From Angkor Wat, we hoppped on a bus to Battambang, a French colonial town that was meant to be charming and lazy place set on a river. The taxi picked us up from the Dead Fish at 7am and drove us, literally, around the corner to the travel agent. After 30 minutes, a small and empty bus came by to pick us up, creating images of a short comfortable ride. After 2 minutes, the bus dropped us off once more down the road to another travel agent. Finally (and slightly confused), we hopped on the atual bus headed to our destination.
On the way, we met a Kiwi named Alice, who is studying organic agriculture in Cambodia. She also runs an NGO/Tour group with her friend that does tours on bike and car through Cambodia and gives the profit to its farmer-feeding school, which they also established, in a rural area of Cambodia. Very cool - if anyone is interested, I can get you information!!
Once we arrived in Battambang, we were met with substantial disappointment on seeing that the river was practically dry, and there was little to do but explore the narrow streets and eat. Once again, we put our taste buds to the test eating trey ang, a whole grilled fish, which was tasty but became unappetizing after seeing that someone had forgotten to remove the large sack of eggs inside the fish. On the way home from dinner, we stopped at the fruit small to stock up on tamarinds, my new favorite fruit that resembles dried fruit inside a shell (!!), and to try dourian. For those who have not heard of dourian, it is a gigantic fruit in the jack fruit family that has a stench that is prohibited in most hotels and public places in Thailand. After hearing Emily's description of dourian as "eating ice cream out of a dumpster," Emma and I were a bit apprehensive. For some reason, we were mysteriously impervious to the stench and enjoyed the sweet taste of the fruit; however, we were slightly put off by its slimy yellow flesh that felt as if you were digging your fingers into warm mud. Hmm...I think I'll stick to my other favorite local fruits, such as rambutan (lychee family), mangosteen, guava, green mango w/ sugar and chili, and TAMARIND!
To the good and bad of culinary adventures...
Dimity :)
