Feb. 9th - Cambodian Rice Paddies, Stilt Homes, & Hanging with locals

We decided to sleep in a little this morning and Mr. Mark is picking us up at 10 am to take us to see the stilt homes in the floating village, rice paddies, a ride on a big lake, & floating market.  So we decided to blog a little and then went to breakfast at our hotel.  We hadn't seen the pool area yet, so we went down there and had breakfast near the pool.  It was the croissant & bread breakfast, but this time I tried the tea, which was better than the coffee.  

Our Guest House Pool

Pouring my tea for the 1st time 

Mr. Mark came a little early this morning, but again told us to take our time.  We were just finishing breakfast but had to run back up stairs to get our day pack, sun screen, and go to the bathroom.  Mr. Mark was very happy to see us, and we piled into the Tuk Tuk and off we went!  Drove out of Siem Reap for about 30 minutes, and into a very rural area.

Mr. Mark has a nice new shirt on today! This is our view from Tuk Tuk

We past a lot of cows on the road, outside of people's homes

Past a little boy doing work on the side of the road

Older school children riding either to or from school

We kept driving and driving, until we came to a spot where we had to pay for the boat ride.  It actually cost us $30 US dollars each, so I asked Mr. Mark why so expensive (really this isn't, but everything else had been much cheaper). He told us that this 'tour' has only been 1 year old, and this place is now a like a national park, so the money helps keep up with the roads, because during raining season there are no roads, it's all by boat.  And it also goes to the children in the town.  So I was happy to contribute.  We then continued along a small river and past miles of rice paddies, where we could see people working.

Close up of rice paddies from Tuk Tuk

Person along side the road, working in the rice paddies

We then made it to where we boarded a boat.  We thought it was just us and the driver, but Mr. Mark jumped in and told us, because we gave him "BIG" money yesterday (we tipped him $14 for taking us around ALL day yesterday, showing us traditional things, getting us to see sunset, etc.) that he wanted to come with to explain things on the way, like a tour guide.  He also brought 2 of his friends that he said we needed to drop off somewhere.

Walking to get on a boat to see the floating village

Tony on the boat, heading to the floating village

Fisherman on the side of the River, Mr. Mark said they were police officers fishing

The school that is in this village. Mr. Mark said that the rain was so high last season, it flooded the school

Children headed home from school or on lunch break

Stilt homes in the village - this village is little over 2,000 people, 60% of the children work & don't go to school

"Thom" or cage where they keep the fish before they sell them.  They need to get fat he said

Another view of stilt homes - incredible the height of these homes & to think that the rain gets this high

Girl in her home, looks like after showering

The village Wat

Boy in boat, he was helping his dad with the fishing.

Image the river rising up to the homes, Mr. Mark said, how people in town have motor bikes, these people have boats

Finally, we pulled up to Mr. Mark's friends floating restaurant for lunch.  We first got off at the wrong place, but then just around the river bend there was Mr. Mark's friends place. 

Mr. Mark's Friends restaurant on the right side, lake is a head

We got out and Mr. Mark said that he had called a head to make sure there was shrimp for us & a good snake fish.  This time Tony had no choice but to eat whatever was put in front of us.  We sat down and ordered Angkor beer.  

Our beer of choice with the river behind it

Mr. Mark got himself one too and we all cheers.  He said it's never to early to have a drink. 

Cheers to Mr. Mark, our new Cambodian Friend!

Then he showed us that they were literally catching the snake fish fresh out of the river for us to fry up!

Here they are catching the snake fish from the river

We sat and enjoyed our view of the river with people passing in their fishing boats, the weird/funny trees on the other side of the river (behind me) and looking forward is the big open lake.  

I'm just enjoying the atmosphere, everyone is just so friendly & can't wait to taste this fish & shrimp

Finally, our food has arrived!  The shrimp were so small, Tony & I were having a difficult time pulling these little critters apart.  But when we did and dipped it into the spicy sauce, OH BOY was it good!!!  I finally got the hang of it, hold the head of the shrimp, peel off the tail & legs, then dip.  

Lip smackin' good! hahaha they were just so small!

Then our fried snake fish came out, skin on, bones inside, but at least they cut the head off for us. We weren't sure how to eat this, so of course it was up to me to figure out and dig into it!  I opened up the middle and just started scooping out the meaty part, trying to pull the bones out.  Mr. Mark came by and said, "OH you must eat the skin too, very nice". So then I started pulling off the fried skin, scales & all, and placing it into the rice with the fish.  We put the spicy sauce on top of that, and who would have thought, I really liked fried fish skin.  I also ate it with the sliced up mango in the little bowl, and followed it with a bite of cucumber.     

Fried Snake Fish before we ate it

Friend Snake fish, after trying to pick through it.  I don't think we did a good job!

When we were done eating, we got a few more beers, then Mr. Mark wanted Tony to try catching more fish, however, it was fishing inside their cage where the fishes were being kept.  Tony caught the biggest fish, then I tried and I caught the smallest, but Mr. Mark said, "Small but F'ing spicy", meaning, it's little but it sure will taste good!

Tony trying hard to catch us a fish to eat!

I caught the smallest fish, but the 'spiciest', meaning tastiest

Then they wanted us to try fishing off the end of the floating restaurant with our bamboo sticks, a piece of string, & a little bobber that looked like rubber.  We sat there for hours and didn't catch anything.  This was the point where we knew we were just going to be hanging out all day with the locals, and we were very excited to do so.

I was just enjoying fishing off the back of the floating restaurant, but didn't catch anything

Tony hanging as a local Cambodian, he didn't catch anything either

They fried up the other fish that we had caught earlier and we all dug in with fingers (the proper way) and ate the fishes together.  They also brought out dried banana chips that were caramelized, they were excellent, and Tony actually enjoyed them as well!!

