Cambodia - Kampot Province

Our guide yesterday showed us Durian trees with huge fruits which are harvested, brought to market and sold for relatively high prices.  The 'meat' is scraped out of the centre.  It smells dreadful but apparently tastes very good.  I didn't have the chance to try it but the was an amazing shape, very sculptural and arranged in rows.

80% of Cambodians are farmers - rice, fish and forestry are their most important activities.  The markets are packed with fruit and fish.  Some of the others are teachers and our guide told us that they are very poorly paid. It's not therefore popular, as a job.  They try to augment their income in various ways, including by selling cakes and other produce to their pupils!   In the past they have had a large number of Vietnamese teachers too.
 

Our guide's family, like so many others, had suffered under Pol Pot's regime. (1975-79  approx. three million people were killed by the Khymer Rouge in what has become known as the Killing Fields).

He gave details about what happened to his mother, father and siblings, when he was 9 years old.  With no family alive, he was taken in by a family who gave him accommodation but nothing else, so he had to go out and find food and jobs that he could do.  Some years later he told us that he was very happy to discover that one of his brothers was still alive and found him again.
 

Many houses are built on stilts. The guide told us that this is to protect the family from snakes, insects etc and children can die from dengi fever.  It's a high risk malaria area too.

It's a very difficult life and very basic conditions for most people.

Small fishing village, Ropan Ropov,  in Kampot Province