It can be said that the palm tree (Borassus flabellifer) is Cambodia's national tree as well as its national identity. If you are travelling in SE Asia and you see a number of these trees growing in an area, it's a safe bet that there are Khmer people living nearby or had lived there once upon a time. Vietnam's Mekong Delta for example has a number of these trees, as it once belonged to Cambodia.
This man is climbing the tree at sunrise to gather palm juice to make palm sugar. He uses a bamboo ladder attached to the trunk and several bamboo bottles are tied to his waist. The so called ladder is really just a single bamboo pole with stubby branches sticking out on either side to use as foot hold. I tried climbing it, and believe me, it wasn't easy!
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