Battambang

Feb 16th, feeling the midway exhaustion on all my projects and social life in siem reap, i ask Sophat if he wants to go visit his family in Battambang, A city south of Tonle Sap lake. we drive our little 100cc motos and leave Puok around 6pm. this is a very bad idea!! most of the road to Battambang is in very poor condition. full of dirt, rocks and holes and we can't even see them in the nighttime. we arrive at Sophat's wife's village Kor Kosh at 3 in the morning with our bodies aching and sore from driving and covered in dirt.
6 am, wake up to the sound of village, roosters and children, there's a breakfast served in a front yard for villagers. Pamera and Arachana, Sopat's 2 daughters see me awake and immediately want to play. Everybody's smiling, kind and curious about me. such a nice way to wake up, a little more sleep would have been better, though.
then we drive into town and i get myself a room, in center of the town across from the market, up on 5th floor with a balcony so i can see the entire activity of this Cambodian town. (Siem Reap is not as big as Battambang, but overpopulated with tourists that you don't feel like it's in Cambodia) i take a nap for a couple of times, then bring my guitar to the park by the river and watch sunset.

Train station in Battambang. Pretty much a slum for the homeless family. A pack of children play with a cardboard box. when i walk up to them with camera, they call out "hello" "what's your name?" then i say "my name is Toshiro, what's your name?" they reply, "my name's tochiro, what's your name?" local people use train tracks to drive bamboo platform rigged on trainwheels.

This is a Chinese new year weekend. Sunday the 18th, i wake up 5 in the morning to the massive sound of fire cracker shaking my 5th floor window, and from then there's no going back to sleep. On my way to breakfast i run into a parade for the new year. This is a year of wild bore, Morgan!

Our quick day and a half off is up, Sophat and I start driving back the same road again. Sophat takes Chey's mother who happens to be in Battambang and needs ride back. 60km up to Sisophone, it is a smooth road and we stop for photos etc. Many signs like this one "give your weapons up" can be seen all over the country.
Then after Sisophone it's another 100 km on the notorious Highway 6 (see February 11th posting 'Highway 6 rebuilt') no bridges are accessable, full of dirt, pebbles and holes. once again all three of us are covered in dust with sore body when we get back to Puok.