Fine Khmer cooking and Angkor Wat

From our homestay we caught a bus to Siem Reap to see Cambodia's Taj Mahal and Great Wall combined, Angkor Wat. It is one of the man made wonders of the world, and the pride and joy of Cambodia. Every Cambodia is expected to visit Angkor at least once in their lifetime if they can (although few can afford it), much like Muslims are expected to travel to Mecca if it is in their means.
Siem Reep is definitely a tourist town, and is far more like one of the Thai Islands than other places in Cambodia we have been. It is also swarming with fair trade shops and NGO's attempting to redistribute some of the money flooding in from foreigners in a way that actually benefits locals. The temples themselves are about 20 km or less away from the town so every morning a flood of motodops, motorcycles, and huge tour buses rush down the road for a day of roaming around the main temples. Making their way through the exhaust and dirt kicked up by these vehicles are also the few tourists who opt for bikes, and Kara and I were members of this brave group.
The area around most of the temples is still jungle for the most part with areas around the temples themselves cleared. Many of the temples actually have trees growing out of the crumbling stone structures and lichen growing over carvings of gods and other creatures. It looks like something out of an Indiana Jones film, as long as you can mentally block out the group of twenty or so tourists filing past led by a Khmer guide speaking fluent German, French, Korean, English, or some other language.
After three days of biking around and climbing over crumbling temples we had had our fill of temples. Angkor is huge enough that given the time a week could be devoted to leisurely explore the hundreds of remains that dot the area. Rather than go to see more we instead spent our fourth day taking a cooking class and attending a really great photo festival. The cooking class was at a vegetarian restaurant which gave us a chance to see how to cook vegetarian versions of the generally meat heavy Khmei food.
Our next stop was Battambang and to get there we took a slow boat through the waterways that are created by the monsoons. The water engulfs trees and whole villages which have been built on stilts in preparation,. Many homes are simply boats or houses with enough tires attached to the edges that they are capable of floating above the rising monsoon rains. When we stopped for lunch at a floating restauraunt we noticed small children in about five different canoes paddling themselves through the water in their school uniforms. Most kids walk or bike to school around here but these eight year olds get themselves there with boat and paddle.
Battambang itself doesn't really offer much excitement. It is the second largest city in Cambodia but that is not saying much. We took another cooking class, but this time were able to prepare the dishes ourselves and of course visited the local market for ingredients. In Cambodia this is always an adventure because of that variety of creative protein options on display. I was happy to be cooking vegetarian versions of the dishes. We made amok, lok lak, and soup. I must say I make a pretty good Khmei cook.