Martial Art Show, Artistic Cuisine, Solitude.. All in Battambang

Welcome to Battambang Resort!

If seeing impressive martial art is of your interest, and you're in need of beautiful-looking and delicious food served in a place that grows its own rice and veggies, not to mention that you like a a little bit (or much) of solitude.. and that you now happen to be or plan to visit Cambodia.. Battambang may be the answer that you're looking for!

Phare Ponleu Selpak kids/performers

Not sure why we ended up picking Battambang in our itinerary.. I believe it was because hubby saw a highly-rated villa-style accommodation called Battambang Resort. The location wasn't the best considering it was rather far from town. But that's the kind of deal we wanted anyway so we decided to give the place a try.

The staff were very welcoming; our host Jan & Phary also made sure that we were well serviced. They gave us recommendations as for what to check out in town and helped with the tuk-tuk arrangement to go places. 

Thanks to Jan also that we were recommended a martial art show Phare Ponleu Selpak (translates to "Battambang Circus" according to Trip Advisor). I wasn't very enthusiastic at first, but the show turned out to be really awesome. I personally wouldn't categorize it as a circus performance. It was more like a martial art show with music and a lot of acrobatic actions. My heart skipped a beat watching the acrobats. The performers were as young as 8-10 years old, jumping and rolling performing the play. I know for sure I would have broken a lot of bones doing it -ouuccchh! Ticket is currently priced at $14/adult. And trust me, it's well worth it!

Our first meal at Battambang Resort. Beautiful in and out :)

Another thing we did was a visit to the Bat Cave on the outskirt of town. At dusk, thousands of bats came out of the cave flying in a beautiful formation. They also produced a very loud sound, which I found fascinating. 

The welcome drink

What I loved the most about Battambang Resort were probably the design of the place and the food. It came to me as a surprise that a resort in the middle of nowhere had a menu equal to those served in 4 to 5-star establishments. As a matter of fact, I stayed in several 4-stars whose food often didn't even match up to Battambang Resort's. From the variety offered in the menu, the taste, to food presentation.. they had it all. 

My favorite breakfast at resort

My favorite item of the resort restaurant was actually their welcome drink. It's a non-alcoholic drink made of orange juice concocted with other ingredients. Our host Phary shared the ingredients with me but I lost the note. It was a very refreshing drink like no others. I had to ask what it was and special ordered it since the drink was actually not in the menu!

Now.. what else did we do in town? We took a cooking lesson! This place we took it at was called Nary Kitchen, located on N. 650, Group 32, Prekmohatep, Svaypor. Complicated address, isn't it? 

Cambodian breakfast at resort

What would be hard for any non-Khmer speaking travelers is if they had to get around by tuk-tuk randomly met on the street. Firstly, Cambodians have their own alphabet, and starting in Phnom Penh we already had a hard time communicating with the tuk-tuk drivers especially if the address we pointed out was not written in Khmer alphabet. Needless to say, being able to get tuk-tuk rides provided by the resort was a huge help. 

Happy hubby and spring rolls at Nary

Guess what we learnt to make at Nary's Kitchen? Oh, I haven't mentioned about Amok, right? It's a curry dish cooked with a lot of lemongrass paste. We figured it was one of the national dishes for it being so widely available. We came across Amok at almost every place we ate out while in Cambodia. From Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang, Sihanoukville, Koh Rong, to Kampot.

So we learnt how to make Amok at Nary. The second dish we learnt was spring rolls. The most fun part of the class was getting fresh ingredients at a nearby open market. Oh, and speaking of amok, we ate so much Amok that we got sick of it by the end of the trip. Our amok at Nary was the last amok of the trip and we haven't had any since!