Part 1 - Siem Reap
Part 2 - Ha Long Bay
Part 3 (this blog) - Battambang
Part 4 - Ho Chi Minh City
Part 5 - Sapa and Hanoi
Part 6 - Mekong Delta and Cu Chi Tunnels
This third blog on my holidays focuses on a small town just a little ways from Siem Reap. Battambang is a nice little town that has left a great impact on me and takes you away from the touristy Siem Reap, allowing you to have a better understanding on Cambodian life.
Lowlights:
Weather/Environment:
Accommodation: I can't remember which place we stayed at here, but you most likely won't really need to stay over since this is more of a day trip.
Overall:
If you are heading to Siem Reap, this makes for a great day trip. It shows you more of what Cambodia is like, you get to learn about Cambodia's dark history, and it's an all round lovely time.
Bamboo Train
The main reason I wanted to go to Battambang was because it was a small town close to Siem Reap, and it provides a better understanding of what life in Cambodia is like. You move away from the highly touristy Siem Reap into a small town with very small villages and very poor and hungry people. And remember, this is still quite a major town even though it's small. So just imagine how bad it is in the smaller towns...
One of the most interesting reminders of this is the town's bamboo train (aka Norry). The rail line was built originally for the easy transportation of goods from one place to another without the expensive use of an actual train line. Nowadays, however, it is mainly used as a tourist attraction.
This was one of the highlights of my trip; it was super fun to experience this very dangerous and very worrying contraption. Because we are living in modern times, an engine is placed at the back, which makes it super easy to travel super quick. However, because the train is made of bamboo and is therefore very light, the train gets a little wobbly at times.
Since the bamboo train is more or less just a flat piece of bamboo that you sit on, you can experience everything. There is no glass or plastic separating you from your surroundings, which may heighten your anxiety (there was one section where we passed a small bridge of sorts and there were a few holes in the bridge), and also increases your chances of eating flies. Yep, that's right... wear glasses and DO NOT open your mouth.
My dad also saw a small rock along the track and was super worried that it might result in something dangerous, but at the last second the rock just jumped off from the track.
The ride takes about 20 minutes each way, and you stop over at O Sra Lav in the middle. Be mindful of the little girls that come up to you asking you to promise to buy something off of them. I simply told them that if I wanted to buy off them, I would, but I'm not promising anything. I then ignored them and they went to pester some other tourists. This place has a few little market stalls, but we didn't end up buying anything because we didn't want to be pestered by other people who wanted our money. This was kind of a let down because the bamboo train ride was so fun and interesting, and this kind of ruined the moment.
The most interesting thing about the bamboo ride is that when two bamboos meet, they simply turn off their engines, and the bamboo train with the lighter load gets dismantled, waits for the other train to pass, then gets put together again and the ride resumes. It's pretty interesting to see the bamboo train drivers work together; they are so fast and efficient, and the second train driver will always get down to help the first train driver put his train back together again.
Killing Caves and Phnom Sampeu
Another highlight was our visit to the Killing Caves in Phnom Sampeu (a famous mountain in that area).
The Killing Caves were one of the sites where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge performed mass killings in the 1970s. Victims would be led to the tops of caves, beaten and then pushed into the caves for them to die. It was pretty grim when the tour guide walked us along the same path that many walked only moments before their deaths (the picture below). There are stairs going down to the caves as well, where great monuments have been built, but it is pretty gruesome as the monuments consist of stacks of skulls behind glass doors so you can see just how many were killed.
It was really sad because our tour guide himself was born in a refugee camp when his parents were fleeing from the Khmer Rouge. This trip really made me very glad to be born where I was born, and in this era as well. I was also pretty glad I decided not to go to Phnom Penh, as I read that many of their attractions were Killing Museums and Killing Fields (another site that the Khmer Rouge used to kill people). Going to these Killing Caves alone was quite emotionally draining.
Apart from that, though, our amazing tour guide took us through Phnom Sampeu, and after what seemed to be a very dangerous yet quite exciting climb through some rocks and a narrow hole, he took us to a high point in the mountain to see the sun set.
After the sun set, we went back down to the base of the mountain to see this huge stream of bats leave their cave.
Miscellaneous
Let me just take a breather here and give praise to our tour guide. His name is Saro Lem, and he is amazing at what he does. He is super humble, very nice and has a lovely family (we met his wife and son). When we were having lunch at the beginning of our tour, we asked for his business card, and he said he would only give it to us if we decided he did a good job. He didn't just do a good job, he did a fantastic job. His English was so great, and no wonder since he studied English at school. He also took a lot of initiative. We told him to just take us to the bamboo train and bat cave/Killing Caves, and he decided to take us through to various other stops as well along the way.
Most of these were to show us the French Colonial buildings in the town, and he would even stop by and tell us some stories related to them.
We were quite shocked when he stopped in the middle of a busy roundabout and showed us this statue. He explained to us the meaning of Battambang: 'Bat' means 'stick' and 'Dambong' means 'lost'. In brief, there was a King once who was extremely powerful because of the stick he carried. With this stick, he was able to build the city up to what it is now. But one day, he lost his stick and has been searching all over the world for this stick. Therefore, the city is now the city of the lost stick. This also explains why he looks so angry in the statue... he can't find his stick anywhere!
He was also super helpful and proactive; he could see that we weren't really interested in taking pictures of the Buddhist temples (there's only so many pictures you can take, and after Siem Reap's temples, we just weren't that interested), so he would quickly show us another way so that we could see the sights instead.
He also took us to a small fishing village that was really interesting to see. It was pretty heartbreaking seeing how poor these people were living, and was quite an eye-opening experience.
So this was a day trip and despite us not spending more time in the city, I think that it was a great way to spend the day. I'm not sure if there was anything we missed out on because it was a small town, but I would definitely recommend seeing these main attractions. Battambang was indeed one of our highlights despite it only consisting of one day and a few attractions, and I'm sure it helped that our tour guide was simply amazing! I know I keep spewing praises of him, but he seriously was just a fantastic guy; if anyone is going to Battambang soon then I definitely would recommend hitting him up! He was also super cheap ($70 US for 8 or so hours including driving us) but we gave him a lot more in tips!
Wow, very unique and amazing Life Blog post! International Travel Adventures is always a main life highlight.: ) I want to visit Vietnam in December around Saigon Ho Chi Minh. Underrated city with tons to offer, Rich Native Culture, French Colonial legacy, and even one of the best World Class Wireless Internet Independent Cafe Atmospheres happening in this entire World! Golden Hidden Treasure City.
ReplyDeleteHi Theo, yup stay tuned and I'll be blogging on Ho Chi Minh City soon, and later on surrounding areas too! Definitely a very interesting place to travel, as it's quite different to what I'm used to!
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