We woke up quite achy, well I did anyway, after our walking yesterday! I headed down to see 'Mrs P' at the food stall and luckily she had pork today so I enjoyed my favourite breakfast of pork and rice! After eating I headed back to the hostel and started to update the blogs which shamefully to say were lagging behind. Laura joined me and we started talking to Jen about our plan for the day. She recommended the circus which was supposedly very good but we were thinking more of a cooking class. Jen said other guests had recommended Nary's cooking class over the river near the market so we decided to go and check it out! Barney overheard this and decided he wanted in... We weren't convinced of his reliability but said we would find out some more about it.

We headed out in to the heat progressing through town, where I stopped by the ATM to get some cash. We then headed to Nary's for some information, on arrival we met Nary and her husband who had the morning class in full swing. We ordered an iced coffee whilst looking at the information of the class and waiting for a chat with Nary's husband Taro. It looked really good and only for $10 was a steal, we had a chat with Taro and decided to attend the 4pm session that afternoon! So we paid to secure our places before heading back to the hostel to get out of the heat. There we found Barney who had been roped in to setting up a BBQ so wouldn't have made the class anyway.

Dave, who works at the hostel loves to gamble and the lads at the bar love to play a random dice game involving shots. I got involved with the loser buying a beer for the winner. I just shook the dice with no clue what was going on, luckily I didn't lose or win which I was pleased with, still none the wiser what the rules were. While we were chilling a young pale lad came in and was sat at he bar looking rough. Jen told us he was feeling sick and faint after too much sun as he perched on a bar stool holding ice to his head. In the end Laura told him to lie down on the couches where he could rest and everyone could keep an eye on him... he was anxious about lying in the dorm with no one there. Jen then made him a comfortable bed and he laid down feeling worse for wear.The afternoon continued to roll on and soon enough it time to head to the cooking class.

One arrival, Taro welcomed us and explained we would be joined by another couple who we later learned were French and a bit older than ourselves. They had been in Cambodia for 2 weeks whilst leaving their 15 month old son with best friends, very trusting and brave if you ask me! Our first job was to accompany Taro to the local market to get our fresh produce for the class.

The market was very busy but incredible, all around us were fragrant smells and sights. The fruit and veg stalls were so colourful and full of fresh ingredients... just amazing. Taro explained various fruits, vegetables and meats including the snake fish which would go in our fish dish tonight. Laura thought it reminded her of eel and put her off somewhat. Something quite cool was seeing the local chaps grinding coconut rind creating milk which I didn't even think you could do. The coconut is split in two before they grate the inside to create shaved coconut a bit like the dried stuff you get on cakes... then it is put through a grinder where all the moisture is squeezed out... it's amazing how much milk they get out of each one. After the sweaty walk around the market we headed for the kitchen to start our food preparation. Our first dish was the fish amok (to be made with that slimy looking snake fish) which is a creamy coconut based curry traditionally served in a banana leaf folded bowl accompanied with rice. We had both tried it before and loved it so it would be really interesting to learn how to make it. The first job was to make the paste which takes most of the time and effort and it included ingredients such as lemongrass, dried paprika, garlic, something which looked like ginger etc! Laura was really excited about this as she just wanted to know how to make the various curry pastes used in Asia. Firstly we chopped up the ingredients before adding to a pestle and mortar, which was enormous and made ours at home look pretty pathetic. We then pounded the ingredients for a good ten minutes or so till a paste was created. After this we attempted to make the banana leaf bowls which was easier said than done but managed it eventually. We then added the fish and coconut milk to the fish and paste and before pouring into our banana leaf bowls and placing in the steamer to slow cook.

Next we had a go at making deep fried spring rolls with pork. They were fun to make but very fiddly trying to wrap them. We had to mince the pork by hand and chop all the ingredients finally before rolling into small balls, which where shared between each pancake. We rolled the filling into spring roll cases then placed them to one side ready to fry later. Next came beef Loh Lak which is fried beef dish in pepper sauce traditionally served with a fried egg and salad. It was easy to prepare and the fun came flash frying the beef which caused the pan to nearly explode. Prior to this however, whilst slicing a tomato, I caught my finger with the knife drawing some blood. It was a little nick but Taro got the plasters out anyway. We chopped the beef before leaving in a bowl of various sauces to marinade, whilst we concentrated on preparing the dipping sauce using pepper, sugar lime and soy sauce. It was now time to deep fry the spring rolls and given my injury I thought it wise to step back. So instead Laura fried the spring rolls each for 5 minutes until they turned a wonderful brown colour, we then placed them to one side to cool. Now it was time to fry our eggs for the Loh Lak which we did with absolute precision before then flash frying the beef spattering the oil everywhere. Now the meal was almost done so we spooned some rice on to our plates from the rice cooker before carefully removing the amok curries from the steamer and placing with the rice.

