market and a fishing village

In between all of the temples, we made other stops - we were busy.  

One day, we stopped at an artisans vocational school where kids were being taught to paint, lacquer, guild, stone and wood carve, and make silk. We walked through the workshop and they were all very studiously copying something in front of them - perfectly. I did some major damage at the gift store.

We also drove out to Tonle Sap Lake (Great Lake). We stopped at the market before the lake that runs every day. It was the only place where people (mostly kids) did not ask for money. They pretty much ignored us or just looked up and smiled.

At the lake, we got on a boat and went through a canal. This was the dry season and the lake was down, but I would not have known that unless we had been told. This was similar to the fishing village in Vietnam except they live in house on stilts instead of boats.

Those are pigs in that little floating pen

We had a great afternoon here and had a debate on the way back which was the better fishing village. I am not sure; they were both so different in my eyes. This was New Year's Eve. We are staying at the Grand Hotel which is a Raffles and newly refurbished. Sam says it is the nicest hotel in Cambodia; the service was incredible and the food was very French and the rooms were very nice.  

There was the little idiosyncrasy that when you air would come on, all the lights would flicker, even if it was the middle of the night and your lights had been off, but I can't complain because most people in Cambodia do not have electricity and watch TV with a battery.

Dropping off the family battery

When we got to the hotel, they were in heavy preparation for the party. They really did it right, filling the pool with lotus leaves, with candles floating on the leaves - like hundreds and hundreds of them. There were ice sculptures and dancers. We had drinks in the front garden and dinner in the back garden around the glowing pool. Dinner was complicated, but the very best was my main, which was butter poached silver dory with oven roasted almonds, green olives, caper, brown butter and champagne beurre blanc.

We all managed to stay up until midnight as there was a live band singing all the favorites, imagine Dancing Queen - Asian style. After the countdown, we had a wonderful fireworks show. The evening ended with one of the Canadians grabbing the microphone and telling everyone that it was a Canadian tradition to 'oust' the previous year, and as a result, they hoped everyone would join them in toppling the 2013 ice sculpture. At that point, I decided it was time for bed; my first nights sleep in 2014.