On of the things that we did this morning after breakfast was to head to Banteay Srei. That complex is much smaller than many of the others we have seen, but the carvings are done much more deeply into sandstone and as a result are much better preserved.
As we drove along some of the jungle, there was a group of people harvesting lychee (see the red spiny fruit). The driver stopped and we purchased some from the people. The tough outer skin gives way with a little effort, although there is a small amount of spray when it does. The fruit can be expressed from the skin and is very flavorful. Having not grown up on lychee, it's interesting trying the different foods we encounter.
Speaking of food, we also keep passing guys on motor bikes with pigs tied to the back. The pigs themselves are inverted, lying on their backs and according to our guide will remain sedate even while they are bumping along the road.
We also stopped by a spot where some of the locals had extracted palm juice. They would take a special portion of the tree, crush it between two sticks and then cut off the tip of what they were crushing. Out would run the palm juice. They would then heat it over a long period of time, I'm guessing so it became a super saturated solution, and they would then stir it to make it thicken further and crystallize. The resulting palm candy tastes and has the consistency of pralines. We tried some that was still in the liquid form, and it reminds me of dulce de leche.
At the same stand with the palm candy, they were selling cashew fruit. Who would have thought it was a fruit. The nut that we think of as a cashew is attached on the top of the fruit, contained within a shell (see picture of the yellow fruit). There is a sweet fruit which extends below the nut. I can't comment further on the fruit itself, but there are two of them upstairs in the fridge.
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