Tuesday 7 April 2009

Baguettes I've seen a few




We are back in the land of the helmetless and 'how many people can you squeeze on a motor bike' competion land. So far the highest number has again been five, though four of them were children under ten, two at the front between the drivers legs (it was a scooter, so the taller child was standing and the tiny one was wedged onto the front tip of the seat) the two behind were clinging on with the concentration of the baby Ouran-utang we saw, but their arms were not as long.

Beside the road on the last two mornings heading out of Siem Reap towards the Roluos group of temples we have passed a huge market on the edge of town. Loads of vegetables and fruit, bikes, motor bikes & scooters, baskets, glittery things to take to temples, baskets of incense sticks and masses of people. All along the road there are small shopping opportunities including stalls with offering a strange yellowish liquid in old gin or whiskey bottles. We don't know what it is but assume its some kind of home brewed liquor, it looks leathal and I have never seen anyone drink it but they must do because otherwise no one would spend their day trying to sell it.

Early morning is also baguette time, bikes with bags and bags of them tied to the handle bars, stalls with mountains of them piled up. It must be the French influence, but we have had the best European style bread here much better than any bread we have tasted since Jordan/Egypt.

We have also seen less lovely things going to market on the back or strung all round motor bikes - live stock, well actually ex-livestock. Yesterday on our trip out to a very interesting silk farm we were passed by motorbikes with a very large oval basket on the back in which, reclining peacefully, with little trotters in prayer possition, was a recently deceased pig! We also saw at least two motor bikes with a frame round them and suspended by their feet about fifty, fully feathered chickens, dead of course! Even buying a watch battery in the market meant having to avoid fish, not so deceased, leaping out of an enclosure onto your feet

On a political note, we looked at an exhibition of paintings in a hotel and one of the artists had the unlikely name of Mao Soviet!

Tess

2 comments:

brianlj said...

Go on, Tess! Get some of that yellow spirit! We can all have a glug at our next BBQ when you get back! :)

Chris Thompson said...

Is ex livestock not deadstock?