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Other entries in Battambang

low water season

the ticket advertised air-conditioned boat. technically they didn't lie, but semi-warm wind in my hair from an open-air boat doesn't really count as AC back home. the foto they sold vs the boat we were on were 2 entirely different beasts. but considering ours got stuck within the first hour - maybe it's better we weren't in the bigger one. the trip reminded me of the boat ride up the amazon tributaries in peru. we used the propellor more to shove us along the muck than to actually move us through water. a 6 hour trip took 8.

busing from siem reap to the water, we saw some of the most extreme poverty I've seen anywhere. what would normally be a dirt road with a gravel shoulder here was a place to build 15 x 15 foot stilt houses sided in bamboo sheets chock full of adults and kids. we passed hundreds of them. at least they weren't one on top of the other like city slums so you figure sanitation is a little better. but there's no running water here....

rest of the river ride we passed fisherman, floating villages, lillypad islands. at our only rest stop, the toilet was a hole in the decking that dropped straight into the river. I made origami birds for a couple kids on the boat to pass the time (for the record, these kids never cried in 8 hrs. but for the record, one of these boys peed off the side of the boat RIGHT NEXT TO ME. thank god it wasnt windy that day.). and I maxed out my memory card with pics - already !!! (taking lots of vid)

got to battambang with hopes for a cooking class and maybe bike ride in the country. the first day I had to take it easy - recover from biking at angkor wat and all those early mornings. plus my hotel room has a TV! so did some serious vegging and watched some all time classics: dude, where's my car, undercover brother (quite good, must say), shawn of the dead. got out the paints, made a little art - it was a great night!

today had the cooking class. they gave me a nice-n-sharp butcher knife, we squeezed our own cocnut milk, made our own red curry (cant we just buy this somewhere? I ask), tasted the difference of things with and without MSG, the instructor accidentally started a fire (''dont do like this'').

the best part was the market trip before. I'm getting to know my way around but some new highlights were an ant "soup" that is mixed with banana flour and served on lettuce, seeing bettle leaf and the nut whos name I can t remember (I ate this the first day I got to bangkok), watching a woman hack into a pig head with an axe, seeing the inside of a sour sop fruit. there are some awesome fruit smoothy places around here and sour sop is one of my favorite ingredients.

battambang is so tranquil compared to the constant "motorbike? lady motorbike?...." of phnom pehn and siem reap. I've seen a lot of people spitting in the street (?) coincidence or significant?, also lots of young monks lining up every morning to receive alms. (like 20 in a row with their brass bowls. it's a cool sight). I finally had my first massage - by a blind kid from phnom pehn. he asked my age - he thought I was 21. if this what I can pass for, maybe I need to start dating blind men....

found a shoe repair guy who fixed my 8 yr old tevas for $1 (they needed new velcro). I probably overpaid, but who cares - was one of those win-win situations.

so got some much needed down-time in battambang. tomorrow its back to PP and more volunteer work. lining up a few art-related projects  - will report more details as they happen.

ps - uploaded a bunch of angkor wat photos - click back one day.

pps - have you heard about the volcano about to explode in indonesia??

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