Cooking The Books has a nice blog post (with a picture taken in Battambang province) about Cambodian street food.

The markets of Cambodia are full of freshly killed and skinned frogs whose bodies seem completely oblivious to those two facts and carry on hopping around in a pointless bid for freedom. On the streets you see them deep fried in an orange batter, which never appealed too much, and in this form, splayed and stuffed.

Energetic travelers Matt and Debz continue their trip from Phnom Penh (where they wrote about their visit to Cambodia’s S-21) to Battambang. For the complete travel note with beautiful photographs, please take a look at this.

Cambodia is actually not an industrialized country; this nation does not manufacture automobiles. But to many people’s surprise, imported used-vehicles can be fixed and continued to be used nation-wide. That said, Cambodia’s railways were destroyed during the civil war, and people have to make something out of the damaged system. It comes to this much known bamboo train, a renovated transportation system for a small number of passengers and goods.

The Bamboo Train is something that is made possible due to the badly maintained railway system in Cambodia. The government is in the process of modernizing the railways throughout the country and, whether inadvertently or not, is going to put an end to one of Battambang’s most enjoyable experiences.

What’s else would you do aside from pay a visit to Cambodia’s magnificent, ancient Angkor Wat? What about Battambang?
Battambang is Cambodia’s second-largest city; it’s the main hub of the Northwest connecting the entire region with Phnom Penh and Thailand.

It’s tiny. Battambang itself has nothing special about it: the food was sub par at best, beggars abound, particularly in the market (this was the first time I had someone stand next to me constantly begging for money for the duration of my meal-make that 3 someones at a table of 6) and it’s a dirty place. It’s the journey there that is quite the experience. A bus from Siem Reap to Battambang costs just over $4 while taking a boat ride costs at least four times as much, but it is worth every penny.

On ‘Lives of Wander’ blog, Jeff wrote about traveling to Battambang to Siem Reap by boat:

But wanting to have the experience, we opted to take the boat from Siem Reap to Battambang, through floating villages and along some of the most scenic waterways of Cambodia. We were told it would last between five and six hours. And for five hours it was great pretty great. We passed slowly through countless villages along the river banks full of local life. There were floating restaurants, floating shops, floating churches. It was beautiful.

Began a song by Sin Sisamuth, Cambodia’s most well-known singer of all time. The song tells the lifestyle of Cambodians in Battambang, its beautiful nature, and its romantic scene.

We stepped off the bus in Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest city. Motorbike taxi drivers waited to ferry us to our hotel. Normally, I would have rejected their services, but the midday heat along with their offer to drive us for free hooked me. My driver’s name was Sambath, or Bath, and he spoke immaculate English. He asked me the usual questions: how long have you been in Cambodia, how long will you stay in Battambang, where are you from? I told him, as I tell everyone, “I’m an American, but I live in Japan.” He smiled and said an American living in Japan had just stayed with him, in the homestay he ran. My ears perked up.

Rat meat is not food to most people, but not to some in Battambang, Cambodia’s second-largest city. Without surprise, the province is widely known for its producitivty rice output, where rice fields are home to rats. And During the Khmer Rouge era, from 1975 to 1979, most Cambodians got used to this delicious food.

And with rice comes rats – grain-fattened paddy rats that connoisseurs say are delicious barbecued, boiled or roasted in a heady mixture of lemongrass, turmeric and garlic.
‘The last rice has just been harvested, so the rats are ready. They are coming onto the market now, and the next three months while they are in season are very good business for us,’ says restaurateur Chhrut Hen, 24.

Blogger at Holding Hands in Phnom Penh lets us know that world traveling cyclists, Ben and Gen, are now in Cambodia after making a long trip to travel the world.

Ben and Gen are cyclists and are 10 months into a world tour. They estimate that they will be traveling by bicycle for another 2 years before getting back home to Quebec in Canada. We met through a website called Warm Showers, which I joined after finishing my own bicycle tour from England to Gibraltar, and as I watched them rolling away this morning, down the road towards the sea, I was reminded of my own promise to myself that I would do another, longer, cycle tour someday.

Known to many for its fame in many other things, Battambang also offers beautiful lanscape of life on the river.

When I went to Cambodia last month, I took a boat ride from the temples at Ankor to a little city called Battambang. It was interesting to see the villages, some floating on the river, and the people and how they travel. The boat with all the people was part of a 3 boat caravan apparently going to a wedding. Some people were singing and partying on the first boat. The big tower on the other picture is a contraption used for fishing.

Cambodia is no Malaysia. What are doing in Cambodia? Do you Khmer/Cambodian food and cheap stuff?

The food is good — I’m eating a lot more haha. 2 servings of rice and being more adventurous than usual with food tasting. Kenny’s tried frogs and god knows what else. I haven’t reached that level yet hah. Loads of pictures to show you all and even more stories to tell…
Oh and all the beef and pork is strangely tough. Don’t know what they feed the cows and pigs here. Scenery on the way from Battambang to Phnom Penh was nice. Loads of nonsense to see. Better than Malaysia hahahaha.