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So it was time to get back on the stray bus and resume normal travelling again lol. No more beaches for a while.
I arranged for a tuk tuk to pick me up at 6.30am to take me to the stray pick up point. I had time to nip to the hostel next door where we played crazy golf and ordered a breakfast baguette - bacon and egg a taste sensation,lol.
I got there on time and enquirer at the bar about the location of the stray guide who was called coco (Chanel lol). I got chatting with a guy called Chris from Germany who introduced himself. There was also a girl called Ellie who was originally on the original stray bus to Changmi. She had gotten off there for two weeks to do some voluntary work with elephants. Her cousin Liz had also joined her on the stray tour. In addition there was Kat a girl from Ireland a four guys who I'd heard about from Paddy and Phillipa (they were legendary lol) and our tour guide Coco.
We all boarded the bus for an 8 hour journey to our home
stay in Battambang. During the trip we stopped off at a temple which was very scared as Battambang used to be the capital and the temple housed some of Buddhas ashes. To reach it we had to climb 509 steps in the heat of the day! It was a little tough going, but we got there in the end and the views were stunning. We heard the story of Cambodia's capital city moving and some of the history of the country and the temple etc. then we had a look at the shrine there and took some pictures of the circa 4k statues and pictures inside. As we couldn't find a monk/priest to bless us Coco took some holy water and sprinkled it on us and wished us good luck. He couldn't do the chant as he isn't a monk.
After that we climbed back on board and continued our travels. Our next stop was the floating fish market where we got off to have a quick wander around and witness the sight and sounds and smells, and the heat of the market.
From there we headed into Battambang and stopped off at a
stationers to get some school books, pens, pencils and erasers for the school kids in the village we were going to stay at. Coco told us that these would be greatly appreciated by many of the families in the village who were quite poor. The children go to school in two shifts, morning and afternoon as there are not when enough teachers and class rooms to teach them all at the same time.
We drove to the village and then walked to the home stay with our over night bags through the sticky mud. I managed to leave a flip flop behind so ended up retrieving it and walking in bear feet, but I wasn't the only one with foot wear issues lol. Whence arrived we were greeted by the family. We then had to wash our feet before heading upstairs to our accommodation for the night. Of course it was shoes off at the bottom of the stairs as is customary.
The room we were staying in was above the family accommodation and housed about ten or twelve double beds complete with mosquito nets. We were all doubling up so I shared with
Kat. Coco advised that we needed to shower and change before eating with the family as this was a tradition/ritual in Cambodia. The shower was basically a big drum of water outside. In order to preserve our dignity the guys wore sarongs and the ladies wore slip on elastic armed dresses. So we all changed, had a photo shoot and then took to the water and got washed, dried and changed. The wafer was very cool and there was lots of water being thrown by the boys. Kat referred to it as being a homoerotic moment lol.
The family were very welcoming and hospitable. There was mum and dad, grandma and grandpa and the children the youngest of which was such a cutie. Oh and we also met the village chief of police, so we were on our best behaviour Lol.
After sitting down at the table we were given a lesson on how to make a spring roll, the kind for frying and then one on how to make a Cambodian one which consist of using raw veggies and in our case chicken and mint ( we made some with and
some without to cater for tastes) which were rolled up using a couple of sheets of wetted rice paper. Dinner included our spring rolls, chicken curry, rice and individual fish strews baked in bandanna leaves.
After dinner we played various card games and the forfeit for the losers was to,drink a shot of Cambodian whiskey which had cobra blood mixed I it! Yes I did try it, but it just tasted like strong whiskey but not as bad as the Laos variety. I went to bed around 10.30pm. Luckily we had a fan to keep,us cool and we left the door open all night.
Xxx
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