Silk Island

On Saturday I decided to visit the Royal Palace and the National Museum. When I arrived at the Royal Palace I was told that it was closed until 2:00pm. It was about 10:00am and because it was a Holy Day the Royal Palace closed one hour early so the Monks could have their ceremonies.

A tuk tuk driver on the street encouraged me to go to Silk Island and I agreed. We drove for about 45 minutes before we reached a ferry. The ferry had just left our side as we pulled up so we had to wait for it to come back. Since it was lunchtime the ferry crew had a bit of a break on the other side. When the ferry came back we walked on.

Silk Island is an island about 7 miles long and 2 miles wide in the middle of the Mekong River. In the rainy season when the rains are really bad the Mekong River can get so high that part of the island floods. Because the island is so flat most of the houses are built on stilts. One man said sometimes the water is chest high on the island roads and they have to use boats to get around.

I met a young man at the ferry crossing and he invited me to his home to see his family’s loom and some of their silk. The tuk tuk driver and I hopped on the young man’s moto with his wife and drove to their home. The young man got a ride from someone else on the ferry.

The man’s brother-in-law was weaving silk with the loom when we arrived and the man explained the loom and the weaving process to me. It was very interesting. I bought a couple of things from him and his family and then his wife took the tuk tuk driver and me to the beach.

The beach was interesting as well. There was a bunch of small thatched roof shelters on stilts in the water with a floor just about the water. We were able to have the use of a shelter in exchange for buying lunch. We ate lunch there in the hut, while watching the young people playing in the water.

The young Cambodian children, especially the boys, were skinny-dipping and the older Cambodian people were swimming in all their clothes: long pants and shirts. They didn’t have or they don’t use swimsuits. I didn’t bring my swimsuit with me because I had planned on going to the Royal Palace and the National Museum. The tuk tuk driver told me that I could rent clothes to swim in if I wanted to. We spent about 3 hours or so at the beach before heading for home.

We hitched a ride on a moto back to the ferry as it was about 3 kms. By the time I got home I had a headache and was starting to not feel well. I think it was because I had gotten too much sun that day. I went to bed without supper, just to be on the safe side and when I got up in the morning I was as good as new.