did spot this guy taking meter readings which did make us all giggle!

We headed back to the hotel on tuk tuks again from the boat, many more people were on the road this time being later on on New Years Day. Once at the hotel we visited the facilities, put our scarf haul in our rooms and headed the around the corner to the Friends Cafe for lunch. Much needed and such a lovely place similar to many of the giving back style cafes that I had read about in the guidebook.

Some of us headed to the central market to pretty much take in the tat! It reminded me of the market that we went to in Beijing after the Great Wall. I managed to pick up a few bits including a hat which was going to be an absolute life saver over the following few days as well as a small rucksack as I’d not got one with me – couldn’t find it anywhere before I left. Also picked up a  T-shirt, some magnets & a couple of beautiful bowls made out of dried coconut that had I seen at the S-21 museum but that I simply couldn’t buy from there as I didn’t want to remember as the place where I brought it from.

We had our evening in Paddy Rice followed by a massive ice-cream in Blue Pumpkin on the way home – amazing, but could have done with it at about 5pm when I was literally melting!