Battambang

As some of you may know, I spent the last week in Battambang, a Cambodian province.  I had to go for work, but Mike, Kyle and I went up Friday night so that we could explore a little bit.  The bus ride was cold, but uneventful...well, I did lose my crappy cellphone.  Saturday was pretty mellow we mostly just walked around the city and napped.  I think we were all a little tired from the week.

Sunday was much more exciting.  In the morning, we were supposed to go kayaking on the river.  We
caught a tuk-tuk out to the kayaking place, which was about 5 miles outside of town.  We showed up and the place looked really empty.  However, the tuk-tuk driver assured us that someone was there and left.  Of course no one was there and of course we didn't have the number of either the tuk-tuk driver or the guide, so we had to walk back to town in the middle of the day.  Luckily, someone saw us and called our guide and he came and picked us up after about 40 minutes.  Things definitely improved in the afternoon though.  We rented motobikes to drive out Wat Banon, an old temple located outside of Battambang city.  It was so much fun.  I didn't crash once and even went like 50 kph (31mph)!  I'm so ready to get a motorcycle :)  The wat was really cool too.  It is located on the top of a hill.  You have to climb 300 odd steps to get to the top, which kinda sucked, but then I saw a little old lady walking down the steps and figured if she could make it up than I had better too.

During the week, I met with a number of interesting NGOs and individuals who are working in Battambang province.  It was nice to meet with people who are actually implementing projects, they usually have a slightly different perspective.  Wednesday we were invited to visit the village learning centers of Bahai organization.  Their objective is to teach morality through English...quite interesting.  The road to the village was a little rough in a tuk-tuk; I almost bounced out a couple times.  The kids at the centers were adorable...of course.  On Thursday, we went to the Catholic church in town to hunt down a jesuit priest that many people had mentioned.   We weren't disappointed.  The man was extremely insightful and very forward thinking.  That afternoon I met with another priest who was equally interesting.  Everyone there was so nice.  I spent the afternoon hanging out with the kids, all land mine victims, who live on the church grounds and in the evening I was lucky enough to watch them perform classic Cambodian dances with the children from another Catholic church in the area.  The kids, about 50 of them, are preparing for a trip to South Korea where they will perform.

I headed back to Phnom Penh on Friday.  I was sad to leave Battambang, because it is much quieter and greener than Phnom Penh, but I was excited to have clean clothes.  I was also sad that I didn't get to meet up with Phasy's, a former student, family.  Hopefully I will make it back and be able to speak Khmer (fingers crossed).  The language acquisition is going slowly.  There are so many characters and sounds to learn, but I am determined to succeed.

p.s.  more pics to be posted soon, it takes me awhile to upload them.