Blogs from Kampong Chhnang, Central, Cambodia, Asia - page 2

From Wednesday to Friday we went to a claypot village called Kompong Chnang. On the busride we had the normal break, where people can eat something. But this break was not too long. The bus wanted to leave, everybody was in the bus, only Sython my project supervisor was missing. So I had to explain the driver with my very good Khmer knowledge (hands and feet) that there is somebody missing. But in the end we all arrived there. On Wednesday we went around the village to a lot of different people, who were all working with clay but on different ways. On Thursday I could have my own try with making pottery, which is really not easy! My hands were forming the pottery, but it was this lady that leaded my hands to form it. ... read more

Hello family, friends, lovers and enemies! How are we all? I hope that you are happy and healthy. Well, Saturday night bought a new experience to my life...a Ka'mai nightclub! Seriously, two of the most surreal, funny, bizarre and disturbing hours of my life! But, that's a story for another time! Yesterday we spent the afternoon on a boat trip, venturing North up the Mekong...think less Apocalypse Now, and more country dandy up the Mississippi! We set off at about 14:30, with the plan to be heading home for the sunset....lovely! We boarded our raft down the most rickety gangplank you can ever imagine - suffice to say, the swaying boat, lapping waves and nervousness did make for some amusing embarkations! I was able to sit at the very front of the boat (Kate-Winslet-Titanic-esque!), making the ... read more

Ten zuiden van het Tontle Sap-meer in Cambodia ligt een dorp met de ronkende naam Kampong Chhnang. Na het drukke Siem Reap, hadden we nood aan iets minder toeristisch en iets meer authentiek. Een rustig ingeslapen plattelandsdorpje is wat we zochten. In de gidsen staat daar een dorp voor bekend met een al even sterke naam: Battambang. Maar omdat zowat iedereen vanuit Siem Reap naar Battambang lijkt af te reizen, kozen wij voor iets meer 'off the beaten track' en sprongen we dus op de bus voor een klutsende rit naar Kampong Chhnang, het dorp dat volgens de gids omgeven wordt door een schitterend landschap, meert aan het meer (het je dat nu al geweten!?), voor een groot stuk uit paalwoningen bestaat, en door zo goed als alle trotters onaangedaan blijft. Daar moesten we heen! Bij ... read more

Not much more than a few weeks have passed since the General and I found ourselves happily sucking down sub-standard Singaporian swill and stuffing our faces with Roti Cani, in the capital city of Malaysia. “How did I get here? This land of ancient temples, endless rice paddies, and unexploded ordinence.” It turns out that three days, two bus rides, a twenty-six hour train journey, multiple subway and skytrain fiascos, our first of many tuk-tuk rides, and the longest taxi ride ever can get you too, from the center of peninsular Malaysia, to north western Cambodia. Or I suppose you could probably just take the two hour flight from Kuala Lumpur and arrive with a belly full of freeze dried, reconstituted mee goreng, that only a budget Asian airline can whip up and pass of ... read more

Our second night in Cambodia was spent in Kampong Chhnang - there's not a lot to do there but it's fantastic to get a feel for how most of Cambodia lives. We had to get up early and have breakfast at the same restaurant that served us veins and balls ... so you can only imagine how excited we were to find out what our breakfast was going to be like. Our guide Sna felt bad about the food the night before and wanted us to know that we were eating in the best restaurant in the town and to prove it, the football team from Phnom Penh joined us for breakfast as well. I admit that I like the breakfasts in Asia - it's not the traditional eggs and bacon - they have soup, noodles, ... read more