Rith's Farm, Gem Mining, and 7 Steps Waterfall

Hi sorry I didn't write yesterday but we really didn't do that much.  Yesterday we went and visited the farm that my brother's brother Chan Rith is working at.  It's owned by Mr. Pol who runs Palm Tree Center where Rith used to live.  Rith's farm is huge!  And only six people are working and living there regularly.  But there are often other people living there temporarily who are hired to help.  They grow cassava and rubber trees, in Cambodia they don't eat cassava they dry it and grind it into a powder which they export to Vietnam where it's used to make rice wine and other products.  We took Rith out to the market to buy more clothes and he bought a heavy winter jacket which is really funny because it's so hot here!  But the funniest thing about the market was everything was knockoffs of Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and other luxury brands.  But a lot of the clothes were so tacky that I couldn't believe that they would put the labels on them like the other brands made them.  Rith doesn't speak any English so we got a translator from the restaurant Orchid which is part of the Parrot Tours company which organized most of our adventures here.  His name is Dy and his nickname is Barrang, I think that's how you spell it'; but it means foreigner in Khmer.  It's because when he was a baby he was born blonde and he looked Eurasian.  He's half Khmer and half Chinese.  Today he took us along with another guide Sideth to the seven steps waterfall and to the gem mines.  The other guide grew up in one of the minority tribes and he speaks six languages!  He speaks English, Khmer, and four minority languages.  He was really nice and when we went to the falls he showed us where you can jump off the falls which was really fun!  At one part to the side of one of the falls there's a really deep section where it was safe to jump into.  The falls are called the seven steps water fall because it starts at the top and there are seven waterfalls cascading down the hill.  We swam for a long time with Dy and the other guide and the guide jumped in in his jeans and t-shirt but Dy stripped down to just his tighty whities.  LOL  Afterwards we went to the gem mines which were in a nearby town and people were digging really deep pits behind their houses.  They mine for the Princess stones which are relatively common and not particularly valuable but they're really pretty when they're cut and finished, they turn a light blue color.
Jáime beaucoup Ratanakiri!  Cést tres bon!  Je doit aller a ma diner alors au revoir!  Demain nous allons a Kratie et le prochaine jour nous allons a Phnom Penh.
Au Revoir!
Ming :)