Silk Island, National Museum, massages - Hurray!

 Sunday, March 16, 2025

It's the first morning in our new, and last, hotel and time to investigate the buffet.  It is satisfactory, if not as expansive as the previous ones.  There's no lovely pool or gardens, but it is, after all, in the heart of the capital and largest city in Cambodia.  And it has The Soup!!

We finish, go upstairs, come downstairs, and after a moment spot our adorable and quiet driver.  He smiles a greeting and goes looking for our new guide.  He's actually sitting in the lobby but we don't know him yet, so it's a good thing we'e got our trusty charioteer!  Kim introduces himself and immediately we set off on the day's adventure. We're crossing a bridge over one of the city's several rivers and get dropped off at the ramp down to the ferry.  We'll be going to Silk Island, or Koh Dach or Mekong Island, about 9 miles from the city.

This beautiful building is the central market

We haven't seen signs of bad behavior;  but these signs are everywhere.

It's a short ferry ride and we walk back up the ramp on the other side, and to a little shop where bicycles magically appear.  This old bat has learned to say, "No, thank you", and requested a tuk-tuk. Later, Ginger said that she was disappointed initially but later thanked me! 

So oddly shaped!

This man provides smoked fish for the island.

Jack fruit!

Kim hasn't had breakfast, so we get to sample bananas wrapped in rice and
encased in a banana leaf.

Huge squash! Maybe it's a Chinese squash?

Look closely and you can see the ladder for climbing up to the the bananas.

We're off to see some of the ways people make a living on this tranquil island.  Our first stop is a "weaving house"!  They begin by growing the silk worms, which takes about forty-five days of munching on mulberry leaves before they are ready to make their cocoons.  Then the silk is spun into thread and the threads are woven to make gorgeous silk scarves! The young woman is so charming and the scarves are as lovely as the ones we saw in the artists' coop. Pretty hard to resist when you're face to face with the artist! And when you see their living conditions.

Beautiful carvings

Next is a product I never knew existed!  We see what appears to be skins drying on racks and find out that this family extracts the liquid from ground up soya beans, boils it, skims the surface skin off every fifteen minutes, and dries the skin (it really is skin, just not animal!) and sells it for putting into soups after it's broken up into smaller pieces! Didn't get any of that!

Lovely spirit house

More blue glass!

Next is the Wat Phnom Historical Site which has both Hindu and Buddhist religious sites.   As with all the shrines, temples, and monasteries that we have visited, it is breathtaking.  There are no monks in residence here, so it is not a monastery.

For the ladies

Our tuk-tuk takes us right down to the ferry and we cross back over the Mekong.  But we do have to walk back up the ramp on the other side to find our chariot. It's a short ride to the Bopha Phnom Penh Restaurant, right on the river, and we have the set menu of chicken skewers with lemon grass and Khmer salad, Khmer chicken curry, mixed vegetables with cashews and oyster sauce (Out of this world!) and the fruit platter.  The atmosphere with the breeze off the river and restful and the food is, as always, delicious and too plentiful.  At least in the banana leaf-lined bowls, it is a little less obvious how much we are leaving!

Our last stop on today's program is theNational Museum of Cambodia with about five thousand artifacts, may of which have been returned from other countries. There are many, many statues of the Buddha in his many forms, as well as Vishnu, Ganesha, Brahma, and other Hindu gods.  It is a treat to see two monks studying the displays. After a quick trip to the museum shop we're off again.

This artist's work is so unusual!

There are so many political overtones to this one.  I wish
there were an explanation!

There's not much that's more refreshing than an ice cold, lemon-scented cloth!

Ginger mentioned to Kim that I was looking for a tee shirt (amazing that there haven't been tourist trash for sale at any of the places we've been with the exception of one and we didn't stop there!).  He suggested the Central Market and we'd wanted to see that anyway because the building is so beautiful and imposing in the middle of the city! We spend a few minutes admiring the many flower stalls and then go inside, agreeing to meet Kim outside when we're done. I find a shirt in short order and a couple of little things to bring back, and we're back on our way.

We're ready to go home!  After all we have massages scheduled!!  We relax for a bit and ask to have our appointments moved up to five thirty.  No problem!  I don't think they are doing a rousing business and I don't know why!  Eight dollars for a sixty minute massage!!  Twelve dollars for forty-five minutes with oil!

When we arrive we are given outfits like pajamas to put on.  They have long pants and shirts that button and we don't quite understand.  Also, in the room there are three thin mattresses on a raised platform and curtains that can be drawn between them.  The girls come in pull a curtain but not the one between us, and tell us to lie down on our backs.  The girls kneel on the platfrom and begin putting pressure in all the right places.  The hour flies by and we immediately make another appointment for tomorrow, this time with oil and for ninety minutes! It's very reminiscent of the Thai massages we got there, with the little girls winding up actually kneeling on our bodies. Super wonderful!!

Do I admit this?  We want American food.  We decide on FKC, since there are several near the hotel.  Our doorman summons a tuk-tuk and after some aimless-appearing twists and turns he points vaguely and we get out.  Yay for Wazes and Google Maps.  We walk to KFC and probably should have just done that to start with!  And it's not what dreams are made of!

We do decide to walk back and we're about four blocks from home when Ginger steps on a slippery plastic bag and goes down!  She's pulled a hamstring and we are lucky to flag down a tuk-tuk to take us the rest of the way home.

Back in our room I go downstairs and ask the front desk for some ice.  The charming and concerned concierge actually comes back up with me to check on Ginger and is so solicitous!  She does the whole RICE thing with twenty minutes on and twenty minutes off and that, and a ton of ibuprofen is making her able to sleep!  We'll see what tomorrow brings.