Our fried fish that we caught in the cage, we just kept eating!

Ok, so the Cambodians know how to clean a fish to bare bones!

Enjoying food, beers, & laughs with the locals!

They loved cheersing us and talking about random stuff.  Mr. Mark told us about his family, he has a 3 year old girl and a 6 year old girl who he sends to private school to learn English.  Her teachers are from Australia, England & US.  He says he pays big money for private school.  He got married in 2005 and is now 31 years old.  

Mark then asked how long we have been married for. I then told him we just had our 2 anniversary.  He then told us that most Cambodians have a child within their first year of marriage.  Mark went on to say that if you don't have a child within that year, you are then viewed as a "ladyboy", to which everyone pointed and laughed at Tony, shouting LADY BOY!!! hahahaha

Mr. Mark acting as a "Lady Boy" hahahaha

I then noticed one of the guys drinking out of a tip bowl and I asked him what it was and it was just beer, but he liked his cold.  I pointed to his ice cube and called him Ice Berg.  We then tried to explain what an Ice berg was, saying Alaska, huge ice mountains, and he thought it was the funnies thing in the world.  Then when it melted more, I said, now it's an ice cube, then it melted more, Tony told him it was a lake, then final a puddle.  They didn't understand puddle, so we said, when rain comes down and you step in small water, it's a puddle, again, they laughed as hard.  hahahaha It was pretty funny.  

Iceberg!

Another funny moment was when Mr. Mark pretended to take pictures with his new iPhone 4.5, because the back of his crappy small 1999 cell phone fell off, and his friends started making fun of him.  So then they kept saying how his phone is now the new iPhone.  

Just bought an iPhone 4.5 - hahaha

We also sat and sang a very songs, who knew the cranberries were so big in Southeast Asia.  Mr. Mark started singing Zombie so I joined in too!!

Finally, they wanted to take us out to the fresh water on the lake, where we could swim & have more fish for dinner.  There were 2 boats that they pulled up.  

Preparing the boats to take us swimming in the fresh water lake

Getting the water out of the bottom of the boat with our dinner right there

Tony got into one and I got into the other, however, I didn't trust these boats so I didn't bring my camera.  And thank goodness, because these boats were very unstable.  

Ready for our dinner cruise

Guess who doesn't live in Cambodia???

We probably got 100 yards away from the restaurant when they asked Tony to help scoop out water from the bottom of the boat.  Well, Tony ended up tipping the whole boat over, and dumping all the beers into the river, so they swam to collect those, and then tried to get the water out of the boat. All they did was scoop with their hands to get the water out, it really wasn't working good.  Finally, Tony realizing he's a good foot taller than everyone else, swam over, and stood up to left the boat out of the water, and dumping a lot of the water out of the boat.  Luckily, my boat was fine, and I just enjoyed watching the spectacle.   

After Tony sunk the dinner cruise hahahaha

When we got back, we all got off the sinking boats fine, except for their friend, Dori.  This is their friend that they make fun of for being too big.  The poor guy couldn't get out of the water.  It took 3 of them to try and pull him out and it still didn't work.  OH and please notice the boats in the background are sinking!
We all say to him "Dori don't worry"

We got back to the restaurant and dried off, well Tony did, I was fine haha.  We then had a very more beers and the boys decided to build structures with the cans.  No idea why!!

Cambodians like their beer!

Boys will be boys!

Not sure what game this is - what the heck!

Big shock, the cans fell over

It was now definitely dark out and we put on our bug spray, and they turned on the light.  There is no electricity out here, so they have to use batteries to light anything:

Time to turn on the lights!

I just enjoyed the looking out at all the stars, you could see SOOOOO many out here:

It's getting dark, how will we get back?

It was finally ready to head back and a local boat came to pick us all up.  I waved goodbye to the 2 girls I tried talking to:

The girls I tried to talk with, but they didn't know much English

Tony and I sat in the front of this boat because of the motors that they have in the back give off really bad fumes they were saying.  

Local boat picked us all up from the restaurant  heading back to land

Tony got to see his first shooting star, he thought it was unbelievable!!  We past back through the floating villages and it was just so dark, but he saw what looked like a local bar because there were men all around having drinks and playing something.  

We then got back into our Tuk Tuk, and drove in a pack, us in the Tuk Tuk, owner of the restaurant with pregnant wife on the back of his motor bike, and Ice berg with Dori "don't worry" on their motor bike.  After riding for abount 15 minutes we stopped in the middle of this area to a 'so called neighborhood bar' where there were people drinking and music was playing.  They gave us a beer and I started dancing because Shakira came on.  One of the guys, gave me his mom's hand and I was twirling his mom around, dancing to the music.  It was so FUN!!!  We tried to pay for our drinks but they just wouldn't let us.  We had given them money earlier for all the food and beers and were so appreciative that they didn't want us to pay for these.  

We got back in our pack and continued to Mr. Mark's home where we got to meet his wife and 2 children.  They were so adorable!! Ok, back in, and back to Siem Reap!  I gave Mr. Mark my facebook name because he said he had facebook, I hope he friends me!!!  

Tony & I ran across the street for a cheese pizza to go!  We were a little hungry and just wanted hardy food.  We brought it back to our hotel room, ate, and fell right to sleep!  

Pizza back at the hotel!

This was one of our most favorite times during our trip!!!  We just loved hanging out with the locals, doing something that is not in any of the guide books and felt the Cambodian love!!!  THANK YOU Mr. Mark!!!