From a fish paste stench to a bamboo train

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Excuse me but I just need to add a bit about last night. I know this isn't right but, well, deal with it. So, I was looking for some ice cream and was a tad disappointed when they didn't have any. The desserts menu was limited but I was tempted by the Khmer Delight and so asked the smiling waiter what it was.

He said it was bananas and coconut and assured me it was really nice and he liked it himself. I trusted him. And he was right, it was nice. Lumps of banana and nuts in a liquidy coconut mass. It tasted fine.

But it was grey! A dirty GREY! When have you ever had grey food unless it had gone off? We can't even think of any food that is grey let alone contemplate eating it. No wonder they'd dimmed the lights just before they brought it out to me. But hey, it was nice. No-on else wanted to try any though for some reason.....

Today began with us both awake before the 6.30 alarm and it was time to pack up as we were leaving this wonderful hotel. One last fantastic breakfast with my last visit to the egg station and we were on our way to Battambang.

Some of the vehicles here wouldn't look out of place in a Mad Max film as they seem to be concocted from a variety of other vehicles and mish-mashed together. Apparently the next Mad Max film will be made here and is due to be called Mad Max:Bumpy Road.....

Battambang is home to the best preserved French-period architecture in Cambodia. It also has a swanky hotel and we're in it! Before the afternoon activities we had time for a swim in the pool which was great. Claire photographed some water lillies that were in huge pots around the pool and got complimented on her photography skills by an Australian lady. So she was happpy.

And then we were off to one of the smelliest places I have ever been. Most Cambodian food is flavoured with fish paste so we had the pleasure of going to see how it is made. I say pleasure....

Basically the fish is chopped up by some people, dried in the sun, salted and mushed up into a gooey, stinky mess that looks a bit grey... What is it with these people and their grey foods??

They sit there with piles of stinking fish and each person chops a different part of each fish. One old lady sat there pulling the guts from the heads so the heads could be made into fish head soup. Bizarrely she had one glove on....at least one okay smelling hand is better than two!

Some fish were being shovelled up off the floor and hygiene standards were somewhat lower than ours. Claire was fortunate to have a blocked nose today as the smell was awful. The meat eaters amongst us planned to eat no meat for the rest of the day.

And then it was cycling time again as we set off for a short tour around the city. We stopped at some old French colonial buildings that are no longer in use before stopping to have some green oranges. Apparently they're the best in the country and they did taste good but they're GREEN! How can an oranges be green? You don't get blue egg whites now do you?! They probably have grey ones here though!

Luckily, these things don't wind me up....

Along the roadside there are many shops with plastic and glass bottles full of yellow liquid. This turns out to be fuel for motorbikes and lorries and people buy it because it is about 1/5th cheaper than buying it from a petrol station. Apparently Nin asked a policeman once why he didn't do anything about it and was told 'how can I when I buy it myself?' Fair enough!

The highlight of any visit to Battambang has to be a ride on the bamboo train. It may shock you to know that this involves some bamboo and a train. So, you've got some abandoned train tracks, some sets of wheels adapted to run on said tracks, some bamboo with which to form a flat carriage come trailer and a motorcycle engine. Hey presto, you have a train!

Originally invented to carry workers and produce to and from the fields as well as transporting goods the bamboo train is now mainly for tourists. We did pick up a farm worker on our way back though so it's nice to see the old ways still apparent.

Four of us sat on cushions on bamboo on the flat carriage and off we went. Reaching speeds of 30-40km/h it's quite a ride, particularly when some of the tracks don't join quite as well as they used to. The track is 7km each way so you get quite a good ride for your money. We saw some huge spiders in webs above us as we traversed which were somewhat reminiscent of those in Lord of the Rings. We were going too fast to get pictures of them though. If you meet a train coming the other way whoever has the least passengers has to life their train off the tracks and put it back on once the other train has passed by. Being as it comes in three parts it's not even as easy as it didn't sound in the first place anyway.

We got off awhile before the return journey and I had my picture taken sat at the wheel of a Mad Max lorry. They wouldn't let me drive it though. Nin was showing us brick kilns but, as we come from Stoke and have a brick museum there, we did some more souvenir shopping instead.

Back on our bikes again we took them back via a quick stop off at a pagoda to photograph some shy young monks. We can always Photoshop them into Angkor Wat later....well Claire can....

And.....back in the pool! Not a very warm pool so we didn't stay in long before heading out for our evening meal. Tonight was pizza and ice cream night but I did have a tom yum kung pizza to be a bit faithful to the region. And very nice it was too. As was the ice cream which was a good job as they didn't have my first two choices and I ended up saying I'd just have what Andy had had. By now we were getting knackered so it was another early night ahead of eight hours travelling tomorrow as we head into our third, and last, country of the holiday, Thailand.

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Comments

[RedPlanetClaire]

brilliant blog
i cant wait to hear more!!