"Blissful Battambang" This is how our guidebook describes this little town, which is actually the second largest city in Cambodia. And I quite agree! Although I think I am a little biased since Scott and Andrea live here, so we got to hang out with them every day. Also because we stayed in an extremely nice hotel that I would never think of entering because of its grandeur, and it was $14/ night! So that was definitely blissful :)
We arrived in Battambang with the taxi driver and his wife, who actually owns the house that Scott and Andrea are living in with the grandma (long story). Anyways, everyone invited us to stay the night, and they made dinner for us as well. Another sister in the family cooks for Scott and Andrea, so she cooked extra, and the four of us ate in the kitchen together (the rest of the family eats separately because Scott and Andrea's meal is cooked specifically for them - another long story!) At any rate, her cooking is AMAZING, and we had a delicious meal and got to hang out with the extended family for a bit. The sister that cooks has two kids - a 10 year old girl and 5 year old boy. They are both super cute and friendly, great kids to play with :) We spent the night in an extra bedroom of the house, it was really nice! It reminds me a lot of our house in Guatemala, with cement walls and tiled floor and a bathroom for every bedroom.
We arrived in Battambang with the taxi driver and his wife, who actually owns the house that Scott and Andrea are living in with the grandma (long story). Anyways, everyone invited us to stay the night, and they made dinner for us as well. Another sister in the family cooks for Scott and Andrea, so she cooked extra, and the four of us ate in the kitchen together (the rest of the family eats separately because Scott and Andrea's meal is cooked specifically for them - another long story!) At any rate, her cooking is AMAZING, and we had a delicious meal and got to hang out with the extended family for a bit. The sister that cooks has two kids - a 10 year old girl and 5 year old boy. They are both super cute and friendly, great kids to play with :) We spent the night in an extra bedroom of the house, it was really nice! It reminds me a lot of our house in Guatemala, with cement walls and tiled floor and a bathroom for every bedroom.
The next morning, Monday, we went to Sunrise Coffee House, a coffee shop that some of our missionaries started that is now being run by Cambodian ladies. I finally got to have oatmeal! Scott and Andrea went to their language lesson at church, and Jordi and I checked in to our grand hotel down the street. We spent the day exploring the town, hanging out with the family, and Scott and Andrea, and eating delicious Khmer food. Scott took us through the Central Market, which was quite a circus for the senses. We also had to learn to cross the street, which is possibly one of the scariest things about Asia. There are no rules to the road, you just walk slowly into traffic and everyone dodges you. It's quite exhilarating.
Tuesday we spent the morning at a Cambodian cooking class. We had heard from several people about a restaurant called Smoking Pot that offered Khmer cooking lessons every morning. So we signed up for it, and learned how to make three common (and scrumptious) meals. That day it was only Jordi and I, and two British girls that were in the class. Our teacher took us to the market and picked out all the vegetables and meat needed for our three dishes. The market was much easier to handle since he knew exactly what he was doing. We got fresh coconuts and all fresh vegetables. We got fish that were caught in the morning from the lake, and watched as they killed and skinned them right in front of us! We also saw all sorts of crazy "food", such as duck embryo's, fried bugs of all shapes and sizes, dried squid, skinned frogs, and buckets of innards. So I wish Andrea and Scott luck. ;)
We took all our fresh goodies back to the restaurant where it was washed and prepared for us. Our teacher told us all about the different vegetables, their names in English, and their purpose for cooking. It was all super interesting! We spent hours chopping and chatting, cooking in the wok, and making curry paste with a mortar and pestle. We made a coconut curry, a beef stir fry, and an awesome lemon grass and sweet basil soup. We got to eat everything we made, so we couldn't move afterwards! Which was fine, because it started pouring down rain, so we sat and talked with our teacher for a while until the sky cleared up and our food digested.
Later, we found out that Battambang has a Vietnamese Embassy, so we took our passports there, and prolonged our stay while we waited to get our visas :)
Wednesday Scott and Andrea took us to a typical Cambodian breakfast of beef noodle soup, these fried donut things (they're not sweet, you put them in your soup. Really good actually!) and coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Sooo good!!!
That night was the birthday party of the 10 year old girl that S & A live with. Andrea had ordered her a birthday cake, and in the evening we went back to the house. Everyone was dressed in their best, and very excited at the prospect of a cake! Birthday parties are a very American invention, most of the adults in the family have never had a birthday party, and don't even know the exact date of their birth. They lit the candles and we all sang Happy Birthday (universal song). It was really cute and fun, I'm glad we got to be there for it!!
