Our last full day in Siem Reap and our
third cooking class of the trip. After a pickup from our hotel we
were joined by a young woman from Italy and a couple from the US and
then headed to another local market. We've been to a few of these
already but still tend to find them fascinating as all in different
settings and have some foodstuffs that set them apart.
The guide showed us around and
explained the shopping process,including the unusual method
Cambodians have for obtaining change from a purchase. Everything is
paid for with small US dollar bills with change, of less than a
dollar, given in Cambodian riel, at an exchange rate of 4000 riel to
1 USD. This whole process of marking prices on USD had been bothering
me for sometime. Even at the National Museum where we bought and
ice-cream, the cash register only calculated in USD, and when we
wanted to pay in riel the cashier had to get out a separate
calculator to show us the price. Very strange, and something of an
indication of the citizens' views of the local currency.
Most of the small food items we bought
were destined to be used in our cooking class which gave the shopping
expedition a little extra interest. Our US companions were rather
shocked by the state of the meat left out uncovered and open to the
flies. He had experienced a few bouts of salmonella in the past, so
his shock was perfectly understandable. I wasn't worried as I wasn't
going to be eating it.
It was a good class. We picked up a
good technique for rolling fresh rice paper spring rolls which will
be useful, learned how to use short rice noodles, and made a tapioca
and pumpkin dessert. I don't actually see myself making this last one
again, but the rest should make an appearance at sometime or other.
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| Robyn pounds |
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| Perry stir fries |
After we were dropped back at the hotel
after the class Robyn went off to do a bit of shopping while I lazed
around the hotel, writing, reading and backing up photos, the last of
which seems to be a full-time job as I shuffle photos from one device
to another, freeing up space and uploading some to my Google Drive
space.
Prior to leaving Australia Robyn had
come across reviews of the Phare Circus in Siem Reap but hadn't
booked anything. We found some more details of it in our hotel and
got them to book for us for our last night. And what an
excellent,energetic,and acrobatic performance it was. The circus aims
to provide young Cambodian youth with vocational arts training and if
this circus is anything to go by they are doing a wonderful job. Full
of humour, drama, sex, and music it ended our stay in Siem Reap on a
wonderful note.
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