A weekend in Battambang

Even the best of us need a bit of time off. We've already seen all the sights there are to see in Poipet so this weekend we traveled two hours to the nearest big town: Battambang.

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On Saturday we hired a tuk tuk for the day. Our first stop was the 'bamboo train'. Train maybe isn't the right word though: flimsy bamboo platforms are placed on top of two axels. A small 5HP motor is stuck on top and they rattle along like that.
These funky trains run along a railway that once connected Phnom Penh with Poipet and beyond. The rails are now quite buckled and it was not a smooth ride. The most amazing bit is how they overcome the limitation of having only a single track: when you meet another train: the train with less people is dismantled to the side of the railway to let the heavier train through. Perhaps the best way of understanding all of this is with Jack's timelapse video:

After the bamboo train, we went to Phnom Sampov: a hill protruding from the otherwise almost entirely flat terrain. It is dotted with caves and watts (temples) which we spent some time exploring. It all seemed very special.

Alison refuses to look normal in any of my photos.

On the way back it began to rain really hard. As we arrived back in Battambang the water was flowing through the streets a foot deep. The engine of our tuk tuk flooded, amazingly he was able to restart it though.

In time the rain stopped and the floodwater subsided incredibly quickly.We went out to experience a little of Battambang. We almost got a private karaoke room but decided in the end that it was a little too weird.

The following morning we weren't feeling on top of the world so decided to chillax at a pool. The first full length swimming pool we've found! I have managed to get horribly burnt around my shoulders doing laps. Meanwhile Evelyn was making friends:

Nice shorts:

Jack and I decided to take a cooking course. First we went to the market to buy some ingredients. This included buying fish. The fish were stored alive in a bucket. One jumped out and landed on the floor in front of me! It gave me a fright but I won in the end: the fish was promptly hit on the head, it's head was chopped off and a minute later it was reduced to a fillet. The fish head was still trying to breath as it sat on the bamboo leaves.

In the end we made fish amok, red curry and lok lak. This resulted in one of the best meals we've had this far. It filled us up until we were more than full.

Now we're back into work again.

Angus