(THIS BLOG ENTRY HAS BEEN SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS)

As a quick update for those of you who haven't read my last couple of blogs, approximately two weeks ago I left the country of Laos and I moved southwards into Cambodia via the land-border crossing.

When I spoke to you last I was in the Cambodian town of Kampong Cham, and I was roughly 3/4's of the way through the 500ish km road-transport journey which was taking me from the Laos/Cambodian border through to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh (in the southern area of Cambodia).

This entry starts on on the next part of my journey, this being the short trip from Kampong Cham to a place called Spidertown, a small settlement which was located less than 50km down the road... (although at this point I must say that to call it a town as such is perhaps a little bit misleading really, as it seemed to me to be just a scattering of buildings which were situated on and around the junction of Cambodia's Highways 6 and 7 when I was there... but anyway...)

The place they call Spidertown... and despite me finding myself being sat on the fence as to whether I actually liked it or not when I first got to this strange small community, I must admit that I did find myself being quite nervously excited as I was walking the streets anyway, as it was here that I was hoping to attempt to eat my first ever tarantula-looking spider (an idea which was sold to me by 2 guys from the US who I met whilst I was staying in Kampong Cham)...

Ha ha... as the story goes, after about an hour of searching the market area once I got there, it actually ended up being quite comical when I came across my first spider seller (or "Spiderwoman" as I called her)... as I will be the first to admit that upon seeing the size of the monsters that she had cooked up and was trying to sell on the tray she was holding, I soon became very close to bottling it and walking straight on!

Needless to say I did stop to buy one though, and I am pleased to say that, true to my word, the palm-sized hairy scary tarantula-type thing that was placed into my hand at the point of sale soon became a crunchy, chewy thing in my mouth, which (strangely enough) actually turned out to be easier for me to digest than what I had previously thought... (although having said this I must admit that I did have a funny point later on in the day whilst looking down at my stomach and imagining a big spider inside of me!)...

Ha ha... What a strange thing to do eh?! Actually... before I move on, here are some pictures for you to see if you like...