Tuesday (March 10th) we took an 11 hour bus ride from Phnom Pehn to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is the point for visiting Angkor Wat and other nearby temples.
On our way to Seim Reap, we stopped for lunch at a silk farm and a floating city. The floating city might more accurately be described as a city built on stilts so that everything doesn’t get flooded out during the monsoon season.
The silk farm is owned by a retired American who came to Cambodia to work for an NGO that provided prosthesis to people who had lost limbs during the wars. Big problem was that the recipients didn’t know how to do anything other than beg and would throw away the prosthesis and return to begging. He also had worked for an organization that provided training and jobs as silk spinners and weavers. When that NGO closed he bought some property and started doing essentially the same thing on his own. A frightening part is that he said that his weavers, young women paid piece work, can make $150 or so each month working for him but if they worked in the garment factories in Phnom Penh would make about $45 per month for working a 6 day week (think about that the next time you buy cheap stuff at Target or similar)
The floating village is primarily a fishing community, fresh water clams being a primary catch. Rice and beans are farmed nearby.
On our way to Seim Reap, we stopped for lunch at a silk farm and a floating city. The floating city might more accurately be described as a city built on stilts so that everything doesn’t get flooded out during the monsoon season.
The silk farm is owned by a retired American who came to Cambodia to work for an NGO that provided prosthesis to people who had lost limbs during the wars. Big problem was that the recipients didn’t know how to do anything other than beg and would throw away the prosthesis and return to begging. He also had worked for an organization that provided training and jobs as silk spinners and weavers. When that NGO closed he bought some property and started doing essentially the same thing on his own. A frightening part is that he said that his weavers, young women paid piece work, can make $150 or so each month working for him but if they worked in the garment factories in Phnom Penh would make about $45 per month for working a 6 day week (think about that the next time you buy cheap stuff at Target or similar)
The floating village is primarily a fishing community, fresh water clams being a primary catch. Rice and beans are farmed nearby.
