What a fun few days in Battambang. I arrived late in the evening and met friends at a local bar for a ‘bon voyage’ party. This is a group of volunteers I met in Siem Reap and they are all wrapping up their time in Cambodia and getting ready to set out for some travels. It was a fairly early night for me as I needed to dry out after my time in Sihanoukville. We got up the following morning and hired a tuk tuk that had been recommended. Tony the tuk tuk driver is the shiznito and I highly suggest that you use him if you go to Battambang. He will take you to do anything and everything, speaks great English and has a good sense of humor. We started at the only winery in Cambodia which wasn’t much of a winery at all. The two kinds they had tasted more like red wine vinegar than red wine….the brandy was good though so I bought a bottle and we headed out for some adventure eating.
We had heard that Tony can take you to eat snake so we asked about it and he obliged. After cruising out of town for a bit and down a dirt road we pulled up to our jungle restaurant with an amazing view of the rice fields and nature. We selected a few snakes from a barrel and they began to cook them up. Snake was difficult to eat and had a lot of bones. The liver tastes like any other liver and the meat doesn’t have much flavor. The lemon-pepper dipping sauce was delish though and in no time we were grubbin on the skin and everything. Then we decided to try some fried jungle rat. This isn’t the kind you find behind the fridge at home, these beasts live in the wild and can grow quite large. They were gutted then butterflied then deep fried and at first tasted like turkey…then the meat didn’t taste so good. Again we tried the liver which tasted like liver. Next was our huge snake plate consisting of chopped snake with basil, pepper and lemongrass…SO GOOD! Then we decided to try heron…yeah that pretty white bird flying in the distance…GET OVER HERE!! Tony convinced me to eat the head and after his tutorial, I gave it a shot….super crunchy and the brains had a funny consistency. Also ate the heart and liver. The heron was fried too and had a ‘bird like’ flavor.
We rented a moto that evening and I had my first Cambodian driving experience. The best description of the traffic there is that it flows like a river. No attention to signs, signals and lanes but flowing perfectly. The fact is that if there is an opening then you have to take it and can’t hesitate. We became regulars at the local bar and the owner was quite entertaining. The first night they had a kiddy pool with little floating fish and magnet fishing poles. Late in the evening he ran out from behind the bar with only his underwear on and belly flopped in the pool!@! Then he was pretending to be a shark..all hilarious.
The following day I took the moto out to the bamboo railroad but got a little lost. Not sure what I was expecting to see (a huge neon arrow and sign reading ‘This way to BAMBOO RAILROAD’) but I didn’t see anything that looked like the right way. Turns out I was given bogus directions from the moto spot and also that there are several set up in Battambang. Basically anywhere that the railroad is still intact is now being used as a ‘bamboo railroad’ which means they put a bamboo platform on some wheels and roll it down by motor about 15km. Fun experience but nothing crazy and a bit expensive. I wouldn’t say it is a ‘must do’ at all.
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