Siem Reap to Battambang, Cambodia

We leave Siem Reap after breakfast and travel west towards the trading town of Svay Sisophon which sits on a reservoir. There is a temple in the middle of the reservoir that we do not visit, rather we wander through the area where locals seem to be relaxing.

The food is plentiful in the small market areas.  There are many types of grilled fish, chicken, frogs and pork that all look delicious. 

We opt for tamarind. The pod like fruit is used extensively around the world in many cuisines. The fruit itself is a tasty, somewhat tangy, sweet fruit. Tracey thinks it tastes a little like dates. A little research shows the word comes from the Persian “tamar-I-hind,” meaning “date of India”. Not bad, and it is full of nutritional value!

Next we stop at the Angkor Silk Farm in the Puok District. I thought “just another silk farm”.  However, surprisingly, it was quite impressive.  The business is a result of Artisans Angkor, a project aimed at rebuilding the country after war by training young people in traditional cultural trades. It focuses on providing the skills to underprivileged Cambodians with little education. It all began with support from the French government and the EU, it is now self sustaining.

It is about twenty minutes outside of Siem Reap. I enjoy understanding and seeing such manufacturing processes. It is an amazing process that we see from start to finish from the feeding of the worms with mulberry leaves to the looms and the weaving process. The handmade process looks like a hard one for the 400 plus workers in the operations. Workers can begin at age eighteen and many received months of training.

The finished products from dresses to pillow cases to scarves are beautiful. As beautiful as it is, we have no room in our Sarasota storage room for “stuff” so we do not purchase.

It’s lunch time and we make a stop at a roadside stand where there are a few BBQs happening. Nothing looks appealing to us, not even to our local guide. The BBQs consist of rat, entire frogs, something in the half frog half tadpole stage, quail, cricket and roasted water snake. We decide to move on because we do not know the source of the rat, lol. i.e. you don’t want to eat a city rat, make sure and pick a country rat!

We continue on to Phnom Sampeau the highest point in the province 12 km from Battambang, Phnom Sampeau would be an interesting place even if it weren’t for the rather grisly recent history. The hill rises sharply from the flat surrounding countryside offering us a great view of Battambang and the plains below.

The hill is saddle-backed shaped and has temple complexes on both of its peaks. The temple on the slightly lower peak is built over a cave system.  These caves involved the absolutely gruesome past of the Khmer Rouge.  The temple’s prayer hall was used by them to house prisoners.  Their prisoners were the people that they considered educated, rich or that just rubbed them the wrong way.
Prisoners were interrogated, then thrown down into the caves. Those that didn’t die from the fall had no way out and so eventually died from starvation. Human bones that have been collected are located in two rudimentary cages.  It amazes us to be able to just walk into an area of the countryside and still see the human remains seemingly tossed in a cage and handled in such a casual manner.  But we try to understand what a large undertaking it must be to collect and respect the remains from the massive killings of millions that occurred across this country, not really that long ago.

Amongst the skulls and bones, the temple also has a very large reclining Buddha image.  As we visit, there are two children praying at the temple.  The whole scene is very moving and emotional again thinking about what happened here with the beautiful innocent children at the temple.

We move on to the temple on the higher point of the hill, which is perched right on the edge of the cliff. This temple is little more difficult to visit. You can either climb the 650 steps up to the top, or you can rent a motorcycle with driver for US$5. If you decide to go on foot, you’re technically required to have a guide. We choose the motorcycle, lol.

The temple complex consists of several towering pagodas, all of which seem to be rather new.

 

There are no bone collections here, but there are two gun emplacements that were used to help beat back the Khmer Rouge, apparently unsuccessful.. The guns appear to be Russian made.  They seem to be used only by the monkeys now.

The views here are wonderful and the temple areas contribute to the views.  There are many resident monkeys, more than the few resident monks!

We head for our home at the Battambang Resort for two nights. It is a beautiful setting with rooms off the pool in a tropical tranquil, garden-like landscape.

The Resort grows its own fruits and vegetables including banana, mango, jackfruit, dragon fruit and star fruit. Vegetables grown include lemongrass, eggplant, mint, basil and rocket. Our dinner tonight is poolside, still decorated for Christmas! The roast duck and stuffed eggplant are delicious!

Day Two in Battambang

Our first full day in the area begins with breakfast at the resort.  We can’t miss a meal, although it would not hurt if we did!

