slow computers, silk farms, villagers and early mornings

So earlier today, I wrote a very long entry, but I was too quick to hit publish and I lost the whole entry. I'll try to remember what I wrote about, but even if I don't, we have had another full day (and it's only early afternoon!) already.
Yesterday, we went to more temples- the beautiful Lady's temple and the jungle temple made famous by Angelina Jolie. Both were incredible, but it's amazing how crowded the sites were, even early in the morning. In the afternoon, we took a boatride down a canal to the Tonle Sap Lake. This lake is amazing because it is incredibly huge during the rainy season, but very small during the dry season. The water flows down from the Himalayas into the Mekong, which divides into four parts, some flowing into the South China Sea, some through Viet Nam and then some flows north to south into the Tonle Sap, because Cambodia is like a big bowl! It has tons, I mean that literally, of fish that are taken from it every year. The canal is lined with houseboats, where people live and have fish farms. They take their houses apart twice a year; now, to move them up to higher ground as the lake is filling with water, and then during the dry season, they'll move them further back toward the lake. There were boats with fresh vegetables going down the canal selling to the families, there were boats with kids selling cokes, who jumped like monkeys onto our boat and then back again, once they'd made the sale. There was the floating school, floating basketball court, cloating Catholic church, mosque and Buddhist temple on stilts. We stopped at a floating restaurant that had a fish farm, with huge catfish. Molly had a blast feeding the fish and watching the "churning waters." We didn't feed her to the crocodiles, which mostly just looked bored.
Today, we had a new guide, Mr. Chenh, who took us on a tour of his village where he grew up. This was an up close and personal look at rural Cambodians. It was also an exciting day because it was a celebration day, so everyone was getting ready to go to the Temple. They were cooking rice cakes made of rice and coconut, with soy beans, which was then wrapped in banana leaf and boiled. Another woman was getting the meat out of a palm fruit to make cakes mixed with pounded rice. We ate a sweet treat made from soy beans and nuts and we also drank coconut juice right from the coconut that had been cut from the family's coconut tree!
We then hiked for a few minutes through the jungle to a lake called West Baray, a manmade lake (made hundreds of years ago) for one of the kings of Angkor Wat, who wanted to recreate the creation story, so there is an island in the middle that has the remains of an ancient temple. We weren't able to go there because the lake was low, but we rode across the lake, then met our car and driver and went on our next adventure.
We visited a silk farm, where we got a tour that showed us how Cambodian silk is made. I already knew that the silk worms are killed in order to preserve the threads. Some of them are used for breeding and some of them are allowed to make the cocoon, but after five days, they're boiled and then the threads are very carefully stretch out and made into thread. Chinese silk is naturally white, but Cambodian silk is naturally yellow. We saw the whole process, including the dyeing process, including an intricate tiedyeing process, and the weaving. Then, of course, we went to the store and had fun spending money! I think we all really understood for the first time why silk is so expensive. The best thing we bought was silk for the tallit Molly will wear next year for her bat mitzvah.
Now, we've eaten another amazing lunch, with fresh springrolls, coconut curry, chicken fried rice, and a delicious chocolate mousse. Oh, and Ken had a melted cheese sandwich.
In about an hour, we're going to visit an English class and then we'll visit the squatter's village behind this bed and breakfast. I'd like to encourage all of our friends to visit the website for Journeys Within. Not only is this a lovely oasis with a well organized program for seeing Siem Reap, they have some very good programs.
I want you to know how much we appreciate everyone's comments. It's nice to have the connection with home and to know that you're following our adventures.
love to all,
Lisa