Culture shock?

Kids are doing amazingly well I think in this completely other world. They do express some questions or doubts of course. 'Are we sure they could just sit in the tuktuk, without helmet or safety belt?' (We crazy freaky parents who carry around safety harnasses around the world to countries where family of five just simply sit all together on a motorbike...)
'They should throw things less on the street, c'est de la pollution et ça abîme la nature'. I think they had noticed already in Argentina that things where not clean or as clean as we are used to in Barcelona, sidewalk  not even, etc.. Arriving in Buenos Aires Amélie had decided that it was OK, that Argentinan where simply less clean than we are. "Sauf (uncle) Thomas et Teffi, ça se sont des  argentins propres."

I was 'concerned' about the food, although I read how delicious Cambodian cuisine is, rarely really spicy, and so easy for kids. I also do know that,  especially our boys, have a really bad character when it comes to food. Mainly No vegetables (having of course the great example of their dad, the only green thing you might see spontaneously on his plate is probably wasabi...) So the mixed fried rice things with all sort of undefined coloured elements, no go. The soups, no go. Add to that the fact that we are not very food-adventurous people and rrrreally don't want to risk to be stomach-sick (again) result: We have put them on a regime of fresh fruit , fish rolls, chicken and ... Steamed rice. I think they could eat just that all day.

And then came the tarantulas! We went to a social project / training restaurant and Pierre ordered three of them. I think no psychologist could ever think of a better test than that.  

Matthias (my son, I mean, really, looking and acting most like me) screamed almost hysterically that he wanted rice!! He didn't touch the spider. He got rice.

Amélie, after receiving some objective information and confirmation about the spiders being comestible , decided she could and would eat them. And she would eat every single leg and the body. And she did.
William looked at Amélie, followed her enthusiasm, took off a leg and ate it, as if he had done nothing else ever since he was born, but then had a better look at his brother and his plate, and decided to offer me the spider " maman, c est pour toi. Je partage." steam rice for Bill. And for me.

And with that same "smoothness" they sat on a tuktuk, they sipped on a rooftop bar from our cocktails, they navigated the Mekong on a sunset cruise, they put their hands together to say goodbye, they got to play some music and fought with their sticks to catch their food in their plate.

Aside from that we also went to some markets (Central and Russian), the wat phnom temple, absorbed the vibes of early evenings along the river and got really silent (well, we adults) at the killing fields. It wasn't the easiest place to visit with kids, so Pierre walked around with the boys, I had Amélie and an audio guide. Her childish naivety was strikingly in contrast with a place that has seen so much horror and terror. Counting butterflies and Asking a wandering chicken if she was looking for her friend's bones...

After three days, four nights, we took a minivan to Kratie, up the river, and after walking around the town with some old French architecture, we sat town to watch another spectacle of the sun over the river.