Apologies for the lack of updates – our blog seems to have been offline for the last couple of days.
We have spent the last few days in Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest city (by a long way) and the spot noted in Chhay’s passport under birthplace.
It has been fantastic – the place has a very sleepy colonial town feel and is surrounded by spectacular countryside – small farmhouses nestled between banana plants and surrounded by brilliant green paddy fields, rice drying on the side of the roads, irrigation ditches full of kids playing, people washing and fishing.
Our days have followed a fairly predictable routine. Early breakfast of noodles or congee (a savory porridge) at a packed bustling stall in a market follwed by a trek out into the surrounding country along torturous but scenic back roads to meet another branch of chhay’s family – be fed a feast for lunch, have a nap in a hammock under a thatched roof somewhere before ambling back to town via one of the local scenic attractions before yet another fantastic dinner courtesy of Chhay’s town based rellies who have been giving us the five star treatment.
We have been to Chhay’s birth village and hung out with her crazy aunts, harvested coconuts , chillies and paw paws from their farm before eating them straight away, visited Poipet along possibly the worst road on the planet – a place noted in the Lonely Planet as the “armpit of the earth” (but perhaps only being comparable to the back of the knee), we have climbed mountains (well hills really but they call them mountains) to visit temples and pre-Angkorian ruins – along with a side track to see a Khmer Rouge death cave, and primarily it seems we have been fed – dish after fantastic dish.
I now have earned cred with the rellies for being willing to eat anything they put in front of me – fiery chillies, smelly fish, salty fruit and durians! All the food has been amazing, although sometimes I feel that we are a bit of a burden to have to constantly be fed. I have becaome an expert in reading body language too as I am the only one who doesn’t understand Khmer (apart from about 5 phrases).
We are heading off to the big smoke tommorrow – Phnom Penh. Should be quite a change of pace from the relaxed vibe we have enjoyed here.