Exploring Siem Reap Cambodia

Having spent the day yesterday touring, climbing, and exploring the temples in and around Angkor Wat, we decided today needed to be a little less strenuous. We started our outings by meeting our driver (President Loy of the District Presidency) at 9:00 this morning and took a more leisure pace for the day.

Our first stop was the silk farm in Siem Reap. Even though we have been to Silk Island and seen the silk production there, we felt this was a more complete experience in understanding the production of silk. We spent a little over an hour in which time we were able to see each stage of production, from the life cycle of the silk worm, to the production of silk fabrics. We highly recommend this to anyone who might decide to travel to Cambodia to experience the Angkor temples.

Upon the recommendation of our driver, our next stop was to Artisans Angkor where we were able to see how they produce many different forms of art such as painting silk pictures and tiles, creating porcelain treasures, ceramic statues, and wood & stone carvings. All of it was very fascinating. As we finished our tour the rains started to fall. It only lasted a few minutes, just enough to clear the air and bring up the humidity level.

It was lunch time, so we asked our driver to take us somewhere that we might have a choice of Khmer or Western foods. We found ourselves at Neary Khmer where we all enjoyed our food selections.

With the afternoon ahead of us and no more ideas on our own, we asked our driver for suggestions. He took us to the village where there are stilt houses and rice fields. About November the water level of the lake will rise about 30 feet or so, up to the level of the houses on top or the stilts. Now the lake is low so there are many who live on the ground level. This flood plane is a good place to grow rice as it is close to the lake. They are able to have 3 crops of rice in a year in this area.


As we finished this last visit we opted to return to our hotel for a little relaxation. Marla had some homework to do and needed to work on lesson plans for her school class this fall, Brenda took a nap, and we were able to do our scripture study. Tonight we had one more trip to the night market for dinner and a few last shopping items. This has been a great vacation, but we are looking forward to returning to our home in Phnom Penh.