Eng, my moto driver for the day from the Tourist Information Office, was at the hotel early for the promised 8:30 pickup. I had to get my laundry ready to sen out and once that was done I was readyto go. I asked him if he had a helmet for me (only drivers seem to wear helmets, passengers do not) so after we took off we stopped at the Tourist Information Office and he picked up a second helmet for me. Because I was tired of eating Cambodian food for lunch, we stopped as well at The White Rose where I had eaten dinner last night and I was able to order a vegetarian sandwich to go.

We took off out of town with the first stop in Watkor Village to visit two traditional Khmer homes. The woman at the first was the daughter, I think of the owner, and spoke no English. We looked around and Eng provided some information. The second home is owned by a 72 year old Khmer woman who spoke French. I was able to understand most of what she said, telling me her grandfather built the home. She showed me the various pieces of furniture and a decorative mirror and told me where her grandfather had purchased them from (like France, the Philippines, etc). She asked me a few questions about my life in the U.S. Her children and grandchildren live there. The homes are built above ground with a large open area underneath. These two homes were quite large. The open area under is used as a living space and is cool. In the second home, there was a car parked underneath as well. The impression I had was that this family was reasonably well off financially. The area around Battambang was an area of intense activity during the Khmer Rouge era and so many people of this woman's generation were killed, that I was interested in knowing about what happened to her during that time. What I did learn was that the family had to leave the home and moved about 10 km away and that the Khmer Rouge took over the home and used it, I think, to control operations in the area. I really could not learn under what circumstances this woman was living during that time, but like everyone in this country I am sure there is some horrific story. I chose to spend about 10 minutes walking through the village and met a man who had previously lived in the U.S. (high school in Oakland and later lived in Long Beach where many Cambodians live). He invited me into the home and I sat and talked with him for a few minutes and then went on my way.

We then went on for my first visit to a temple, Wat Banan. It was quite a long and steep climb up the 358 stairs to the temple, built on top of a hill. It was built in the 11th century by Udayadit-yavarman II and completed 100 years later by Jayavarman VII. The temple has been looted, but is considered by some to have been the inspiration for Angkor Wat. There are good views of the surrounding countryside from the top. I met two French couples who were staying at the Asia Hotel up on top and we spoke in mixed English and French. (I am so glad I still remember and can use the French I studied so long ago.) Once I came back down, Eng and I sat down and ate lunch and talked. Over the course of the day, I learned much about him. He is in his mid 20's, is a university graduate in tourism and is studying part-time to earn a master's degree in administration. He lives with his parents in a village (and at one point on our travels pointed to a dirt road and told me that was the road to his village). He is single because he says he does not have enough money to get married; any money he has uses for his education and to help pay for the education of his two younger siblings. He told me his parents were married under order by the Khmer Rouge, but that after all these years and, in spite of those circumstances, they very much love each other. (The Khmer Rouge completely disrupted family units, but prescribed "marriages" solely for the purpose of procreation.) When I asked him what one thing he would like to see changed in Cambodia, he said he feels it is very important to educate the young people that they need to change from traditional ways to make the country better and that until that happens progress will be limited.

Next stop, the winery. Who would think there is a winery in Cambodia, but there is and only one I think. There are a few surrounding vineyard fields nearby. The visit did not include any tour, but I prowled around (after visiting the WC) and found a couple of tanks in the back. For $2, one could do a tasting of their grape juice, red wine and brandy. The juice was ok, a bit sweet, the wine was better than that in Vietnam, and the brandy (which I typically do not drink) was drinkable.

Hopped back on the moto and then off for a ride through the countryside on a dirt road to Wat Phnom Sampeau, a hilltop temple currently used. As the guide book says, it is a "long, hto climb to reach the summit." Eng (who had not joined me at Banan) chose to go with me on this climb. On the way up, he was upset about the amount of trash and litter he saw and actually took pictures to show his boss. He stated that he knew most western tourists carry their trash until they find a receptacle, but that the Cambodians just throw it on the ground (and I would agree that he is right). We talked about the culture and trash, and I observed that on this entire climb there was not one place to even put trash had one wanted to. So, I suggested a plan: put trash receptacles along the path with signs in Khmer and English to remind and inform people that they should appropriately dispose of their trash and to provide a place to put it.

On the top of Phnom Sampeau, there are various small pagodas and outdoor holy areas with Buddha statues and some caves. Eng told me if I stayed until around 5:30 PM I could see the bats in one of the caves, but that was too late. The guide book reports that the road that vehicles use to get to the top passes one of the Khmer Rouge killing fields located in some caves with a platform covered with skulls and bones, but we did not see that.

However, one of the most mysterious/mystical things happened at Phnom Sampeau. Shortly after we got up to an area near the top with a big Buddha statue, we stopped to rest. As I looked around, I saw there were Buddhist monks. I started to tell Eng about the monk I had met the day before and was about half way through the sentence when I looked up and the same monk was walking down the stairs directly toward us. We were about 20 miles away from the pagoda in Battambang and how mystifying it was that precisely at the moment I started to talk about this monk, he appeared. I am still in awe of this experience and do not understand what it means, but only that there are forces and powers beyond our comprehension and that this experience as some deeper meaning for me that I must explore.

My monk friend spent some time with us in the area of this big Buddha. While we were there, the monkeys came out and were swinging in the trees, running on the roof of a building that housed another set of Buddhas. The buildings in the area all had blue writing all over them (in Khmer), but when I got closer I could see that next to each line of writing was a $ and an amount and guessed correctly that this was how donations were recorded.

I continued on up to the pagodas on the top; Eng needed to rest (I am not sure if he has some underlying health problem). While I was waiting for him, another monk started talking to me and we had a discussion about the differences in how children do/do not care for aging parents between Cambodia and the U.S. He told me his father, 80, had had a stroke, not too serious, but even as a monk he still made daily visits to his father to provide care.

Eng finally caught up with me and after we looked at the wonderful view from the top we descended down the more direct stairs. At the bottom, there were some places to buy drinks and food. We sat down at a table, and I guessed he knew the woman who ran this "restaurant." She offered me a snack that she was eating. She had a small bowel of fried brown things (raisin sized) which on closer inspection had legs and wings. I did not want to be rude, so I took one and ate it. It tasted sort of like a toasted nut, but the thought of eating any more of these was somewhat disgusting and I declined her generous offer.

So back to Battambang. Eng and I each had an hour to rest (which I used to gather my laundry and talke up to my room and then walk to the market to try to find some food and water for the bus trip for the next day). He came back to pick me up at 6:00 because we were going to the circus school. I had read about this and that every Thursday evening there was a circus performance. As usual that information was out of date; there are now three performances a week, but every other Thursday is a music concert instead of the circus and this was a concert evening. He gave me a ride there. He had never been and somehow managed to come in for the concert. I saw Veronica and Nicholas there (with whom I had eaten dinner the night before) and we exchanged e-mail addresses. The concert was quite nice, kind of a fusion of contemporary and traditional Cambodian music. The musicians were quite good and it was an entertaining evening, although I had really been looking forward to the circus. Then Eng dropped me off at a restaurant, Angkor Thom, and I told him I would walk back to the hotel. I had a very tasty dinner of the Angkor Thom chicken cooked in a tomato and onion sauce. Once done, back to the Asia Hotel