Boating to Battambang

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Got the boat ... a slow boat to Battambang the second largest city in Cambodia in a province known as the 'rice bowl' of the country as it produces the best? or the most? pr both? rice in the nation. And ... Cambodians cannot go without rice ...

The boat trip was good - firstly because I was on it! Secondly because it was scenic - at times on a large expanse of water - Tonle Sap lake, at others in narrow passageways through water bushes. Floating villages along the way were houses on floating platforms, many of them painted in pretty colours - principally blues. Some dwellings were rather ramshackle, others more ornate. There was a very important building (concrete) on very high stilts (about twice the height of your average queenslander (house)) built in pagoda style with coloured embellishments and a large sign indicating it was the organisation looking after the Tonle Sap Lake biosphere (Government funded or NGO funded). Suffice to say it stood out! Both by towering over everything else and its design and construction.

Lots of people were on the water in flat-bottomed canoes, at one end poling their way into different parts to retrieve their catches - and there are a variety of ways this is done. Nets, baskets and traps are some. In some places people were standing around a net as the fish jumped from side to side. Sadly, the lake and the animal life therein is under threat. Over fished? Possibly. It is a way of life for these people. In some areas, the houses were on stilts and this included having pig pens attached!

Apparently the people in the area rely heavily on fish for their protein intake, and for that they eat a kind of fish paste. In fact they eat 20kg of the stuff. Many were making this in the canoes we passed. They chop the heads of the fish and discard, then chop the remainder up and throw into a barrel of sorts. Various other ingredients probably go in as well, before the fish are pounded to a pulp. The end result is a rather greyish looking mixture. Apparently most westerners find this to strong a flavour! It is probably something that is eaten with rice ... sticky rice rolled into a ball and dipped into the paste!

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