Siem Reap, Cambodia:
The highlight of the silk factory was eating a silk worm. As 80% of the worms are killed in the process of getting their cocoon for the silk, there are a few number left over for eating, thus feeding the workers and others. Actually not too bad, tasted like a potato and didn't have a bad aftertaste. Had a couple and all were good. Probably not something I'd eat on a regular basis, but wouldn't turn down again.
The worms eat mulberry leaves, then weave a cocoon and the workers take the cocoon and get tons of silk out of it which they can dye, weave and work with. that's my condensed version of making silk. It's definitely a process and the women do the same thing every day which seems very monotonous and bad for the hands. At the Indonesian cigar factory, the women switch jobs every day so they keep it interesting and use the hands in different ways.
We also checked out some floating villages, accesible by a very shallow river going out to the lake. Since it was the dry season, there was only 1 meter of water and boats kept getting stuck on the way out to see the floating homes. Very cool out there, full villages with schools, stores, churches and even a floating basketball court. Normal lives, based around fishing, take place on the lake, everyone with boats, most that they have to bail out at the start. Looked rough to us, but they've been doing it for years.
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