T-Travel Photography
Zdenko Takac & Iveta Takacova
Landscape, Travel & Fine Art Photography
Mt St Helens & Willamette NP
Other attractions
Silk Farm
Zdenko was a little hesitant about visiting the Silk Farm but he was glad that we went. It is free to enter, and you even get one of the guides which are quite knowledgeable and speak english well. It is expected to give them a donation at the end of the tour.
The farm keeps about 400 cocoons for breeding thousands of silkworms, which lay eggs and take about 10 days to mature into a worm. Ladies patiently unwind fine threads using wooden spinning tools from silk cocoons. The top layer of the silkworm cocoon is used for rough silk, but underneath is a very smooth and delicate silk. We were quite surprised how strong these thin strands were. You can easily cut your finger on them.
We were told that it takes about 5 days to make a silk scarf so keep this in mind when you are purchasing them in their shop. They don't make much money out of them. All scarves are dyed with natural dyes like lavender, tree roots etc.
Another local attraction is the Butterfly Farm. If you are planning to visit Banteay Srei temple, this farm is on the way there. We would recommend visiting only if you have plenty of spare time as there are other more interesting attractions in this region. The entry fee is 4 USD.
On the way back to the hotel, we had time to absorb our surroundings and chat to our driver. We saw local village people fishing for catfish in swamps with hand made baskets and even some water buffalo. It was a pity that the rice fields were not green as it would have been great for photography. Our driver told us that many villages still don't have power and are using lanterns. They might have one TV in the whole village that runs on batteries but kids from the whole village come over to the house with the TV to watch cartoons together.
