Cooking Class and Killing Caves in Battambang

Market visit before cooking class — *Market visit before Cooking Class*

Cooking Class at Coconut Lyly

We had booked a cooking class at “Coconut Lyly”, a restaurant in the city centre of Battambang. Together with Lyly and 4 other foodlovers, we visited the local market to buy some of the ingredients, i.e. lemon grass and coconut milk.

Back at the restaurant, we all got an apron and a cutting board with knife and we were ready to start. The class was taught by Sokkim, the head chef of the restaurant. She had a good sense of humor and told us what ingredients we could replace by more Western ones, in case we would not be able to find them in our home countries.

Working hard in the cooking class — *Working hard in the Cooking Class*

On the menu today : fried spring rolls, fish amok, green mango salad with a dressing and the coconut Lyly dessert. The latter was prepared by Sokkim at the start of the lesson since it was not possible to do this per couple. That was not an issue for us.

Fish Amok preparation Cooking Class — *Fish Amok preparation – Cooking Class*

End result fish amok, cooking class — *End result Fish Amok – Cooking Class*

Most of the work for the other 3 dishes was the cutting of the veggies, herbs and the fish. The fish amok paste was prepared by crushing the roots, spices and herbs in a mortar. It was all very straight forward and not too complicated. We should be able to replicate this at home. The course was very well taught, we had really enjoyed this activity. At the end of the lesson we ate our own dishes and it has to be said, the food was delicious ! Before leaving, we all received our diploma :-).

Spring rolls, Cooking Class — *Spring rolls – Cooking Class*

Coconut Lyly desert - Cooking Class — *Coconut Lyly desert – Cooking Class*

Visit of the Killing Caves

Our tuk tuk came to pick us up and we had a short rest at our hotel. Around half past three we had scheduled our last trip in Battambang, a visit to Phnom Sampeau (site of the killing caves with a few small temples). My god, the road to the site… so much dust …

*Construction of a Buddha in the hillside*

Upon arrival, we had the choice, follow the road to the top or climb 800 steps. We decided to follow the road and to decent via the stairs. Koen of course, was the first one at the top !

Buddha at Phnom Sampeau — Buddha at *Phnom Sampeau*

Pagoda at Phnom Sampeau — Pagoda at *Phnom Sampeau*

The hill was a place where the red khmer had a prison (transformed temple) and where the intellectual people were killed by throwing them into the caves after torture. Now it has become a place of serenity where prayers are held and where the atrocities of the past were remembered.

Exhausted and thirsty, we arrived again at street level. We took a seat on one of the terraces that had tables with an electric fan. This was incredible !

*Having a drink at the terrace with electric fans*

From here we could easily follow the spectacle that was estimated to start just before 6pm. And indeed, around 5.45pm millions of bats left the cave in group to hunt for their food. It was so amazing !!!

Last evening in Battambang

We returned to our hotel for a quick shower before our last supper in Battambang. We decided to eat in the hotel because the city was too quiet. The fries in the hotel were really delicious, we do not very often say that when eating fries outside Belgium :-). After 3 weeks of Asian food, we thought we deserved a portion of French fries, however, without mayo.