24 Mar 2025 - Peam Chi Korng And Pak Russei Crafts
Chris went to a tai chi session at 6:30 am and told them that she would be there the next day too. It was quite impressive being up on deck at such an early hour of the morning. I was the only person there. Then breakfast and off the boat by 8:30 am .
A steep bank to climb up to get to a village. Then we got into tuc tucs to go to an aluminium smelting process in someone’s house , where originally they had used ordinance from the Vietnam war but now we are using aluminium cans and aluminium recycled from houses. It was a very basic operation and health and safety standards did not exist. We saw how they made the moulds for pots, pans and other articles out of sand and then poured the molten aluminium in them. It was very basic and at the same time very impressive and highly skilled
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We then got back in the tuc tucs and went to the market where each person was given $1 in local currency to spend with the aid of a simple translation sheet. We told Sam to give the money to someone suitable and he gave it to an old man who had fought and suffered in a Cambodian war and Pol Pots regime. The market itself was like a souk in places and did not really interest us that much.
Once back on the boat There was a talk on Cambodia and the Mekong. Then lunch followed by reading on deck, very pleasant.
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At 3 pm we disembarked again and were driven in a larger Tuk Tuk, it took 10 of us including the guide, to the home or factory of a lady who produced vast quantities of rice noodles, having invested in $10,000 worth of so-called modern machinery: it all looked a bit antiquated to me and the whole place were slopping with water. But she was running a very sucessful business
After this, we went to another home where there was a loom weaving silk and there David bought himself a brown silk shirt - against Chris's better judgement
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Then onto the local secondary school where we tried to talk in English to a class full of students, but their English seemed non-existent, before seeing an interesting martial arts demonstration with boys as young as eight years. The name of this martial art is Bokator, a traditional form of martial art
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Back on the boat, we showered the excessive heat of the day off and then went up for the normal cocktail at 6 pm followed by the details of the next days itinerary. We went into dinner when the gong sounded and sat there for five minutes with nobody else joining us and no food were served to us nor anything said. So we made to leave at which point one of the staff did offer us a table for two where we could be served our food without waiting for the other seven in the group. Why they think that nine strangers want to eat together all the time we did not know and hopefully we will at least be offered a table for two at breakfast if not at lunch also from now on.
More reading up on the top deck before a film on Angkor Wat at 8:30: this was shown in the cinema on the bottom deck which we had not discovered beforehand. It was a great area with a library complex and gym.