I hired a car and driver and intended to make the day’s journey to Siem Reap. My first requested stop was the village of Skuon, tarantula capital of Cambodia (I’m a face-ya-fears kinda person, lol).
When we arrived, a small boy ran up and said, “Hey lady, want to see my spider?”
I had no idea just how bloody big these things were and when he dragged it out of his pocket I nearly died.
Anyway there I was, getting my $1 photo taken with this monster. The next step was fried spider, the local delicacy. What does it taste like? Revolting, that’s what! I pushed it down with some delicious mango sold by small local children… much better.
We travelled on and found the road still flooded from a downpour the week before, so I found a little hotel for the night. Up the road was a small village and behind that was some temple ruins nobody visits. I couldn’t wait to have a sticky… it was stunning and I got so carried away with my camera that I did the dumbest thing I’ve ever done – I left the path!
I’d only gone a few metres and… there it was. I’d never seen a land mine before, but I just knew what it was and my fear was instant. I was terrified. I took a photo to show someone, then made my way back.
The local police started yelling and phoning once they saw my photo, and it was chaos. I showed them where to go and apparently it had been unearthed by the recent floodwater. The village folk, as a thank you, gave me bags of lollies that were awful and wooden cranes that move in the breeze that are beautiful.
I still can’t believe I was so bloody stupid and so lucky, all on the same day.