Sisophon to Battambang

We left the Nasa Hotel in Sisophon at daybreak. The scenery became more lush as we continued south. I was happy to have some shade. Breakfast was fried rice and soup at a roadside restaurant, along with a stick of roasted bamboo stuffed with sticky rice, coconut, dried fruit, and sugar.

We passed a wedding procession. The parade streamed down the side of the nation’s busiest highway (two lanes) to a wedding venue. A photographer was lining up the parents outside the front door. Cambodian fashion is serious business when it comes to wedding attire.

One thing I was concerned about when planning a cycling trip in Cambodia was the quality of roadside toilets. Every one I have seen, even behind the most humble house, is immaculately clean. They are of the squatter variety, with a water reservoir and a bucket to flush it. Masuda-sensei told me that he saw one man taking his shoes off to clean it.

On one pit stop, we had some fresh coconut juice and were invited into a family’s home. The mother went out back and took a long pole with a net on the end and pulled down a few sugar apples. They were delicious. Sugar apples, along with lychees, tamarinds, coconut, and tiny bananas have been my favorite fruits on this trip.

I saw a roadside vendor selling barbecued rat. We stopped to talk with her. Behind her was a thatched roof hut where locals can buy beer and chow down. Our guide said he had never tried it, but our driver said he was a big fan. They catch the rats in the rice paddies. Some were quite large. Masuda-sensei asked the vendor why she was wearing a red sweater. She said that red was her favorite color.

We reached Battambang at noon. It’s Cambodia’s second city and it retains a French colonial atmosphere with the old Art Deco buildings and riverside promenade. It would have been nice to spend a couple more days there. At the restaurant next to my hotel, they were playing a Khmer version of “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Checking in to the hotel, I spoke to a fellow American for the first time in a while. He said he was from Northern Michigan. I asked if he was a Yooper (from the Upper Peninsula, aka, the U.P.). He laughed and said not quite; he was a Troll. Sometimes you have to go to Southeast Asia to learn about the Midwest of America.

This Art Deco central market was built in the 1930s under the French Public Works Department, French architect Jean Desbois and engineer Louis Chauchon, the same people responsible for Phnom Penh Central Market and Ban Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. It was similar to the Central Market in Pursat as well. Read more about it at Cambodia Trains.

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