Sapped

Cruising the Psale market, you can purchase a number of items this morning. Crickets by the can-full, tiny clams with or without chilis, dried starfish, potato pancakes, breaded and fried bananas. Our guide admitted that when he drinks, he snacks on crickets. Speaking of our guide, if you ever need a guide in Siem Reap, contact Set Kim. I have his number. He's wonderful and has loads of information. Oh, and sugar cane juice! A popular drink, the cane is loaded into the juicer just a carrot, the juice caught in a small plastic bag, wrapped up with a straw. And off you go!

We visited the hospital temple after the market. Probably the most fascinating temple for me, back in the day, you had to travel to the temple via boat. A man-made lake surrounded the hospital, a physical barrier to separate the ill from those still healthy. Inside the temple were four pools and five brahmans. First you would consult the brahman on which pool you would had to visit. And after a dip, cleansed, you'd then enter the shrine where holy water would be poured on your head to heal you. The four pools represent the four elements in life: water, earth, fire and air. The shrines smell like the room underneath the back porch in our house on Hilo Court. Dark, dank, dusty. Mud and water. Moss and mildew. The air thick with minerals.

And on to the temple of the mother. The trees are overtaking the temples. It's beautiful. Spung trees grow on top of the temples, over them, through them. Nature is all pơwerful.

The last stop of the day, we took a boat ride to Tonle Sap lake. A floating village, Vietnamese and Cambodians live in boathouses on the water. They move more than ten times a year. As heavy rains and dangerous weather roll in, they float to a nearby mountain. The water is green with algae, full of life. The villagers use the lake water for everything. Showering, washing, you can imagine. While that may take some getting used to, along with living in a house so small you cannot stand up, the view is pretty incredible. The sky and sea meet in the horizon. Interestingly enough, we got stuck on the way back to the car. Fifteen boats all trying to pas through about three feet of water? Not going to happen. The one in the middle weighted down by lumber, all the others had to go around through the mud. Some captains are better than others, let's just say. Oh, and I cut my heal also. And got drenched in water. Yes, the same water that everyone dóes everything in. This cut's got infection written all over it.