July 2017 ~ TravellersDiari

When you travel to Siem Reap, you always go to Angkor Wat and a few famous museums. Do you want to try a unique way to explore and learn how the locals live?

I tried half day cycling - experience the off-beaten track of Siem Reap through the help and thoughtful suggestion by Maxther.com. They specially customise for my activity for my like.

Before I start my activity, my tour guide share about the village and simple greeting.

This is my tour guide, Bunsorng.

Here are the activities:

1st Stop: Local Market

A short stretch of the local market that sells everything what the local need. When we arrived, there were not many people in the market. My tour guide shared that locals always go to the market at` least twice a day. It is because they do not have a refrigerator at home.

I tried their local snacks, Khmer sticky rice cake. There was two flavours, banana, and pumpkin. I prefer pumpkin sticky rice.

2nd Stop: Rice Paddies

I did not get a chance to see the process of making noodle because I arrived late morning. But my tour guide explained the process of making noodle. They using the manual machine to make noodle daily. Every day they need at least 50-kilogram rice to make the noodles for the locals.

3rd Stop: Handmade Rattan Basket

A traditional handmade rattan basket that passes down from the older generation.

We stopped at one of the houses to take a look how it makes from rattan to a beautiful basket. The young woman said that it takes her to finish 3 hours if she focuses doing it. Her husband will help her to collect the rattan from the nearby river.

4th Stop: Rice wine (included small pigs, ducks, and chickens farm)

Rice wine is very popular in South-east Asia. Commonly used for cooking.

I learnt the process of the brewed rice wine. It takes a few weeks to brew a rice wine. For the leftover rice, it will feed the pigs, ducks and chickens.

I tried freshly brewed rice wine. The smell was sweet.

5th Stop: Handmade Piggy Bank

Our very last stop at a family house that produces handmade piggy bank.

Piggy banks are very popular in South East Asia. Since I was young, my mother bought a plastic piggy bank for me. In Singapore, we usually saw plastic piggy bank instead of clay.

I learnt the process of making a piggy bank from the clay. It's a traditional way of making and moulding their clay into animal forms. The owner is very creative because he designed different type of animals even angry bird.