What we did & ate in Cambodia (III)

After 2 weeks back of coming back to the hustle and bustle life in Singapore, we miss Cambodia already! Cambodia was a really good rest stop for both of us. We slept and slept the first few days in Phnom Penh. We had 9 hrs of sleep each night, with a 2 hr nap in the afternoon in between meals and citytours. We hadn't had soooo much rest for such a long time!!!! Thank God for that recharging rest stop...!!!!!

Of course when the BC team arrived, we didn't sleep as much and it was down to work... We headed from Phnom Penh to Battambang on a 5 hr bus ride to get our hands dirty and our butts cracking.

But not without plenty of good meals along the way. ;)

Here's White Rose Restaurant - it was featured in Lonely Planet

Ang Mohs spotted! Must have been led here by the Lonely planet guidebook...

Fried Vietnamese Roll - uber awesome!!! I like!

I ordered Beef Stew with noodles... It was quite yummy too!

And must-have: Mango Shake!!!

Then we headed to visit the church that U. David works with in Battambang... PEACE church...

Exterior of the church compound....

The church "auditorium" which members gather every Sun to worship... The roof has been leaking but a kind soul (Cambodian granny in her 80s who is currently staying in the USA) has donated some money to them to get it built... :)

The female pastor (in orange) and some of the youth workers...

This is random... But I spotted a flatten frog at the front of the church... :P

We checked into Khemara Hotel (apparently there's a east and west wing)...

At USD$15 per night, we weren't expecting such wonderful lodging!

Here's the one that half the team stayed in... (the newer wing)

Here's where the other half of the team stayed...

Our room... SOOOOO spacious!!!

Errrr... Of coz the view out of that "Khemara Paradise" was the real world... (shot from our hotel balcony)

Check out the names of some familar food from the room service menu....

Congee is now Cognee.....

But here's the best one: FRENCH fried.... Frying the Frenchs doesn't sound very welcoming....

At night, we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant...

 Here's what we get when we order Kang Kong. ALL STALKS!!!! Whatever happened to the leaves?!

Apparently Khmers do not appreciate the leafy parts of the Kang Kong vegetable... What a waste...  

The next day we headed to the schools to start our de-licing... Wrote about that episode here

And here's me in action, snapping photos of all the children!

 After the tiring morning, we had lunch at a random local eatery before we continued with the 2nd school in the afternoon. Here's the grubs that were served up, ala local style...

And I guess, uncle David was right... We couldn't really get used to the taste of the local cuisine...  I didn't dare eat most of the dishes, Randy, however, surprised me with his bravery to eat them.

 Samuel doing a "head-butt" shot (again). Look behind us, that's the interior of the eatery. The owner has his bed in the same place too.

 The next day, we travelled past rocky roads, got our bus stuck in a mudpit (DRAMA) in our trip up to one of the village schools that U. David set up.

 Interior of the school... The structure is almost falling apart... :( 

Shortly after snapping this shot, we received some bad news on the way back to the hotel. So Randy and I decided to head back to Phnom Penh with U. David and his family while the BC team continued with another village the next day.

After a high speed ride on the bus, we got back to U. David's home.... 

We had one more dinner with them before they flew back to Singapore. We tried a really really AWESOME Korean restaurant called Bi-Won.

Of coz, this is a restaurant that only expatriates and foreigners patron.

If you haven't had your lunch/dinner, the following pictures will make you feel very hungry!!!!!!

Our individual serving of salad...

Potato Pancake

Cute Rice balls...

Potato Salad

More side dishes!!!!! (Right: Seasoned "hums")

Left: Korean hotplate beef.... Right: Beef Bimbimbap (Hot stone beef Rice)

My fav part of eating Bibimbap is to have them all mixed up nicely... Yumz...

Beef in stock... The stock is super duper nice!

Grilled Fish... Very fresh!

We had a whole table filled with food! And they were coming at us faster that we can whopp them down... :P

Sweet ending to the zipper-bursting meal.... I almost could not walk!

After U. David and family set off for the airport the next morning, we had one more day in Phnom Penh before it was our turn to head home. We freshened up ourselves and took a 20 mins walk to the nearest mall (not that there's many such malls around) - Sovanna Shopping Centre.

In Cambodia, the retail giant here is called LUCKY. So there's LUCKY supermarkets, LUCKY burger, and many other LUCKY outlets...

We had our brunch at Master Grill... Randy lurves fastfood...

The fried chicken was quite delicious really. Crispy skin but juicy chicken! Better than Kentucky!

After brunch, we  walked around the mall. The mall's kinda like the Textile Centre or Golden Mile in Singapore. We finished walking within 10 mins. *yawns*

So we headed to the arcade in the mall and played "Photohunt" and other games... It's always sweetness for us, when we go to the arcade, act like teenagers and played silly games together.... :) :)

It was a great trip for us... and we brought many wonderful memories back. Now back to the stressful side of life...!!!