December 07, 2010

Various Odds and Ends of Travel - Cambodia, part 1

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I've been really bad at blogging - I recently went paragliding in France and facilitated a "mock" exercise on a pandemic outbreak of Influenza in Benin (in French no less!), and I didn't even write about those... Blame it on the constant moving around, the house renovations and general laziness.

So let me catch you up on my most recent trip to Cambodia for work. I'll talk about the fun stuff only because if I talked about work, I'd have to kill you (sigh, just kidding... if only my work could be so exciting).

As you can imagine, Cambodia is very lusciously green. Awww, it felt good to be back in the near oppressive humidity of a tropical country...






Rural houses are funny little things, much like Dr. Seuss' dwellings, with a pointed roof, a second floor on stilts, and family life taking place underneath the raised floor of the house.



Humped cattle also benefit from the shade underneath the house

12-year old girl looming silk/cotton scarves - the amazing things is that my hometown (Lyon in France) was an old silk town, and we still see these looms in museums. I didn't know people actually still used these!

Close up of the complicated machinery of the looms

12-year old boys, of course, get to hang out and play, while their sister/cousin works up to 6 hours of day making the weave.

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