Statues, Art/Coffee Shops, Dentists and good food……ramblings about our journey to and our findings in Battambang, in no particular order.
Mandy: 13th – 17th December
.There were more cows than busses in the ‘bus station’ when we arrived in Battambang
For our purpose I want to note that it is pronounced BattambOng. Which I will remember by rhyming it with BattamPONG! The smell of the market will live with us forever, although so will the happy, mostly female, stall holders, who do not speak English as we found out and thought it very funny that we were trying to ask them a question about something they were selling on their meat stall/table. We always try to explain that my Dad is (was) a butcher and that is why we want to take photos. But short of doing a rude impression of a man (that might get me arrested) before even trying to explain who this man is and what he did for a living I just have to smile and giggle with them and leave the explanation untold.
The Women all wear the pyjama type outfits which we have seen in many countries in S. E. Asia with random hats; more suitable for an afternoon at a summer fete. Their socks have a big toe shape so they can wear flip flops with them. All in all not a very stylish combination and yet they look far happier than us in our colour and pattern co-ordinated outfits when we go off to work!
A ‘bunch’ of birds!
We discussed with Aaron how Cambodia had so many poor people along side so many expensive cars of the obviously rich. He told us that apparently local people there who had money liked to show off the fact. He said that if the locals could afford medical treatment for instance, in the many small hospitals and clinics around the place, they would flaunt the fact by catching a motorbike taxi home so people could see the saline drips they carried with them “look at me I can afford medical treatment” He said he didn’t know if it was true but that is what he had heard. We told him that we had already seen two women on the back of bikes holding up their drips and thought it strange.
It had been a good journey to Battambang, we enjoyed people watching as we went. We drove along a road which had lots of red brick kilns along it with piles of bricks outside each one. Fires clearly burning inside each one. Once again all the same industry in one area.
Half way through the journey the coach stopped and the non English speaking driver got off so I followed him and asked where the toilets were and he pointed into a dark grubby looking place……this is what we found at the back.
Excuse the bad photo
The squat toilet didn’t have any water to wash your hands (surprise surprise) or toilet paper (again not unusual) but it did have a communal comb hanging by a piece of string outside as we have often seen on both trips to Asia. I often laugh to myself when I think back to our first trip to Asia and how I used to take off my trousers or shorts completely before using the squat toilets. It was only after a very urgent visit to one in Malaysia (where I didn’t have time to undress) where I realised how to use them fully clothed! (Chuckle)
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, we came back out from the vanity area and hole in the ground to find our coach had gone!! We could see two other (Asian) passengers who didn’t seem that bothered (they stood eating insects they had bought from a women wondering along with a wicker basket full of them). Apparently the bus had gone to ‘turn around’ as it’s only a narrow street…. Why couldn’t they do that once we got back on I don’t know! Anyway ten minutes passed and we wondered just how difficult it could be to turn a bus around. As we waited I spoke to a young female backpacker from Brazil and a young European guy who spoke some English. I said how the bus had driven off with our backpacks and how they were most likely rummaging through our dirty washing as apposed to turning the bus around! They had both got off a similar bus doing the reverse journey which had also driven off without explanation. The girl said she had left her day bag on her seat with her valuables in (something we would never do!) and the guy said he left his day bag AND his girlfriend on the bus….I told him that was even more irresponsible having possibly waved goodbye to not only his iPad, phone and money but also to the love of his life….. forever! (Chuckle) All the while Glen wasn’t bothered, he was just along the pavement ‘talking’ to the women who was selling the fried critters! (Smile)
I read that Battambang is Cambodia’s second most populous city and boasts the highest statue to resident ratio in the country. (Smile) which seemed about right. There were statues on every roundabout and area of grass. Although no one mentioned how many Dentists there were there. It seems to us that setting up business as a Dentist or a Hair Dresser is easy in Asia as they are everywhere.
Excercise area by the riverfront, totally out of character to the rest of the place.
The old (smelly) market to the left and what appeared to be a stab at a western pizza restaurant (Named PizzaHand) on the right! We popped in to see if it was anything like it’s name-ish sake PizzaLand. The waitresses didn’t have any shoes on and didn’t speak English and the menu looked nothing like you would expect, it wasn’t for tourists. Good for them, but why spoil the town with the horrid building and signage.
I have read that as a lot of people can’t read there is no point in road signs, they use the “turn left at the so and so statue and then right at the horse” for directions. The roads did actually have numbered signs on them written in English “no. 117” and “no. 121” etc which we were told were for the sake of Google maps/street view. Funnily enough we also saw someone going around on a bike with their passenger holding what looked like it could have been a camera for that purpose. We will never know. We will also never know what happened to certain road numbers in between, as they seem unable to make them sequential.
Just one of the many Dentists there.
At Jaan Bai, they promote that their cuisine is about the simplicity of well-crafted, nourishing and wholesome recipes. Which we can can certainly vouch for. However the fact they say that they use seasonal organic produce sourced from local farmers and neighbouring markets could be off putting (chuckle!)
We weren’t tempted by these cooked crabs on a food cart by our hotel.
Can you believe that having left a noisey funeral ridden Siem Reap we arrived in Battambang to find there was another funeral in progress. It was on one of the streets which had some of the recommended bars in, which were forced to close for a few days due to the loud day long music being played!
How the motorbike drawn trailers carry so many heavy clay pots etc we will never know but they seem to manage, and often with even more than this loaded on them.
We went from wanting to catch the next bus out of the place to feeling reluctant to leave. We found some lovely arty coffee shops serving excellent Asian food and bumped in to Aaron often in what turned out to be a lovely friendly place with good food and happy people.
We could easily become blasé about all of the Asian traditions and their way of life here as we spend our sixth month in Asia (over the last two years) but we haven’t yet. We will miss the true Asian cultures and way of life once we get to the touristic islands in South Thailand I think. But before we leave Cambodia we are off to explore Kampot and Kep. Another long bus journey via Phnom Penh; bring it on.