Cambodia 2014: Day 6

Instead of taking the bus back to Siem Reap, I decided to join up in a taxi instead. This allowed me a couple more hours in Battambang.

The options for shared taxi are this: Share with other tourists or share with locals. If you share with tourists, it’s three people in the back seat, two in front. If you share with locals, they sit four in the back seat and two in front. I said, that I was okay sharing with locals, but I wanted the front seat on my own. This would set me back US$15.

I was guaranteed that the taxi driver would send me right to the doorstep of my hotel in Siem Reap, and, more importantly, not make unscheduled stops. This would make the journey shorter.

But before we get to the departure from Battambang, this is how I spent my morning.

Breakfast across from the hotel was a beef curry with baguette and a glass of ice coffee. A lot of MSG taste. Very little curry taste. The coffee was good though.

It was still a half hour before I was scheduled to be picked up by Pow and I walked around town. Even with businesses open, I still felt that Battambang was a very small city.

Even though I already had breakfast, I could not resist trying this cracker topped with tiny shrimp. Lovely fresh. Very thin. Very crisp. Very tasty. Very oily. Felt a little sick after that.

Pow took me on the countryside tour featuring local industries.

Battambang is a rice producing city. There’s plenty of farming going on. They even have vineyards, apparently, and I did see some small fields of grapevine.

Pow then took me to the rice paper skin factory…

… and the Kralan makers…

Apparently, the traditional way to cook Kralan is to bury the Kralan in earth and put hot coals on top. But it’s an extremely slow cooking process. And probably has more flavour.

And the place where they make fish paste/cheese called prohoc.

I believe there was more to be seen – I’d read about some cigarette roller, rice noodle making etc, but I wasn’t brought to those places.

Anyhow, back in Battambang, since Mom wanted Cambodian coffee, I got Pow to take me to a coffee supplier for some coffee grinds. However, the place to get coffee is really, Phnom Penh.

So it’s time to depart Battambang and the taxi driver arrives a little late. In the back seat are a man and his son.

Looking good so far. We proceed to pick up the next passenger, but it seems to take forever. I do not know what is going on, a woman and a kid come in. Then two more women. It is almost one hour after I got into the taxi and we’d still not left Battambang.

And of course, the taxi makes unscheduled stops. It loads up stuff, it unloads stuff along the way. Everything to make a quick buck en route.

The only promise kept is that I am indeed brought to the doorstep of my hotel.

Battambang was fun. I might go back again. Pow tells me there’s more to be discovered further out – waterfalls, gemstones…

Since it is only 5pm, I walk around Siem Reap, buy half melted ice cream from surly cocky staff who won’t even look at you at Blue Pumpkin. I don’t recommend it.

Walking more, trying to find nice shots, I find the local ice cream seller who has great local ice cream for half the price.

I then head to Wat Bo road to try and find some Cambodian BBQ recommended by the hotel. But it feels too early for dinner, so I walk on to National Highway 6.

There, I find the pong koon tia woman who is balancing a pot of boiling water on one end of a bamboo stick and duck eggs on the other and get super excited. This is the kind of person I want to be getting pong koon tia from.

I want to eat it right on the road and she obliges and opens an egg. I point to the garlic and chilli and she’s happy I want to sample legit Cambodian food.

It is so good. I ordered another egg. She laughs at me or at least my enthusiasm.

I am so full of duck egg, I give up on the Cambodian BBQ. I try to find my way back another way, only to get lost in a village.

I make wrong turns. And locals tell me it’s a dead end. They’ve seen lost tourists before. Unexpectedly I find myself in a maze of backyards, interrupting people in their personal life. They look at me. I ask if I can go through. They think I’m asking if it’s okay if I invade their privacy. They’re a little confused why I’d want to sightsee in their backyards that lead zinc door to zinc door from one household to another. Either way, they nod and smile and indicate “go ahead”.

The light is fading. There are no street lamps. I’m feeling a little bit anxious. But a mobile phone data plan and Google maps saves the day.

Day 6 in Cambodia map.