Eating in Cambodia - Cambodia blog entry #22

I know that most of you had your big turkey dinner yesterday and probably don’t want to think about food today. We’re having our dinner tomorrow, so I’m still looking forward to turkey, taters, and stuffin’.

And since I’m thinking about eats, here are random pictures of some of the food we ate on our trip to Cambodia. The food at the volunteer house was simple but good. Reminded me a lot of what we eat in Kenya.

Breakfast at the house was usually fruit, fried eggs, pastries and bread of some sort.  

Most of the time, though, we ate out at various restaurants, all of them excellent. 

I’ll try to tell you what we ate where, but it’s not worth it for me to waste a lot of brain cells on it. Just go along with whatever I got here. 

And my travel partner is on another trip this week, so I don’t have to worry about her chiming in and correcting me. Hee, hee.

This was the chicken wrap I had at Eleven One Kitchen, Phnom Penh. 

I think H has the fish amok, or one of the "amok" dishes. She liked those a lot. 

D had some beef kabobs. 

And I rarely knew what K ordered - usually something either hot or weird. And no, I didn't take a picture of everyone's dish at every meal. 

Chicken sandwich at Rikitikitavi's in Kampot. 

Lasagna at the Monkey Republic in Kampot the next day. 

No idea what or where this was, but I loved when they served the rice in a little teepee.

I can't remember where this was at, but it was something that K ordered. That stuff on the left that looks like rice with flecks of red in it? The red stuff is hot red ants. I tried some. Yikes! I couldn't get the water in me fast enough. 

Duck Salad with something like mango juice to drink at the Cafe Indochina - a very fancy place. 

Our last official night out. Ate at another fancy place, the Titantic, and I had the water buffalo with baby corn, because I wanted to try something different that I knew I'd like. 

But you still can't beat comfort food. This was the French toast for breakfast at the Darling Pub Hostel in Siem Reap. Umm!

Beauty Beyond Belief at Banteay Srei - Cambodia blog entry #21

Monday, September 23, we had three more temples to tour on our agenda. We set out early - not as early as the day before, though. This day we had time for a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The French toast was delicious – more on that on an upcoming blog post. 

By far I would say that thet Banteay Srei temple was the most beautiful we visited.

Considered by many to be the crown jewel of all the Angkor area temples, Banteay Srei is cut from stone of a pinkish hue and includes some of the finest stone carving anywhere on earth.

Work on it began in 967 CE, and though it is one of the smallest sites, it is exquisite.  

Banteay Srei is the only major temple which was not commissioned by rulers. Credit for its construction is given to the courtiers named Vishnukumara and Yajnavaraha, who served as a counsellor to King Rajendravarman II. 

Yajnavaraha dedicated the temple to the Hindu god Shiva and gave it a long, unpronounceable name. Tribhuvanamaheshvara (not that you can pronounce his name either).

The temple's modern name, Banteay Srei—citadel of the women, or citadel of beauty—is probably used to describe the intricacy of the bas relief carvings found on the walls and the small dimensions of the buildings themselves. 

It is a stunning place. 

I expected these guys to come to life any minute and take off on a quest to save the queen, or hunt down Indiana Jones. 

Cooking in Cambodia - Cambodia blog entry #20

After a full – and I mean FULL – day of touring three ancient temples, we rode our tuk tuk back to Siem Reap. It blew my mind that there were still other temple ruins just along the sides of the road. 

Or in the middle of the road. 

We had a quick rest at our hotel, and I took my second shower of the day. Then it was off to Alley West, above the restaurant Crep’Italy, for our Khmer cuisine cooking class. 

After we met with our chef for the evening, Narong, we picked out what we wanted to make from the menu. While her assistant started putting together the food we needed for our recipes, Narong took us to the local food market to educate us on Cambodian produce and seasonings.

Some of the vegetables looked very familiar and some not so much. I wish I could remember it all.

After we got back to the restaurant, I started to work on my appetizer of spring rolls, main course of beef lok lak, and finally sticky rice for dessert. 

Denise had to make the bananas flambe, just to make this happen.  

It was a lot of fun but very hot and tiring. And after cooking it all for two hours, none of us were hungry. 

We all tried a bite of each of our dishes, and it was all very good. But I was too exhausted by then to think of eating more than that. We gave our leftovers to our tuk tuk driver, Sam, and he was very appreciative. Then we took a quick look around the Night Market; I think I bought a coin purse and a skirt there.

Then back to the hotel, where I took my third shower of the day!

Beautiful Bayon Temple - Cambodia blog entry #19

After lunch that Sunday of touring temples, we visited Bayon Temple. In my journal I noted that it was my favorite so far, but after reviewing all the pictures from the three temples we saw that day, it really is an impossible call. They were each beautiful in their own way.

Bayon was huge! One massive building that went on and on and was in decent condition, for its age. 

It’s known for its 54 towers and four faces on each one, totaling 216 serene and smiling stone faces. Bayon is understandably known as the Temple of Faces. 

Built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII, it’s thought that the faces are depictions of him.  

The outer walls are covered in remarkable bas reliefs portraying the life of the local people from warfare to everyday life. 

The detail of these sculptures is extraordinary. 

Maybe I liked this temple the best because of these, each one telling a detailed story.  

Disappointment at Ta Prohm – Cambodia blog entry #18

 

After wandering around the magnificent Angkor Wat temple and grounds for over three and a half hours, we hopped into our tuk tuk for the short drive to Ta Prohm temple. 

Also called the Jungle Temple, it is a sprawling monastic-like complex where much of the jungle overgrowth has been left in place. 

It was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries without mortar, by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and center of learning dedicated to his mother. After it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones. 

The trees eerily growing out of the ruins and the jungle have made it a popular temple with visitors to the area. Unfortunately, I feel, it is also popular for being the site of scenes from the Angeline Jolie movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. 

You can have your picture taken at the classic giant tree where Angeline Jolie stood in the movie. And I found the commercialization disappointing.   

How can a film made in 2001 compare to at temple built over eight hundred years ago? And then call it the Tomb Raider Temple? 

Ok, it was still ridicously cool. And I can only imagine how beautiful it had been in its day.