She wanted $36 for the sandals. I gave $18 for them. Now my sandals are missing.

A couple of days earlier, Somnang and I rented bicycles and rode the 45 minutes outside Battambang to ride the Bamboo Train . I rode this the first time I was here and wanted to do it again. This time, though, I wanted to ride a bicycle to it. You can read the blog entry about the history of the Bamboo Train and my first ride on it here:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/usatexan/1/1363279211/tpod.html

The train goes for a few miles and stops while you wander around. You can get refreshments or look at souvenirs. What caught my attention this time was the brick-making factory we could walk to. They make bricks by hand. There were no workers around when we went to see it, so we just wandered though the area and took our photos.

The train is used to transport people between towns. This time, on our return trip, we picked up a woman going somewhere with a basket. It looked like she was going to pick something somewhere. She rode for a while and then got off near a bridge and disappeared into the trees downhill . 

Somnang and I finished the day riding the bikes through the outskirts of town. It's the second time we have rented bikes to take a trip. A few days before we rode them to the killing caves 20 miles from town.

We ate at Somnangs house. The families here are very close knit. They often live just feet from each other on some little dirt road. They also often eat together. I have eaten with Somnang several times and it is always a big group of uncles and cousins and maybe nephews. The men and older boys sit around the bamboo mat and eat together. The women and girls and small boys eat later, usually. Today, they had the usual rice dishes, but a special treat was a bowl of snake.

Last time when I was here, I ate some cobra that one of them had killed. It was boiled and delicious. Today, this snake has been fried. I do not know what kind it was, because no one knew the English name for it. It had small bones down it's back, though . I was eating the meat off the bones, but the Cambodians were just eating the whole thing. When we finished, I had a small stack of bones on my plate, but they didn't have any. I don't know how they could swallow those little bones.

The uncomplicated way the Cambodians go about their daily lives is refreshing and sometimes funny to me. While out riding the moto one day with Somnang, he wanted to take me to see a pig farm. When we got ready to turn off onto the dirt road leading to it, some workers had a ditch they were digging to lay some pipe in. 

I thought we would stop and either go another way in, or do it another day. But, as we drove up, the workers grabbed a little plank a couple of feet long and just a little wider than the motorbike tires. They just laid it across the ditch and Somnang just went across it like it was the most natural thing. After we were across, they picked it up and kept digging, until the next bike came along . In the U.S. the road would be blocked for days until they finished the work. Here the bike traffic moves as normal and the workers keep doing their work. Things here are so simple in comparison.

Back to the missing sandals. Removing your shoes in Asia is a common requirement. You remove them at all the temples, many hotels, peoples houses, and lots of businesses. The Cambodians mostly wear flip-flops all the time and when they enter a building, they never miss a step. The step before they enter they have the flip-flops on. The next step they are barefooted. Lots of time they don't even slow down, it's just a steady walk. I don't know how they get out of those things so smoothly.

Anyway, taking shoes and socks off so much gets really old. So, I looked around the town market in Siem Reap, Cambodia for some sandals. After the customary haggling, I got them at a decent price. They are much easier to get on and off in a hurry than the tennis shoes are and I don't really like walking in flip-flops all day .

We stopped in to visit a Wat today. A boy walked around with us some, and Villa and Somnang chatted with him in Cambodian. Later I learned he was not a local kid, but was visiting here from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

On the way out, the guys got their flip-flops they had left at the doorway, but, my sandals were gone. I would have to ride the moto barefoot until I could get somewhere to get some flip-flops or something. I looked around to see if they had been accidentally kicked to a different spot, maybe. No, they were no where to be seen. Who would steal someones shoes at a temple?

Then the guys started laughing and Villa went behind a bush and brought out my shoes. We were all together the entire time, how did they do that?

Since then I have decided while they were talking to the boy, they must have told him to go do it. I never know what they are talking about when we are around other Cambodians, so they had an easy time telling the boy to fix me, without me knowing what they were saying .
 
They had a good laugh, but now I don't have an excuse to buy a new pair of sandals.

There is a picture of Somnang here with my cap on. I bought it before leaving home to wear in these countries. Everyone keeps wanting to know where I am from, so I thought a cap that said U.S. on it would be a good idea.

Somnang started wearing it the first day he saw it and and I wore my other one. After a few days, I knew he really like it and asked him if he would like to keep it. I didn't have the heart to ask for it back. The people in Cambodia love America, and I knew it would be special to him. Now, I will have to shop for a new cap. The first Villa saw on it was the tag that said, "Made in China".

One reason I came to Cambodia in October was to see the water parades and other water sports held on the river. But, because of all the flooding, most of that didn't happen this year. The boats are decorated with lights and have a parade down the river . But, the water is up to the bridges so the boats cannot go under them. Instead, this year, the parade boats are pulled around the city one night by motorbikes or cars, all lit up with their holiday lights for everyone to see.

I got Somnang to take me to a place to find a frisbee and we started going out to the old airport to throw it around in the late evenings. I gave him the frisbee when I left. My guess is he has not played with it since.