Yesterday we made our way to Battambang, via a rural route that took us through a village of potters. We visited one home where the potter demonstrated her hand throwing method of making pots. In lieu of a potters wheel she placed the clay on a stool and circled it, tamping it down and smoothing it with a stick.

Battambang is named for a legend about a farmer who used a magic stick to overthrow a tyrannical king.

In the evening we tuk tuked (in the pouring rain naturally) to a couple of markets where we were encouraged to try local barbecued delicacies: frog and rat! The frog tasted like chicken, but that’s where I had to draw the line. There were some of us out to advertise our group name, Intrepid, but I was not counted among them.

Following those culinary delights we visited a mountain with a cave where thousands of bats made their nocturnal exit at sunset, a fascinating sight!

We then had dinner at a local family’s house where they prepared us a Cambodian BBQ; only chicken, beef and vegetables, nothing exotic.

When I was in my 20’s I went on a bike trip through the UK with my friend Nancy. Back in the day, we thought it was hilarious that the Britts used the expression “on your bike!” to mean “get going!”. To my delight, it was not raining this morning when we got going through the Cambodian countryside on rented bikes. We visited local families who fed us tropical fruit and demonstrated the making of rice paper, rice wine and bamboo sticky rice. Except for being drenched in sweat due to the humidity, and the fact that my bike was too small, it was a welcome break from buses, planes and tuk tuks.