10/7 in Battambang, Cambodia: More Wats, Bamboob Sticky Rice and Rice Paper Villages, Circus, etc

On October 7th, Happy, our superb tuk tuk driver and guide for our entire time in Battambang (BB), picked us up at 8 to take us on a half day tour of wats and "villages" selling bamboo sticky rice and rice paper. After that, we wandered around BB by ourselves until Happy picked us again in the early evening at the guesthouse to see the circus - but no lions, tigers and bears oh my though at the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus!

I warn you that some of the following photos may be upsetting because of their subject matter.

Another day in the tuk tuk in BB during the rainy season, another day of flooded streets. This was though the worst flooding BB has experienced in 20 years; the flooding caused a number of deaths.

I can only wonder again how people gain access to their homes and businesses during the floods.

Truly, a street market! This was the Muslim area of town, an area we had not seen before in BB.

Wat Somrong Knong (as with all Asian languages, Cambodian is translated into English in different ways): this was a large complex as seen by the map below. Built in 1897, the temple was used during the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime as a prison and 10,000 plus people were killed in this area alone in Cambodia.

The new Wat being built was started in 2007.

Just a few meters away from the temple or wat itself is now the Well of Shadows; the panels at the base in the picture above depict the horrors inflicted by the Khmer Rouge.

Detailed panel views above and below.

After visiting the wat/prison, we drove to the first "bamboo sticky rice village." In effect though there was just the woman above working alone to prepare the bamboo filled containers of sticky rice. That was the same case in the next "village." In Cambodia, which is known as the Land of the Rice, there are 3 different types of rice grown: sticky, jasmine and rumdul. Each one grows in different fields; they are normally planted once a year in April or May and takes about 6 months to harvest when 3-4 meters in height.

The woman make about 12 kgs a day of the bamboo sticky rice which is a favorite for locals; to make bamboo sticky rice, shortened bamboo pieces are stuffed first with a banana leaf, then filled with the cooked (I think!) sticky rice, beans and coconut juice; those are then cooked over the hot fire above.

I know you'll never believe me but Happy did live up to his name in spite of the pictures I took of him here and in the last few days! I wonder if he never really liked his picture being taken b/c he had missing teeth?

To eat the bamboo rice, just peal the bamboo back and use a piece of nearby wood as a spoon to start munching the warm mixture inside. Steven couldn't try it b/c of his nut allergy but I did and loved it.

Notice the basket of freshly made bamboo sticky rice available for sale behind me. While we were learning about how it was made, several people stopped by on motorcycles and bikes to buy some.

More market shots as we drove by in the tuk tuk.

The (edible) rice paper "village"

Rice husks stoke the fire, then a little salt, rice powder and water is added to the pot; a little of the mixture is then put on the griddle for a minute or so, then put on the wooden spindles by the older woman's left arm ,one at a time, to dry a bit before putting on the rack in the back by the younger woman. When she has filled her rack, it is then taken to the font yard to dry in the sun. Obviously it is often chancy to make rice paper in the rainy season because a certain amount of sun is needed for the paper to dry. If the papers are not dry in 3 hours, all are then destroyed. The 2 women make together 2500 rice papers a day; they are used for spring rolls and snacks for kids in the local schools. The papers are sold in 3 sizes ranging in price for 100 each of small, medium and large for 5000 riel, 4000 riel and 3000 riel respectively ($1.25, $1. and .75).

I thought the rice paper looked like bubble wrap and tasted pretty bland; perhaps an acquired taste?

Another of the tractors/cart conveyances.

We then drove to Wat Ek Phnom.

After this building near the wat had finished being used by UNICEF, it was donated to Australian volunteers who teach English, provide snacks, day care etc to local children.

The above photos are at the Australian run volunteer program.

The Wat was built in 2001

This local tourist police officer wanted us to pay to enter the wat but Happy asked him why we should pay when nothing is ever done to improve the wat, so we didn't!

More views from the tuk tuk.

Happy very kindly invited us to visit his home after seeing Wat Ek Phnom; this adorable 3 week old is Happy's niece. We saw hammocks being used all over rural Cambodia not only for sleeping children but also for adults too; generally the hammocks were located very close to the streets so that roadside sellers could sell their wares at the same time as keeping an eye on the children or napping themselves!

Sorry this picture is upside down. Thought you might like to see the inside of Happy's home but be careful and don't put a crink in your head!

