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Published: October 9th 2012
Spent the day tuk tuking around with David, but before I set off, just a bit of housekeeping:
Sorry I was so tired last night I forgot to mention the names of a couple of these places. That climb up those 300 some odd steps took it out of me along with the humidity. The pre-Angkor temple at the top of the steps is called Wat Banan. The area at the top of the mountain near the Bat Cave is called Phnom Sampeau.
To my friends not familiar with the blog, at the bottom of the page below the pictures and before the comments, if you see a page 2, then that is where the rest of the pictures are. Some days everything fits on one page, some days it will take 2.
And Lisa, the bathrooms are acceptable, if you don’t mind the bathroom being your shower. The don’t have a separate shower, you just have to keep everything away from the water. The upside is, you could actually take a shower while sitting on the toilet, a nice convenience if you are in a hurry.
Set out today and visited the old Pepsi factory that
was shut down and destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. The plant has been sitting here ever since, the lines of old Pepsi bottles sitting inside the windows, like they are waiting on the line to re-open. Its kind of erie. The Pepsi logo still sits atop the building and seems to be a must see for the tourist who pass through. Visited a couple of Temples that were cool, and then stopped by the Crocodil EFarm. I could not figure out what an efarm was, sounds like a Farmville game on Facebook. But all fun aside, you have to love some of the signs you see here. They took me to all the tanks where they separate the crocks by age, then try to sell you some ugly crock shoes. I was only curious about one thing: this place sets in a residential area, and there must be several hundred crocks in this place, so I asked the guy if any had escaped. He said yes, and it got into a pond next to the farm, and ate at least one dog that they know of before he was captured. Now that’s the kind of story they ought
to be telling the tourist.
After that I learned how rice paper is made, watched someone loom some scarfs and learned how to make rice noodles. It was all interesting in its own way. We made our way to another Killing Field where another 10,008 people died on the grounds of a Temple. The families of those who died built a monument to their memory, it was quite moving with murals that told the story of those 5 years. The mural is similar to the ones you see at Angkor that tell the stories from that time.
Went to see how this guy made boats, and during this visit the skies opened up and it rained like I have never seen it. For a good 20 minutes you could not see anything, it almost flooded us to the point we barely got out of that area. I did not want to leave, after all, if you are in a flood who better to be staying with than a guy who makes boats.
Finished the day at Wat Ek Phnom, where I toured another pre-Angkor temple that was destroyed by time and the Khmer Rouge, who used the
stones to try to build a dam.
Now my favorite part, the food. Once again I drove David nuts with stop here and stop there. I think he drove slower today so he would not have to turn around so much. I tried a few treats here and there, but David stopped at this one road side stand where I had these peas or beans, in coconut milk, they were fabulous. She also had bananas in coconut milk and tried that too. For lunch we hit another road side stand where once again, they were cooking chicken over open coals. It might have been better than yesterday. The chicken was marinated in garlic, lemongrass, lemon leaf and some spices. On the way back into Battambang, David took me to a stand where this lady sells fried insects and small snakes and frogs. I bought a bag of crickets and there was a group of tuk tuk drivers and people that did not think I would eat them, haha, I did. They were good, but could have used a little bit of lime like the ones in Laos. Then they dared me to try the cockroaches, and that is where
they had me, NO WAY! I am snacking on the crickets with a Coca Cola while I write this blog. Just for you skeptics, David filmed me eating them because I told him that proof would have to be established.
On the way back, I stopped by this restaurant where I heard they offer a great cooking class. So, tomorrow at 9 I will see what local delights I can cook up for you. Bet they don’t fry insects - lol
Happy Travels, Don
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Susan
non-member comment
The temples are beautiful but I am sorry, I will not be trying any crickets or bugs lol