Tried the editing feature on my camera for this shot….kind of like the effect!  I walk through my local temple everyday and say hello to the monks but finally got up the nerve to ask if I could take their picture….which u must always do and never touch a monk…..blasphemous for them.  Also found out it is rude to touch anyone’s head in Cambodia….it is where the soul resides and sacred.  I know I have touched the head of children so will be more careful about that.This shows the art of flower folding using the lotus flower…..my very favourite flower now….wish we could grow them at home.  On that note went to a lotus farm yesterday…no flowers due to dry season but discovered they also make beautiful silk out of the lotus stem…makes a beautiful texturaized cloth more like linen and very beautiful.

Decided to play tourist again this wknd as time is passing so fast and some things I have not seen so did a tour to Tonie Sap Lake,  25 km out of Siem Reap….largest fresh water lake in South Asia..massive… changes from 10,000 and 16,000 sq km between dry and rainy season and is a very important ecosystems/biosphere in Cambodia.   I did an evening tour so we motored up the Siem Reap River into the lake and had dinner on a beautiful river boat called the Queen Tara….built in 1927 and for many years served as a hospital boat.

At one point we stopped at a floating store the guide called the alligator farm and were horrified to find alligators in captivity in horrible conditions…didn’t like that part at all!

Some of the bougainvillea are pink and white here and seemingly off the same stem…..beautiful!