Many generations live together with Happy, his wife and 4 year old daughter in their home. The sweet girl is eating a very small 3" banana above. In our 3 weeks in Cambodia, we only ever saw and ate these mini bananas. Sure would be hard making a lot of loaves of banana bread! His in-laws live and cook in one area; he, his wife and daughter in another and brothers and their wive in another. Happy's siblings and parents live about 1km away across the river. His in-laws were out cutting rice and picking oranges on their nearby plantations and groves, Happy said.

I asked Happy how they get mail as I never saw any mail boxes ANYWHERE in all our travels over 3 days in the BB area and also NO house numbers and very rarely any street names. He explained that people don't move at all and that everyone in the village knows where everyone else lives and therefore be able to tell the post office employees where a particular family lives.

Happy's daughter was glued to the TV the whole time we were there, just like so many 4 year olds anywhere else. She had fallen three days earlier and broken her left ankle. Happy and his wife were still waiting to take her to an "old man" (a medicine man possibly?) before they would take her to a "real" doctor. More on the state of pediatric medicine in Cambodia in a later post.

Saw thousands of Cambodian children in our 3 weeks there riding to school on bikes, generally two to a bike too. The bikes were often mammoth as you'll see in my later photos - I don't know how they rode such long distances on such big bikes when also carrying the weight of younger siblings too. Happy explained that kids go to school for 4 hours in the morning and then for 2 hours in the afternoon after a 3 hour break. All the kids wear uniforms: white shirts or blouses and navy shorts or skirts for boys and girls respectively. I remember being amazed how pristine their uniforms always appeared to be when they live in what we would call extremely basic homes or huts with dirt floors, generally no windows, etc.

After Happy had dropped us at the end of our half day tour, Steven and I enjoyed sitting down for our first Western meal in a LONG time. We ate delicious chicken and turkey burger/sandwiches and yummy French Fries (heaven Valerie!!) at the Gecko Cafe, a fair trade restaurant I had read about in a tour book. We remarked to each other this was the third day in a row we had not seen any Western tourists at all except for one woman on the Bamboo train and in the Killing Caves.

The whole restaurant and kitchen above were spotless; nothing at all like any of the other restaurants we had eaten in before this in Cambodia. We were glad that we had begun taking our malaria pills the day before we entered the country!

One view from our roof top table on the patio. Can you imagine having to figure which wire needed repairing from this jumble of wires?

Never seen a bill suggesting a tip for both the chefs and server - makes sense though.

Heaven on earth - a real and positively swanky Western bathroom in the restaurant!

We stopped at this bakery every day in BB after Happy had taken us there our first day; there's Steven at the counter looking through his fanny pack to pay for his goodies. They had small baguettes we'd make a point of buying before Happy dropped us off every night at the guesthouse - we ate a few of those with strawberry jam, tea and apples from the market for dinner every night as we were tired from being out all day and I had a bad cold by then too. Interesting pricing system at the bakery - the baguette price went up significantly FOR US after our first day there because we were foreigners. We didn't try the positively decadent raisin buns and sweet rolls til our last day in BB - can't tell you how much my mouth waters just thinking of those!

After lunch we finally went INTO the local market for the first time after just driving past it day after day.

I finally understood one meaning of the phrase "sweat shops" after seeing these men and women sewing.

I had my peeling fingernail polish (that had been put on in Chiang Mai) taken off here in the market; it cost all of .25! Speaking of money, the Cambodian currency is riel, as I've mentioned previously. BUT the riel is completely interchangeable for USD in the sense that all people pay in either riel or USD OR a combination of both, for any item throughout Cambodia. When getting money out of an ATM for example, you only can get USD, NOT Cambodian riels! Every store or street vendor, etc always used a straight exchange rate of 4000 riels to the USD; we'd get the change in riel or USD or a combination of both; in a store with a cash register, the final price would come up in both riel AND USD so you could easily choose how you wanted to pay.

Had read online months before going that other travelers' favorite experience in BB was going to this circus so we made a point of going too. The circus is a Cambodian NGO founded in 2004; the school has 1500 students ages 8 and up and classes are taught in visual art, music, theater, graphic design and animation as well as regular academic classes. In addition, they have both child protection and child care programs.

As you can see, it was a small cozy theater; there were a number of Westerners there (don't know where they had been before that as we sure hadn't seen them!); we saw the Australian girls on the left above 2 days later with their parents on our long boat ride down to Siem Reap but more on that in a day or so!