Bamboo in Takeo Province

Today Noora and I joined Mr. Seng Sao for an excursion to his family house in Takeo Province, close by to the Vietnamese border. Sao's childhood home is located in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. We were lucky to experience their hospitality and get a glimpse of their way of life. The three varieties of bamboo growing in the area have been widely used in daily life. Sao's family home had e.g. a roof supported by bamboo and different kinds of  bamboo furniture. The house also had a wall made by combining bamboo and soil,  technique which we saw widely used in the area.

 

Sao took us to the forest nearby and showed the three species of bamboo found in the area. 'Big Bamboo' could possibly be used for the pillars and roof beams, it grows long and straight enough to be bent into shape, but has very spiky branches which did make cutting it down a bit challenging. 

 

Also a medium sized bamboo called Ping Pong Bamboo growns in the area. this species grows very straight and strong, each bamboo gives about 3 meters of good quality length so this will probably be the right kind for the window bars and bamboo faced elements since it also is very strong.

And for sure we had to take some bamboo samples with us back to the city!