Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (days 22 and 23)

The drive to Siem Reap was broken by an overnight stop in a small town called Kampong Thom.  We saw a number of things on the way, but nothing of great interest.  I've included a few pictures, just for the record.

First, there's the oldest temple in Cambodia, dating from the 7th century.  It's Hindu and is not in too good a state of repair.  The pictures show the entrance and the Linga (male organ), which is used in various  ceremonies.

We also stopped at a fish and crocodile farm on the Mekong river.

You see some pretty funny things carried on motorbikes and scooters, including live pigs (carried upside down), buffalo and, in this case, live chicken.  The next day was a large Buddhist festival and the needed a lot of chickens in town for their version of KFC.

It's often interesting to stop at the roadside stalls to see what they are selling.  Where we stopped the food included fried tarantulas and, as here, deep-fried crickets.  The Cambodians think they're lovely, but I didn't bother to try them.

Somewhere along the way, we passed the oldest bridge in Cambodia, 7th century, I think.

One of our stops was at a silk farm, run by an old American Vietnam war veteran.  I'm not sure whether it was out of guilt or what, but after the war he came back to Vietnam and started working for an organisation that was helping victims of landmines who had lost limbs and were on the streets begging.  After a while, he became disallusioned, as he kept seeing people begging on the street whom they had provided with prosthetic limbs.  It turned out that they could make better money by begging, so they hid their artificial limbs.  He therefor decided to move to Cambodia, where he set up this small silk farm and weaving operation, employing war victims.  They produce some lovely silk items, although they have to buy in most of the silk they use.