C & C globetrotting around the world…

From Phnom Penh we took a long bus ride to Battambang, a sleepy town in western Cambodia with nicely preserved French architecture. It is a great base for exploring the country-side to get a real slice of rural Cambodia. Battambang is the rice bowl of the country, producing enough rice to feed the entire population. We did a homestay with a traditional Khmer family living in a house on stilts. The dad was a former tuk-tuk driver, but is now assistant manager at a hotel. The mother Sitha (35 yrs old) is a sweet-heart and the kids are very nice too. We had dinner with the family, so Sitha cooked a lot of delicious food and we sat around on a mat, chatting. She also showed us her wedding album where she wore 13 different outfits. It was very interesting and insightful talking to them. Their English is good enough to communicate, and even if they lack the vocabulary sometimes, they know how to get the point across (eg. Big big money = rich). They seemed very eager to learn more English, so we also taught them some words that they wrote down.

We started the day with a yummy breakfast before setting out on a tuk-tuk tour of the country-side. Our first stop was the Bamboo Train, a unique and creative form of ad-hoc local transportation. It consists of a small motorcycle engine-powered bamboo cart that rides on the old railroad tracks. Whenever it meets an oncoming train (bamboo train), it gets disassembled and quickly taken off the rails to let the other one pass. It is amazing to see how easily the drivers take it apart, considering its weight. As there is a plan to upgrade the rail system, it is likely that the bamboo train will not survive. It was a very fun experience zooming at about 50km/h and especially when we met another train. Afterwards we went to visit Cambodia’s only winery and tasted some local product. It is not surprising that Cambodian wine is not world-renowned, but we met some French travellers there and had a nice chat with them.

We visited 2 temples from the Angkorian era in the area. Phnom Banan is a mountain-top, mid-11^th century ruin consisting of 5 towers. Some people say it was the inspiration for building Angkor Wat. Close to the bottom of the 358 stone steps there is de-mining activity going on, reminding us that in Cambodia it’s not safe to leave the beaten path as there are still so many mines around. After lunch we also visited Ek Phnom, another Angkorian temple built by the father of the king who built Phnom Banan. This one was built as a Hindu temple and there is a modern Buddhist pagoda (Wat Ek Phnom) next to it, as well as a giant seated Buddha statue. Back at the house, we took a Khmer-style shower. Basically you wear a sarong, go out in the garden and pour rain water over your head. Then you rub the sarong against your skin (instead of a sponge), pour more water to rinse and then you stand in the sun to dry. Luckily it was pretty warm outside, so it was fun, but it’s not the kind of shower you want to take every day. We chatted with Sitha and the kids again and later they watched TV in our room, cuddled up under a blanket. Although it was 20 degrees outside, considered Cambodian winter, they were cold.

We also took a cooking class at Nary’s Kitchen. First the husband took us to the market to buy the ingredients and explained very many different vegetables and fruits. The market was very colourful and nice, a lot more interesting than the one in Yangshuo. At the cooking school, we prepared our ingredients and cooked fried spring rolls, beef lok lak and fish amok (Khmer fish curry). The last dish is a local favourite and the one we made was better than all the ones we’ve had in restaurants so far. We got the recipes, so we really hope we can recreate these delicacies at home. Cecilia is looking forward to cooking back in Montreal, trying the new dishes and adding exotic veggies and fruits to her repertoire. In the evening we had dinner with the family again and gave them the gifts we had bought them: an English-Khmer dictionary and a world map. They were really happy about them, especially the map. We don’t think they had seen one before, so we were showing them where Cambodia is, where our countries are and they were amazed. We hope they will use them. Later we went to the “Friendship Festival”, a festival showcasing Khmer culture. The guest of honour was Cambodia’s top pop star, so the kids were very excited to go with us. It was a nice evening and our stay in Battambang at the family’s place was one of the highlights of our trip to Cambodia so far.