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Published: April 2nd 2009
Monday we had the whole day to spend as we wanted in Battambang. This was the first time I can remember coming to a new place with almost no idea of what it would be like, no map of the city layout in my head, no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to ride the bamboo train and and eat frogs, but we had done that in our first afternoon. Now what?
Mr Kim had plenty of ideas. We said we wanted to see a bit of the countryside and anything else he thought would be interesting, so we ended up having a mini-tour of Cambodian industry. I may not have the order correct, but our tour included the following:
The Ice Factory: this is where they make the huge blocks of ice that we see being cut up and sold in the market. It's a pretty low-tech operation, but it certainly is the coolest workplace in town.
The Rice Factory: A rice processing plant, where rice is husked and bagged. There was kind of a 1920's factory vibe going on there: lots of big loud machinery, and a few people bagging the
rice and - of course - sweeping.
The Rice Paper factory: Making the rice paper used for wrapping spring rolls is a family operation. A woman crouches over two fires, pouring a thin layer of rice flour and water onto cloth surfaces stretched like the heads of a drum over two cooking pots. She cooked each one for half a minute before she peeled it off and laid it to dry on a bamboo mat. She alternated between the two pots, pouring the mixture on one and spreading it around then turning to the other and lifting the cooked rice paper off with a flat stick. She poured another layer on that one, then went back to the first one, which was now ready to be lifted off. Her husband arranges the circles of rice paper on the bamboo mat, carrying it outside to dry in the sun once the whole surface has been covered. On a good day, they can produce two or three thousand of these rice paper discs. Interestingly, the fuel for the cooking fire is the rice husks, and after they're burned, the ash is used as fertilizer in the garden. Nothing much goes to
waste. (I didn't witness any sweeping at this stop.)
The sticky-rice-in-bamboo vendor: Rice and black beans are cooked and poured with coconut milk into a hollow piece of bamboo, which is then roasted over a fire. After they're cooked, you can peel off the outer bamboo like a banana peel and eat the rice and beans - and the package is completely biodegradable!
The "Cambodian Cheese Factory" aka the Fish Paste Factory: Just try to imagine the smell of dozens of enormous wooden tubs full of chopped fermenting fish....Mmmmmmmm. A couple of months sitting around like that and you've got some tasty
prahoc to liven up the flavor of all your Cambodian dishes.
A rural wat/temple: We stopped off a very colorful wat, right in front of a very old tumbling-down temple and next to an unfinished enormous Buddha statue towering over it all.
A Genocide Memorial: Right outside the yard of a primary school was a memorial to those who died in an adjacent killing field. Through the glass windows of the building, one could see hundreds of skulls and other bones, and the base of the building had bas relief sculpture of the
events of the Khmer Rouge regime and the atrocities committed. As we studied the pictures, children leaving school ran by, yelling, "Hello! Hello! Hello!" I had to wonder how many of their grandparents, aunts and uncles were had perished there..
"Genocide Tourism" is an odd thing. I understand the importance of seeing the evidence of such recent tragic history - it certainly shouldn't be forgotten - but it sometimes feels so intrusive, getting our glimpse of a whole generation's deepest pain. I wonder what the Cambodians think about tourists' fascination with such things. We chose to decline Mr Kim's suggestion of visiting the "Killing Caves" where people had been marched to the top of a hill and thrown to their deaths through a hole into the cave below. We just weren't up for it, and he didn't seem to mind.
We also declined his offer to visit the "Pepsi Factory." I couldn't quite figure out what this might be a euphemism for (he had described the fish paste factory as the "Cambodian cheese factory") but I think it actually may have been a long-closed Pepsi bottling plant. He mentioned that we could see many Pepsi bottle there...I guess
we'll never know for sure, since we didn't go.
All this sight-seeing made us good and hungry, so we stopped at my favorite place of all:
The Roadside Rat Barbecue! Apparently, rice fields are home to some big fat juicy rats, and when shot with an arrow, cleaned, and roasted on an open fire, they are quite delicious. (No, I'm not being sarcastic!) I especially like how the tail looks sort of like a handle, suggesting a Rat-sicle. Very tasty indeed - and since we got the Super-Sized option, it was pretty meaty. It tasted like chicken, as all strange foods so often do...
Our afternoon mission consisted of looking to buy a clock with Khmer numbers. I had only ever seen one, in the music room at Wat Bo School, but Mr Kim brought us to clock shop, where among the hundreds of familiar-looking clocks, we found the one we were looking for. Mr Kim was able to negotiate the price down from $4.25 to $3.75 - which was interesting to watch. His suggestion that they should discount the price was met with the same laugh and snort and look of "oh, you poor pathetic customer, offering
me so little for this wonderful item" that we often get when bargaining in the market. At least now I know that reaction isn't reserved just for tourists.
I had a sudden epiphany at that clock shop about why bargaining can be so difficult for us, besides the fact that we're just not used to it and I hate to think I might truly be offending anyone: it's like the awful ordeal of buying a used car from a dealer. If you've had the misfortune of doing such a thing, you probably know what I mean. You give it a good look, the salesman tells you all about the wonderful qualities of the car while you try to act like you're not
too interested. You have to ask the price, because it's never marked anywhere, or if it is, you know you shouldn't pay that much. Your offer is met with a counter-offer or the suggestion that the salesman will have to check with the "manager" and this goes on and on, back and forth, painfully. I don't know anyone who enjoys the process, and shopping here is just too much like that to feel comfortable at first. It's
Well-groomed dogs on a fancy scootero
Battambang is clearly a more affluent region than Siem Reap.like negotiating over a used cart, over and over and over. It gets easier with practice, and by this point, though, I'm not sure I'll be able to go home and pay for anything without wanting to negotiate a "special price."
Hmmmm, this gallon of milk is $3.89? Well, I'll give you $2.25 for it... I don't think the clerks at Price Chopper will know how to react!
We finished off our day with a little stroll along the river to the park in downtown Battambang. People were out strolling, setting up stereo speakers, buying food from vendors and picnicking, and generally enjoying the green space (something lacking in Siem Reap.) Jaz chose to stay at the park for an hour or two while we returned to the hotel, and I realized afterward why she likes to go out on her own so much: A group of three foreigners is a novelty to stare at, but one young foreigner on her own is more approachable and she ends up having people strike up conversations with her. She chatted with some young people there while I tried not to watch the clock back at the hotel and think about whether
I was a nutcase for letting her go out on her own in a strange Cambodian city. Maybe I am, but considering her plans to travel on her own in the not-so-distant future, I have to give her some slack.
Tuesday we'll be on our back to Siem Reap, by bus this time, which only takes 3-4 hours. We'll have air conditioning, comfortable seats, and from what I hear, constantly blaring karaoke videos playing on the TV screen over the driver's head. I can hardly wait!
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Corky
non-member comment
Rat Barbeque?
Hi Jess, You do realize don't you that the barbequed rats looked suspciously like a dinner Steve cooked not long ago for the THDHC? Also, were you serious when you asked if anyone wanted a hammock? I'd take you up on the offer but I don't know how you would get it home and I don't want it to be a burden. If you can ship it on a slow boat to American, maybe I would have it next summer.