Battambang!

Pretty view of leaving Pnomh Penh.

After a very long minivan ride we arrived to this beautiful bed in Battambang. The woodwork here is stunning.

Love is in the air, we just have to breathe.

The Black Buddha

gorgeous archway

I have a thing for trees dripping with vines.

The serpent is a Naga, very prominent on religious works.

Elephants!

Day 2:

Mom and Dad make a graceful exit back to Canada and clean air.

We had to see my parents off, with much sadness. We then found a tuk tuk driver named Sal, I cannot recommend him highly enough. He made Battambang so special for us. Somewhere in these photos I'll be posting his contact info if you ever find yourself in his hood. A good driver makes all the difference in the world. All we asked Sal to do is show us his city, and mentioned we like animals and food.

Handsome dude

beautiful river through town

knew my daughter would love this dress

love in a tuk tuk

roadside stands selling food are everywhere. 

at the "Golden Gate Bridge"

Papayas!

more golden gate bridge

pickling daikon st a lovely farm we went to

lemongrass growing, the entire property smelled amazing

boys swimming at the Muslim village across the river. When the call to prayer went out it sounded so pretty

limes!

next we went to a mushroom farm. They pack fermented rice into bags and the mushrooms grow out the ends and they keep harvesting them for 6 months before they need new bags. Ingenious.

we went to a hilarious winery, these were the only grapevines

very bad wine

from left, ginger juice (delicious!) berry juice, brandy (very good) and wine (awful)

a tree full of fruit bats. Sal hit the tree for us so they would fly around.

Asian cow.

There were so many steps up to this temple, and a little boy wanting money "fanned" us (kind of hitting us with the fan) and chased us up until we gave him money to go away.

Wat Kor temple

I stand by my choice of pants

hehe

these pavillions are everywhere.. you just lay in a hammock and people start bringing you food

The roosters here are beautiful and all different colours

pig farm

Sal drove us to 3 different homes before a cow would let me pet it. He did not know any of the owners but everyone was so friendly

The kids at the cow place, that's rice drying behind me

Lotus flowers. Flowers are left as offerings for Buddha, the fruits and roots are eaten, the stems can be pulled apart to reveal fine threads they make silk from.

To prepare a lotus for Buddha you must tuck in all the petals like so

our next destination

quite the view from up here

killing caves by the temple

I should have not taken this photo, very disrespectful.

They clubbed people and threw them into the cave here

This monkey was baring his teeth at Chris and acting very aggressively, we had a rough time slipping by him

This guy was feeling the monkeys by had, which all the books warn you against. Monkeys are not as friendly as I thought they were.

Hiking up a mountain

In Battambang there is a huge cave full of bats that people sit at the bottom of the mountain to watch them fly out at sunset. Sal knows a place away from the crowds where they actually fly out about 4 feet from your head and the sunset is unreal.

The bats fly out for over an hour, there are millions of them. And no mosquitoes!

This is Sal.

give him a call if you get there!