Before visiting Cambodia we had many images in mind. Lush rice fields, Bustling cities and towns filled with street food and grand architecture. But at the top of most visitors agendas are the infamous temples, including the largest religious sight in the world, Angkor Wat. Today we were lucky enough to visit this mind boggling place, but not before a few days in the historic city, Battambang.
We were back on the bus from Sihanoukville for a long 12 hour ride north. Due to the fairly underdeveloped road systems in Cambodia, journeys that could be done in 3 or 4 hours back home often take far longer as the highways only run between the major cities. On the map, Sihanoukville isn’t too far from Battambang, but as there is no connecting highway the bus must first head east to Phnom Penh then west to reach Battambang. The city has only become popular with tourism in fairly recent years, so this may be the main factor as to why they have yet to connect the two. The second half of the journey was by far our most hair raising yet. Until you’ve experienced it first hand, it’s impossible to comprehend just how insanely the people of Asia drive- and our driver was no exception. We hurtled along at 120kph (around 70mph) down pitch black roads lit by nothing other than the dim headlights of other bikes and lorries screaming towards you. We spent around 80% of the time on the wrong side of the road- and the driver didn’t seem to think it neccessary to check the road ahead before overtaking. And just to add to the situation, the Cambodian women we chatted with along the way decided this would be a great time to tell us there were 800 traffic deaths last month in Cambodia. Either way I just see it as getting more for your money when you get something scarier than any roller coaster included in the price of your bus ticket. Success !
It’s always nice when a destination surprises you, and Battambang did just that. Never had we expected such a clean, picturesque and welcoming place in the middle of fairly rural Cambodia. Our itinerary for the 4 days was pretty well planned, The Bat Caves, Killing Caves and the Bamboo train- plus the usual city exploring of the shops and markets.
Upon our arrival we met an incredibly nice Tuk Tuk driver named YaYa. He offered to take us to our hostel for free if he could take us on a full day tour during our stay. We were happy to take him up on this offer and after asking how much it would cost, he insisted that we could pay whatever we wanted after our tour. Too good to be true we thought. We met the next day and off we headed to the Bamboo Train. Before the Khmer Rouge Cambodia had a widly used rail network, but during its power it was almost completely destroyed. Only a small amount remains intact to this day. A large section of this can be found in Battambang. While primarily used as a tourist attraction, the rail is still used to transport small goods between towns. The Bamboo train is essentially an open bed of bamboo with a motorbike engine strapped to 2 detachable axels. The reason for this being that the trains run in both directions across one track, so when two meet one must lift their carriage from the rails to let the other pass. It was great fun hurtling across the incredibly warped rails before reaching a small town where you can stop to buy drinks and souvenirs.
We headed back around mid day to miss the worst of the heat, then later met YaYa and headed to the caves. First up were The Killing Caves. After spending around an hour climbing stupidly steep hills in blistering heat we managed to find it. This was another area used during the Khmer Rouge. It’s easy to see after travelling through Cambodia how the Khmer Rouge affected the country in almost every way. We found a hole around 3m wide where the people would stand before being clubbed and would fall to their death. The fall was around 20 metres, so if the beating didn’t kill them, the fall usually would. As the bodies mounted up and cushioned the fall, many people would survive, but were left in a state where they couldn’t move and were left to die slowly. You can enter the bottom of the cave via a newly built staircase, a large sleeping buddha and shrine have been placed there as a memorial.
After this we decended the mountain side where we found a street cafe to grab a beer while we waited for the bats. There are 4 caves of this type around Cambodia, each home to over 1 million wrinkle lipped bats. Each night, at the exact same time, they head out in search of food. They mainly head for the rice fields where insects can be found in abundance. And true to there word, at 6.15 sharp, 1 or 2 bats began circling the hole high up on the cliff face. Then out of nowhere came a seemingly never ending stream of the bats. Even the locals often come enjoy the show, and the reason it’s so important to them is the bats eat an incredible number of insects that would otherwise destroy the rice crops.
But above all this, the one thing that made this day truly memorable was our driver, YaYa. At every sight he was genuinely passionate to share with us his and his family’s stories. His Tuk Tuk, bike and clothes were all very shabby and it really hit us when he asked if we could pay him 2 dollars so he could get some medicine while we had our mid day break. He showed us his wallet which was absolutely bare. At the end of the day he was true to his word and accepted whatever money we wanted to pay him. We were generous but he didn’t even look how much we had given him, which just went to show he was genuinely grateful for whatever we could afford. You’ve got to love the people of Cambodia, they are genuinely some of the nicest people in the world.
It was a wonderful few days in Battambang, and quite frankly we could of stayed even longer. But the journey continues and our time in Cambodia is almost at an end. We arrived in Siem Reap a few days ago, which is of course the gateway to Angkor Wat. We had such an amazing day visiting the temples, but that will have to wait til next week!
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