After much preparation, the moment had come to taste our food, which was welcome as we were also starving. The food was great, the Loh Lak being our favourite. The fish amok was nice but the added sugar and thick coconut cream made it a little too rich for our tastes but we will definately try it again but less sweet. The spring rolls came with a chilli sauce which added a welcome spicy kick and went down a treat. Both us couples agreed the lesson had been well worth it and we thanked Taro and his wife for a wonderful afternoon. We said our goodbyes and wandered off with our tummies full and our cook book in our hands.

Outside our hostel, the mansion next door was having an engagement party like none you would ever see. There were Mercedes, Hummers, Range Rovers etc all parked outside, this is how the other half of Cambodia live. There were beautiful fairy lights on all the trees and loud music being played behind the walls. Looking through the gates there must of been hundreds of people all sitting at tables and eating food but it was hard to get a good look. Apparently the guy who owns the house is something to do with the governor of Battambang and is absolutely loaded.... It was his daughters engagement party.

On arriving back to the hotel, Dave and some of the others had been drinking shots all afternoon and decided to go to Siem Reap in a taxi (over a two hour drive). Jen and Ferg had managed to convince Barney not to go as he would likely never get back! We all grabbed a beer and headed up to the rooftop terrace (under construction) so we could get a good view of the party next door. The view was amazing and you were literally about fifty foot away from the proceedings next door. There must of been well over 500 people at this do, and it wasn't even the wedding. There was a stage with live singers and MCs making announcements. The to be married couple were all in their wedding attire and did a sort of first dance. It felt like a mock wedding reception.... Although a lot bigger than even any wedding I have been to. Laura was loving the beauty of it all and acted like the paparazzi, getting the zoom lens out and crouching behind things, she is getting too much into this photography lark.

After the shots were gathered we headed down to the bar and started on the beers, full well knowing we had a bus to catch in the morning. But as it usually goes, the beer flowed swiftly followed by a couple of cocktails. Laura was allowed to do some work behind the bar so Jen could have a few hours off and enjoyed being able to pull pints again. Barney was as always was on top form and trying to chat up these western girls who were working at the local circus. It had turned out that one of the girls was from Milton Keynes and actually turned out to be a friend of Laura's younger sister... small world indeed! They had a good natter before Laura was distracted by the young poorly lad again.

He had come and stood next to her and was talking to Jen bout going to the clinic as he felt rough.... he thought he had heat stroke.... Laura got roped in and asked him a few questions before advising him to sit down on the sofa (he was panicking about feeling faint with palpitations). She sat with him and felt his pulse thus informing him he was fine... He had a blood pressure and his pulse was fine... plus he was sweating! a good sign... she advised him to chill out and eat something and drink some water. He was pretty sure he wanted the clinic and she said it was his choice but he's well hydrated and just hot, tired and anxious... he had no fever and needed to relax. she sat and chatted with him to relax him a bit and it turned out he was on our flight to Myanmar on tuesday. this began a lengthy conversation on the place and soon he was munching his rice and feeling better.

After chatting about Myanmar for a bit the lad decided an early night was what he needed and retired... I then sat at the bar discussing computer games with Ferg and before you knew what had happened it was two in the morning. Laura hadn't noticed as she was bar maiding and chatting with Jen and the regulars but soon felt tired when I told her the time. Jen had invited us back and said Laura could do some shifts if we pass through Cambodia again... Which sounded like a great idea given how much we adored this country.

Fortunately we actually weren't feeling too drunk but knew we had to sleep before the bus trip. We said goodbye to Fergus and see you in the morning to Jen who would be up in the morning to open up shop even thought she had been up since 5am the previous morning. We then crawled upstairs, made sure the bags were packed and fell into bed where we would try and get a few precious hours in!