Jan 19th - Siem Reap - Battambang.

Jan 19^th

Today we drive up to Battanbang, Cambodia’s 2^nd largest city which is north west of Seam Reap quite close to the Thai border.  We had a trip planned thought before we set off which was to visit a floating village on Tonlé Sap, which is the largest fresh water lake in south east Asia and eventually connects through to the Mekong river.  In the dry season, it only covers about 4,000 square kilometres but in the wet season it expands enormously and can cover an area of up to 15,000 square kilometres.

Transportation around the lake

When we arrived at the lake edge, we boarded our little boat and zipped along a fairly narrow channel to the lake proper. The edge of the channel was lined with shacks surrounded by masses of rubbish and mounds of cheap plastic bags on the one side.  The lake itself was a filthy muddy brown and extremely polluted now as it’s peak dry season so all the sewerage etc. is very concentrated – to put it another way – you wouldn’t want to fall in!!

The floating village

We finally got to the floating village where the houses and fishing huts, the school and shops are all built on bamboo platforms.  We parked up at a restaurant/shop complex which also included a small crocodile and catfish farm.  They has some interesting wares for sale including what looked very much like a small cobra coiled up in a bottle of a some sort of yellow liquid – perhaps a liquor?  Anyway, I’ll never know as resisted the temptation to buy a bottle.

Deep fried crickets

After the lake experience we drove quite a few hours up to Battambang.  We had one stop on route at a road side store which sold local street foods.  We all tried the deep fried crickets which were actually quite nice.  I managed some deep fried frogs legs whilst Chris ate whole deep fried frogs and then progressed on to deep fried snake.  He said they all tasted pretty much the same but the thought of eating snake was just too much for me.

A slice of paradise

We finally arrived at our hotel which is a little slice of paradise.  We have semi detached rooms in the lush tropical gardens from where we can catch tantalising views of a gorgeous pool and Jacuzzi complex, which is where I’m writing this blog from.  The rooms are large and very comfortable with a distinct colonial feel to them and the beds had some fantastic animals made from the towels on them and were scattered with local flowers.  Oh yes, we’re very happy to be here for 2 nights.

After a swim and shower, we sat by the pool for some cocktails and then dinner (with the added bonus of an electrical storm) followed by a night cap and went to bed feeling very content.