Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 19

We took the journey from Siem Reap to Battambang by boat. It passes some scenic river life in an eight hour journey. In the wet season they use bigger boats that only take five hours, but the locals don't like those because of the damage they cause. As it was even with the smaller boat there were a few angry people shaking their oars at us as we passed. But it isn't just a tourist boat, the locals take it too, so I'm not going to feel bad about using it. The oar shaking was far outweighed by the smiles and waves. On our day in Battambang, along with Jolanda and Ian who we met on the boat, we took motos with drivers to see the main tourist sites. They consist of a few temples, a ... read more

Greetings Readers! we left the capital of Laos on 29th March, heading down & south to Tha kaek, a transit town for buses, situated by the mekong river across from which you can see Thailand. After two nights of visiting temples and fearsome thunderstorms we moved on to Pakse. On both these journeys we were accompanied by my sister Addrienne and her husband Dave, which gave us the opportunity to catch up with each others news. In Pakse our ways parted as they planned to go back up and on to Myanmar (hope the journey is treating you both well). From pakse we had booked a 3 day boat journey (a converted timber barge made into a small floating hotel). The boat trip was great, with outings to Wat Phu, an ancient temple complex built on ... read more

So today was a little less adventure, and a lot more relaxing. I got breakfast at the market - a chicken leg in amazing spices accompanied with rice. Then, at 9:30 I was at the 'Smokin' Pot' restaurant to learn to cook Khmer food. A british couple and a woman afrom Paris were the other people there for the cooking class. We accompanied the chef/restaurant owner to the market to buy the ingredients. It's one thing to look at the food sold in the market as a tourist, and completely different when you know you'll be eating it! There were flies EVERYWHERE. We we to a butcher and bought some beef, covered in flies of course. We passed big bowls filled with congealed pig's blood, chicken blood, bowls of salted eggs, bowls of fish guts. Every ... read more

Take a banana. Wrap it in rice. Wrap the whole thing in a coat of banana leaves and grill it on a charcoal fire. Call it delicious. Wake up as early a possible. Rush to the market religiously as soon as you open your eyes. The villagers will be selling their wares: women in sarungs with shawls draped criss-crossed around their heads or with straw sun hats, crouched beneath their stall umbrellas. Pick up that snake fish writhing on the sidewalk and put it back in its bucket. It doesn't matter that you don't know its name or how it manages to survive all day without water. Smile when the seller woman seems amused. The villager sellers will start to go home around 9ish. Better hurry to get those bananas and mangoes. Don't stroll leisurely down ... read more

When I was younger I was allowed to listen to what ever music I wanted, within reason, I was allowed to wear whatever I wanted, within reason, to voice an opinion, I did that anyway regardless of where and to whom I was saying it, I basically had creative, expressive freedom. Cambodia was a country that had many restrictions and so I didn’t think they would have any such creative Idols, but I was wrong, Cambodia had a massive heart throb singer songwriter ingenious genius who was all theirs and from Battambang itself. His name was SIN SISAMOTH, originally a medical student from Battambang City, this man was the first person to introduce western pop music into Cambodian ears around the early 1960's through to 1975. His songs were naturally about sorrow, gravity, the pains and ... read more