Moira on the road

Locomotiva, stazione di Casarsa

Your average day in Prey Veng starts with a Chinese lady who yells your order for coffee to the kitchen 30 meters away (effectively causing your brain to shrink from pain) and hearing the news of the day: 5 elephants in the north of the Kingdom are pissed off for some reason and so they have come to the main road to kick cars passing by. (Obvious but necessary note to self: never ever for any reason piss off an elephant.)

My two days -one and a half really- in Prey Veng were interesting, maybe less impressive that Kampong Cham and Siem Reap but full of amazing moments.

Passing by some city whose name I don't remember, I saw a woman giving rice to six or seven very young monks on the side of the road. Picture them all in a row, probably 7-8 years old, with their orange robes and their containers for food held out while she was filling them one at a time, with jasmine rice.

Then we crossed a bridge, and below in a big pool of brown water from yesterday's rain, a women was paddling to the centre in these half boats of theirs, open to one extremity. The water was like liquid milk chocolate, the soil all around light brown, the woman dressed in beige and brown tones. It was a perfect monochrome. I wish my photography skills were enough to match the beauty in this country.

Irrigation canal. It is not connected to any other canal so it just collects rainwater.

A woman on her rice field, with a kid and a cow

Kids watching us from the distance

Negotiating traffic :)

Me...always taking pictures. Rural bridge, it can't hold the weight of the car so we walked to our meeting

The health centre

Commune meeting at the local police post (the name on the board is still written in French!)

Now where are all these ducks running to???

...home of course!!!

Heading home, bye bye!

Temple in Siem Reap province, taken from the car :(

Kampong Kleang commune (7 villages), during the dry season is like this, during the wet season water of the Tonle Sap lake raises to the houses level. They are "in the lake" for six months a year.

Meeting with the Commune Council and village chiefs

Trying, with embarrassing results, to introduce myself in Khmer :)

Map of Kampong Kleang Commune - the dotted/green area is the extension of the Tonle Sap lake during wet season

Young monks playing with slings

Young monks

Commune council members (left and centre) and village chief (right)

The main road

A house on stilts

More houses on stilts

One of the four pagodas in the commune

Pagoda in K.Kleang. A drawbridge connects the pagoda to the main road, and it is raised during wet season so boats can sail through it.

The courtyard

Inside the monastery

Inside the monastery

The Naga, or Dragon, symbol of Cambodia

View of K.Kleang main road from the pagoda

Drying the dry season rice on the main road after the harvest

In case you can't find your way following tuk tuk's and tourists, HERE IS Pub Street

Dinner with L. and N.

The world is a book. people who don't travel only get to read one page.

Sticky rice - a delicious Cambodian snack of rice and beans with coconut milk cooked inside bamboo sticks.

Phnom Penh, 28 April 2012

K., a monk who admitted laughing that he has a Facebook page!!!

Modern monks: one has a facebook account, one has a smartphone...

The riverside in front of the Royal Palace

A woman selling food

Playing football

Selling lotus fruits (on the right)

Playing tennis on the riverside

Aerobics on the riverside

Waiting for the music to start

Candies

Aerobics (the popular one - this guy always has more people than any other aerobic class)

And if too much exercise kills you...The coffin shop!