09/08/2026
An elder presses sandalwood paste onto a thin stick by hand, rolls it smooth, sets it to dry in a bowl of sand. This incense will burn at the pagoda, or keep mosquitoes away at night, same stick, two purposes.
This was one morning outside Siem Reap, on a slow bike ride through rice fields most tourists never see. We watched a man climb barefoot up a palm tree for sap, women weave palm leaves into roof panels, made incense sticks with our own hands, tried warm palm cakes, then made Num Banh Chok before sitting down to a full local lunch.
No hotel breakfast could give you a morning like this.
