Badabang in Battambang

Battambang is a small city about 5 hours away from Phnom Penh. It boasts a beautiful riverfront, French architecture, chic restaurants and lively bars. There's an awesome bamboo train ride in town, nice nature, and lots of history!

This is what we hear.  Personally, we didn't see any of this 2 hours we spent in Battambang. Originally, we planned to spend a day our way from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (where the Angkor temples are), but we had not realized immediately upon arrival that the entire city was under water.  So, as soon as we arrived, we scrambled(1) away from the flooding and on to Siem Reap.

Jeremy and Alina,
Nonsense > Flooding


(1) To scramble - (S [inf. verb invented by Jeremy] to leave decidedly and with great haste. (Since we are spending WAY too much time just by ourselves, it is only normal that we should develop our own language. Thank you in advance for your understanding when we get back.)

Bringing Tough Mudder to a whole new level 

Not sure if this gas station was still open

Note how high the water level is on the bus and bikes

That's a bike next to him, in case you can't see

Alina, that girl just never stops modeling  

This is a landmark in Battambang. We have no idea what it is. 

Normally, there is not water here. 

We are putting this picture in a large size so that you can try to spot the person that is on this picture. When you have found him, please circle his head on your screen

Kayaking is Bad for Relationships

After Phnom Penh, we wanted to see Cambodia's countryside.  Since rural Cambodia is far off the beaten path, touring alone is not a great option.  Instead, we paid a guide a lot of money to see empty fields, poor communities, and to eat and sleep on the floor in a wooden hut.

The name of the place we saw is Kratie, a small city on the Mekong, 5 hours northeast of Phnom Penh. We saw the entire city in about an hour, met our guide, and went together to an island in the middle of the Mekong River, where there are more cows than people (sad, skinny, Cambodian cows), attempted to bike through deep mud, and then ate at a local home.

Over the next few days, we saw more cows, a few dolphins (Kratie is home to a large part of the population of critically endangered river dolphins. There are about 85 of these dolphins left in the Mekong and 25 of them live in Kratie).  We also saw devastating flooding, and overall lack of infrastructure.

We also made the mistake of going kayaking. Anybody who has not experienced it before should be warned: kayaking is a very dangerous sport for couples. It can destroy a relationship in record time. You will spend a few hours on a double kayak, stuck with only the other person. A kayak cannot go straight, it will go in a zigzag in the best case, but it is more likely to simply move away from your desired direction. You will blame each other for this, and explain to the other person why they are doing everything wrong. It will be very hot at first, and you will not have a hat or any way to give you some shade, so you will be miserable. It will then start pouring all of a sudden. You will get soaked and wonder if thunder is going to hit you, and you will be miserable. You will be really bored through all of it, and tired, and ready to be done. Also, you will likely get hungry, and therefore hangry.
We are happy to report that we survived this trying experience together, but, we have 2 words to say: NEVER AGAIN.

Jeremy and Alina,
Overcoming Life's Challenges Through Nonsense

Please forgive grammatical errors, post was typed on our iPhone 4 by a foreigner.

The annual boat race was taking place in Kratie that weekend

Alina wanted to participate, but she was told that it is not for girls

We are yet to experience biking on solid ground, without massive amounts of mud.
We are told that it is much easier but less fun.

Obstacle

Jeremy tried to teach a cow how to ride a bike

Most sturdy and cleanest bike ever

Welcome home! this is where we stayed for our first night in Kratie

The living room / sleeping room / hallway / kitchen / ballroom;You will find the bathroom in the little hut outside.
Notice that there are very thin mats on the left. For our second night around Kratie, we were not so lucky as to have a mattress again...

Tiger taming

A monk showed us around a temple

VIP service with a private chauffeur

Alina's favourite: ridiculously cute children

Caption contest: what is the theme of this picture?

Jeremy the mermaid goes dolphin watcing

A "more rustic" homestay. Notice the cows in the background; we used them to stay warm at night. 

Sometimes Alina also lets Jeremy play with RCCs (Ridiculously Cute Children)

"That looks fun I guess", said Alina

 

"Wow, this is going to be great"

Miss Paddle 2013

People were staring at us as we went into our kayak. We thought they were curious about this strange, colorful raft. But they just knew that we were about to experience the most terrifying thing in our lives.

5 minutes into kayaking: we are still having a good time. This will not last.

10 minutes into kayaking: "Pleeeeaaase!! MAKE IT STOP!!"

"Aaaah!! I can't see anything! Where are we??" asked Jeremy

"I have no fucking idea and I fucking hate that shit", Alina noted

"We are definitely going to die here", cried Jeremy. "It is all your fault"

"If you put the toilet seat down once in a while, this would never have happened", retorted Alina

"Stop bickering, kids", begged our guide

In the end, we survived, but only barely

At home in Phnom Penh

Next country: Cambodia.  First stop: Phnom Penh, where the very gracious Kara and Damien hosted us in their apartment.  For the first time in months, we experienced home cooking and just lounging in a living room with wine.  It was spectacular.

We visited several historical sights to learn more about Cambodia's recent history and the Khmer Rouge revolution.  The "Killing Fields", located a few kilometers from the city center, were in particular a very sobering lesson on the massacres that occurred during the Khmer Rouge. In these death camps, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were killed by a revolutionary army, who imagined a brand new, agrarian  society, to which anyone with education or connection to urban centers was seen as a threat. In the name of this twisted, radical vision of Marxism, the Khmer Rouge moved populations out of cities into labor camps in the countryside. Many died of overwork and starvation in these camps, while simultaneously the regime executed all of the country's intelligentsia, its teachers, and anyone wearing glasses (sadly, this is not a joke).  The Killing Fields educates about the latter, the systematic killings committed by the army.

It's rainy season in Cambodia and even its capital is not immune from flash flooding.  On our way back from the Killing Fields, after a heavy downpour that lasted an hour or so, we waded home through knee-deep water.

This is us in the midst of a serious political discussion, of which we had many.

But we took a break from serious discussion.

The theme of this picture is: "Bidet"

2 for 1 drinks => dancing in the streets

We passed through PP again while Kara and Damien were on vacation, so we went on a hot date:

Hot refers to the Indian food. Also, to us. 

Alina and Jeremy,
Something About Nonsense