Battambang and kep 2016

Our last day in Siem Reap came just in time. Our kids' bodies appeared to suffer from the overdose of chemicals in the swimming pool. Now three days later Amelie's hair starts to feel again like hair. And no longer like dried straw and we have found the clue to her mysteriously burning red fingertips.

Mr Google says it is typical for kids her age who spend more time with their hands hanging on the concrete border of the swimming pool as they are starting to swim alone. But the boys' skin is still really harmed and irritated in their neck, underarms and legs . especially sensitive skin boy Matthias. So we even used the neck protection integrated in their spare sunhats. Merci #decathlon #tati Olivia et #tonton Axel (on peut dire ça? - sorry #tioMil)
So that place will be referred to as the hotel with the bad swimming pool. And I can't contradict them.

So off to battambang. They say the boat trip to battambang is one of the most beautiful of whole asia. They say it's an adventure. You start on the lake and then enter the river. They say you get to see the real Cambodia. Then they say it s a wooden little boat. That traveling time depends on water level. Anywhere between 6/7 up to 10/hours. Water is low now, yes.
So , diehard family Van Meerbeeck wisely decided to take the Mekong express... A minivan that is. There where dolphins painted on the inside , little blue curtains (Bill happy) and not all seats where taken. Me happy, everybody happy. Merry Christmas by the way, as that was on the 25th!

Battambang would be the city of children's activities in our trip. We started the day with a ride on the localy world famous bambootrain.

That is I think the closest we will ever get to a flying carpet.  Driven by a motorbike kind of motor, two axes on the rails, a chain and off you go. Whenever you cross oncoming traffic tthe one with the smallest number of people on it, has to make way (read : dismount it s train, put it aside, wait for the other one to pass, and rebuild your train.) Maybe it is also the closest you ll get to basic mechanics for kids. If the idea is to see some of the nature and land, forget it.

The grass and bushes around the rail are too high. But if you are sensitive to details and you manage to dream the story around, then we might have intercepted some of the cambodian life on our little train, starting with the lady who lifted with us on the first few minutes with a little plastic bag filled with snakes. Then we slowed down to pick up two boys carrying what must have been lunch for their dad working in the fields, as they got off in the middle of the (invisible) rice fields at the place where a man was sleeping in a hammock. And when we crossed a bridge, two kids jumped of it, right into the -what must be - refreshing little river.

Now of course, you cross more tourists than daily life episodes; and as i said, you don't get to see a lot of landscape, just the bumpy rail speeding underneath you, at the end of the trip you stop in the middle of the souvenirshop, and you are informed well in advance that you are allowed to tip your 'driver'. Though at the end , after escaping the little shop, we had the usual twin questions, but this time with very enthusiastic reactions, cause the girl was herself also a twin. That made for the "you take picture, we take picture' of the two twin couples and amelie.

We accepted our nice tuktuk driver peter s suggestion to go and see a crocodile farm. It wasn't on our list, but Amélie understood the driver (who of course had asked directly to her in English if she wanted to touch a baby crocodile.... Don't need to be a super polyglot powered girl to answer yes to that) she reminded us we had said it was going to be kids' excursion so we went.

They touched some small crocodiles and then we went to see the real stuff. Crocodiles (way too much of them in a few concrete 'pools') of up to 40 years old , each of them worth a little fortune (5 to 600dollar) in skin in Thailand and meat in Vietnam.

We closed the kids day by going to the Phare Ponleu Selpak circus. They also run shows in Siem reap but are originally from Battambang. It is a complete project for educating in performers skills, they have schools nursery, arts, musical, etc...

The show of about an hour was great, the kids where scotched to the scene, smiling and clapping, and almost crying when they understood one actor was left out in the storyline. It was a basic storyline about a group of friends , a soft love story, but also the mix of traditional culture and new modern influences. Mixing the import of headphones, iPhone and others with some old traditional fishermen dances... Probably a very real topic for this actual generation !
After that we went to a good restaurant, yet another one said to be about training people and investing profit to the community. (Reeeeaaally good food!) Of course, at 21 o'clock after 1,5hours of being seated more or less in silence, our kids where not going to make that the easiest calmest dinner ;-) when a cockroach we had seen already in the bathroom came to the restaurant part they started chasing it singing 'La cucaracha, LA cucaracha, ya no puede caminar,....' Sorry people!

I think we could have stayed for another day, easily. And tuktuk driver peter wouldn't have mind I guess. But the seaside is calling! As it is a long road to our final cambodian destination, we cut the road by staying a night in Phnom Penh.
As real "whoesies" (softies) we skip the 8hours big bus and opt for the minivan (only 5hours). We start off being alone. After an hour the inevitable happens, and it starts to stop along the road to pick up people. Luckily, never more than the available seats. Of course, just when Bill fell asleep they stopped for lunch, which really was fine with us (a bit early though, 11am, so we skipped) some digestions sounds left aside...;-)

We stay one night in Phnom Penh in Villa Borann close to the big playground next to the Royal Palace. Our kids are kind, playful and smiling, as always

 Next day, on the 28th we drive west to the beach, the little town of Kep sur mer will be our last spot in Camboia and of 2015. It used to be the preferred coast town of the French then later of the Khmer upperclass, which made it the number one target of the Khmer Rouge. Still today all this history can be told with some old villas, abandoned, destroyed and with more bulletholes than people living in them.

Based at kep lodge just on the border of the national park,we make some small excursions

Crab market

to the (empty) salt lakes (January February is when activity starts), the pepper field, the butterfly garden, the locally worldfamous crab market, Amelie showing the selfie concept to some kids, meeting up with one of Pierre s colleague and friends,

enjoying some beautiful sunsets and sip some cocktails at the sailing club, venue where we will spend New Year's Eve (well at least the short version of it, till 22 o clock) 

Sailing club kep

Wine made for us / named after our blog

**dont get me wrong , we had our share of kids terror as always, maybe as a highlight the big wooden boat used as decoration in the sailing club that fell down "tout seul" with our three kids in it. Or the sand wars just before dinner ending up with our kids punished in the corner, and the strange Look on the faces of the serving staff. Cause yes, we are on travels and yes they are kids and we are parents, so we can't afford to "let go" everything without educating once in a while... 

After 4 nights in kep, on the first of january, we flew out of Cambodia, back to Bangkok. Cambodia has been great! Beautiful, safe, rather easy, .... An incredible nice and smooth encounter with Asia!