Road trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

We got thru traffic pretty easy this morning and drove Hwy 6 tp Siem Reap in about 10 hours.  Vuthy, our new guide, rode with us and he is delightful!  We stopped and interviewed a woman and daughter selling lotus fruit.  He bought some and we tried it on the bus.  The scenery was rice fields and small villages.  The road is partially paved.

We stopped at a village that specializes in tarantulas, catching and selling them for food.  A lady  caught some for us, fried them up and I tried two.  They were pretty tasty!

We had a delightful lunch at a resort and stopped at a neaby rice field and Vuthy, our guide, explained how rice is raised and harvested.  Along the side of the road were rice farmers that were cooking and smashing the rice to make rice cereal.  We stopped and some of the guys tried the smasher.

Our next stop was a very old bridge dated in the 1100's.  Most of the old bridges have been destroyed with the construction of the highways but this one is preserved.  Our bus could not drive across so we walked across.

We arrived in Siem Reap late afternoon and walked in the gardens before going to the hotel.  This is a very touristy town with more hotel beds than homes but it is not as crazy as Phnom Penh!  There are bats in the garden areas, temples with monks giving blessings, and we tried another common street food - boiled eggs that have baby chicks in them.  This was harder to eat than the insects but it tasted like egg.  

We tried our hand at folding the lotus flowers for the offerings but we weren't very good at it.  Dean did pretty good.