When we got back to our hotel, we ran into a friend of my dads, named Jeff Davis. He was in Cambodia leading a missions team, so it was fun to see him! He invited Jord and I to have dinner with them the following night, so we decided to stay in Battambang yet another day ;)
So we ended up prolonging our stay in Battambang twice -the Swards couldn't get rid of us! Actually, our grand hotel couldn't get rid of us ;)Tuesday we spent the morning at a Cambodian cooking class. We had heard from several people about a restaurant called Smoking Pot that offered Khmer cooking lessons every morning. So we signed up for it, and learned how to make three common (and scrumptious) meals. That day it was only Jordi and I, and two British girls that were in the class. Our teacher took us to the market and picked out all the vegetables and meat needed for our three dishes. The market was much easier to handle since he knew exactly what he was doing. We got fresh coconuts and all fresh vegetables. We got fish that were caught in the morning from the lake, and watched as they killed and skinned them right in front of us! We also saw all sorts of crazy "food", such as duck embryo's, fried bugs of all shapes and sizes, dried squid, skinned frogs, and buckets of innards. So I wish Andrea and Scott luck. ;)
We took all our fresh goodies back to the restaurant where it was washed and prepared for us. Our teacher told us all about the different vegetables, their names in English, and their purpose for cooking. It was all super interesting! We spent hours chopping and chatting, cooking in the wok, and making curry paste with a mortar and pestle. We made a coconut curry, a beef stir fry, and an awesome lemon grass and sweet basil soup. We got to eat everything we made, so we couldn't move afterwards! Which was fine, because it started pouring down rain, so we sat and talked with our teacher for a while until the sky cleared up and our food digested.
Later, we found out that Battambang has a Vietnamese Embassy, so we took our passports there, and prolonged our stay while we waited to get our visas :)
Wednesday Scott and Andrea took us to a typical Cambodian breakfast of beef noodle soup, these fried donut things (they're not sweet, you put them in your soup. Really good actually!) and coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Sooo good!!!
That night was the birthday party of the 10 year old girl that S & A live with. Andrea had ordered her a birthday cake, and in the evening we went back to the house. Everyone was dressed in their best, and very excited at the prospect of a cake! Birthday parties are a very American invention, most of the adults in the family have never had a birthday party, and don't even know the exact date of their birth. They lit the candles and we all sang Happy Birthday (universal song). It was really cute and fun, I'm glad we got to be there for it!!
When we got back to our hotel, we ran into a friend of my dads, named Jeff Davis. He was in Cambodia leading a missions team, so it was fun to see him! He invited Jord and I to have dinner with them the following night, so we decided to stay in Battambang yet another day ;)
Thursday Jordi and I rented bikes, and spent the whole day touring around the neighboring countryside. It is SO much fun to ride your bike in Cambodia. Most of the population is on bikes, or motorcycles, so it's fun to ride in a pack wherever you go. Also, as we rode along every little kid would hop up waving their arms and yelling "Hello! Hello!!" They were so cute, and they loved it when we said hello back to them :) We took one of the roads out past the city and along the river, where it was super jungly and gorgeous. We rode for a few kilometers until we reached a temple area that had a temple from the Angkor period, as well as huge Buddha statue and modern Wat (temple). It would have been cool to walk around and look, but after being ushered by a police man to a little table where we paid $2, we were continuously followed by 2-5 people trying to be our tourist guides. I got sooo frustrated because they were either following us or trying to get in front of us to "lead" us. Then they asked for money for being our guides! I was like Ha, ya right!! It's always hard to find a balance of friendliness and firmness, of compassion and common sense, of being generous or being ripped off. But we enjoyed a beautiful ride back to town full of friendly little kids yelling hello, who didn't want anything from us except a reply.
That evening we went out to dinner with the missions team and the missionaries (the Swards and one other family). We went to a really nice place and had a lot of fun with everyone! We hadn't eaten with a group of people in a long time!
Unfortunately, something I ate made me feel really nauseous, and I spent the night throwing up a lot. :( The next morning I was still sick, and was a little bit worried because we had to take a 5 (which was actually 7) hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. I took some Immodium which my mother had wisely stuck in my hand before we left, and Scott and Andrea supplied me with water and saltines. We got to the bus stop and said our goodbyes. Luckily the Immodium worked, and we survived our bus ride it to Phnom Penh without incident. But that's the next story...
That evening we went out to dinner with the missions team and the missionaries (the Swards and one other family). We went to a really nice place and had a lot of fun with everyone! We hadn't eaten with a group of people in a long time!
Unfortunately, something I ate made me feel really nauseous, and I spent the night throwing up a lot. :( The next morning I was still sick, and was a little bit worried because we had to take a 5 (which was actually 7) hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. I took some Immodium which my mother had wisely stuck in my hand before we left, and Scott and Andrea supplied me with water and saltines. We got to the bus stop and said our goodbyes. Luckily the Immodium worked, and we survived our bus ride it to Phnom Penh without incident. But that's the next story...
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