Creepy crawly snack food

On the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (aha it appears the blog is finally starting to make some chronological sense again) there's a great little pitstop about halfway through the six-hour journey at a place called Skuon. Which I later found out is the fried insect and arachnid centre of Cambodia!

I wasn't too put off by the huge bowls of stir-fried grasshoppers. It was a little more disturbing when 90% of the bus passengers bought giant plastic bags full of the critters and spent the rest of the journey crunching em down like popcorn. Actually when I was taking photos the lady selling them offered me one and I figured that the vegetarian thing could take a back seat for a few seconds while I tried a cultural experience of the highest order. Tastes like... na nothing like bloody chicken. It actually tastes like soy sauce. But crunchy. Pretty good really.


Slightly less tempting was the bowl of fried GIANT BLACK HAIRY TARANTULAS!!! Nobody was buying those little suckers, perhaps they were a little overpriced or something. Neither was I going to try them, especially when I stepped closer for inspection and nearly trod into the huge metal bowl tucked under the table which was chock-full of live ones. These boys were big, they make the good old Aussie huntsman look like a daddy-long legs. I scuttled back on the bus with terror and as I took my seat I saw a four-year old girl standing beside the bus waving as it pulled away. In her other hand she held tightly to one of those black hairy behemoths as it struggled to get away.

My first thought was, "My friend Rani can do that! She's had spider therapy don't ya know." Good job Rans, I'm still very proud.