Sometimes when travelling we get distracted by the obvious tourist attractions and forget to look around for the newer, less obvious activities that are available.
To break up our temple visits we opted to look for another activity today…it was a toss up between visiting a silk farm and doing a Khmer Ceramic Class…we went with the later. It was in town and the price was reasonable and it was hands on…
On arrival we donned an apron and sat down at a potter’s wheel…a manual one that requires peddle power (and co-ordination it seemed). We got to choose three things that we wanted to try and make…cup, bowl, plate, vase or mug.
Choosing was easy…making…well not so easy…actually not at all easy…in fact extremely challenging. My first one failed twice before I managed to achieve something that looked like anything…let’s not even consider if it looked like what it was supposed too…
It was fun though and once finished we selected one of our three pieces each to have glazed and fired…then assuming it survives that process they will be delivered to our hotel tomorrow.
Amanda and I also painted some pre-prepared pottery which will be fired too…
After cleaning up we went into town for lunch….and being in Cambodia we went to a Mexican restaurant for pizza and fries….as you do when in a foreign land!!
Across the street from the restaurant was a little massage place…Amanda found some good reviews on Trip Advisor so we went for a foot massage…David also got a foot scrub!
We had considered taking a walk around the markets and over to have a look at Wat Damnak…but it was really hot…so surprise surprise we headed back to the pool instead…
The food we had tried at the hotel was all great so far, so we had dinner there again to try what we hadn’t had yet…and it was very enjoyable as well.
Amanda was spent…feeling a bit off and very tired, so she stayed in the air conditioned room with tv, wifi and bed while David and I jumped back in the tuk tuk and into town to check out the Night Markets for a bit of souvenir/gift shopping. My bartering skills have improved a bit over the years…but I still feel bad paying such a small amount of money for this stuff when the person selling it is so poor (or at least looks poor…they may not be really but I think they probably are). Like all markets it was filled with dozens of stalls selling the same items…but we did manage to find a couple of items that appear to be a little bit more unique…I hope the recipients will like them!
Of course no trip to a market is complete without a sweet treat…just outside the marketplace was a store selling actually ice creams…salted caramel and cashew nut for me…delicious!