The most incredible 4 hour boat ride from Battambang to Siem Riep that took 11 hours.

Sunrise, joyful and hopeful with the new day. 7am.

This is what the rural villages all look like.

Fishermen!

found out where pampus grass is from

our boat

fixing the motor, 10am.

too shallow, everyone unload and walk and I'll meet you around the bend (at least that's what we think he said)

wandering through farmer's fields

we see the boat! It's not stopping to get us.

more fields, the farmers kept pointing us in strange directions. Also this area is heavily land mined.

saw some baby chicks on the walk

now we can't see the boat at all. It's so hot out, we have been walking for 45 minutes.

but there was a little stand that sold warm beer! All the other countries on the boat thinks Canada is crazy at this point.

Now we have lost the river completely.

This is David and Megan. David knows how to fix boats. David was our hero.

May as well take a photo

back on the boat! The boat can no longer turn right. The river turns right quite often. Chris took a turn poling the boat along so the driver did not have to keep stopping as we are starting to get a feel for how ling this will take. Approx 2pm.

Boat hit this man's fishing net, he was not thrilled.

Every child we saw in Cambodia waved at us.

I'm actually not very happy here. We are hungry and all nearly out of water.

neighbourhood kids

Chinese style fishing nets, the whole thing opens and goes underwater and then gets pulled up into this shape. Very cool.

really dirty water.

In the floating villages along the river even the livestock live on the water.

Cambodian chips, the chili straws were very good

Stopped for lunch! Filthy water but the fish in it make an excellent curry.

sunset! And we are still on this fucking boat.

Chris being a hero, he got all the guys to take a turn and everyone applauded when each person finished

We finally arrived around 7pm in darkness only to find our "dock" was quite far from the city and had to pay twenty American for the tuk tuks. We shared with a lovely young man from Manchester named Leigh.

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!