The first stop today is Wat Banan, 22 km outside of Battambang overlooking the Sangkar River. Wat Banan is an ancient temple constructed in the 11th and 12th centuries, apparently taking around 100 years to build. It is nearly 400 steps to ascend the top of the temple area, a descent climb (358 steps to be exact). But it is a rewarding climb with the five towers and numerous carvings still standing albeit in a dilapidated state.

Fortunately, I literally had my “fan club” with me, four young beautiful girls fanning me all the way up the stairs. I figured I would have to pay these “fanners” after our visit so we have fun talking, teasing and taking photos with them along the way. The hike is actually cooler with their fans, joking aside.

They go to school half days here. Half of the children go in the mornings and half in the afternoon. These girls have school from 1 – 5 pm. Giving money to the children should be discouraged if they are supposed to be in school.

Our next stop, a Cambodian vineyard. An enterprising Cambodian woman has actually started vineyards in three areas of Cambodia. We sample the wine, brandy, grape juice and ginger/honey drink. I think I will stick to the grape and/or ginger – honey juice here. The brandy was not bad, the wine a bit vinegary tasting.  Maybe a bad bottle, but probably not.

We journey back to the town of Battambang and meander around yet another temple. It is actually a fairly large complex with many monks living and studying there. Not any tourists here today…very quiet!

We visit a house built in the 1920s in the Cambodian Pet style. It is owned by a beautiful older lady, Mrs. Bun Roeung, who we have the pleasure of meeting. Her parents owned the house originally. During the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 their house was confiscated and many family members killed by the Khmer Rouge. The house is beautiful, and built on stilts in traditional style. The owner of the house could not bear to live in the house with the memories when she returned. So she lives nearby and runs this as a house stay and museum, giving short tours for donations.

We head to the central area of Battambang. Battambang is on the Sanger River and you can actually take a six-hour boat ride to get to Phnom Penh. It is a town of over 150,000 with some beautiful French influenced architecture. The government building is, of course, very large and quite beautiful. The Battambang Province is over one million in population, the third largest of Cambodia’s 25 provinces.

We stop at The White Rose for lunch near the town center. The shiitake mushroom in oyster sauce and curry chicken are excellent…and about three dollars apiece!

Back to rest poolside for a of couple hours at the Battambang Resort, before heading out for our ride on the bamboo railway!

It’s a short ride to where we pick up Battambang’s bamboo train. This is one unique train in the world. The train “cars” are not connected, rather each one is powered by a small “lawn mower engine”.

Each car, known as a norry, has a wood frame and platform that is made of bamboo slats.  These are covered by a bamboo mat and we have pillows to serve as seats.  The cars sit on two axles, the rear one connected to the small gas engine by a fan belt. The cars are also used to transport rice, vegetables and wood.

The train travels rather drunkenly along warped misaligned rails from O Dambong to O Sra Lav. The 7 km trip takes about 20 minutes each way, with a stop at O Sra Lav village.  We stroll around the village area which is a few homes, farms and a couple small businesses.  Of course, there are a few touristy shops at the end of the line.

The operation is a single track line. So what happens when our car meets another car traveling in the opposite direction? The brilliant solution for these bamboo trains is simple: one car is quickly disassembled and set on the ground beside the tracks so that the other car can pass. The rule is that the car with the fewest passengers has to cede priority.  We always had more cars and people going in our direction, but we did have to stop a few times as we met trains coming toward us.

Even though this is a bit touristy with the shops and children selling t-shirts and bracelets, it is fun to see this railway still function. Most transport of goods occur by other modes now and it would be defunct if it were not for its reinvention for tourists.

Tuesday – Battambang to Phnom Penh

We leave Battambang at 8:30 am and head back to Phnom Penh. It is about a five-hour drive directly but we make a couple stops along the way.

Our first stop is the floating village of Kompong Luong.  The village has over 10,000 inhabitants, the largest on the Tonle Sap Lake.  The lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, filling the “center” of Cambodia. The lake, greatly influenced by the Mekong river is important today, but also in the large Angkor Civilization.  It was designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1997.

The freshwater lake is inundated by the Mekong annual water fluctuations. The lake size over the course of a year varies from about 1,000 square miles to over 6,000 square miles!  It connects to the Mekong River via the Tonle Sap River, which actually has a unique flow reversal due to the Mekong fluctuations and annual monsoons.

The Kompong Luong village is all on water, on canals and the lake. The village has a post office, small groceries or marts and other businesses all on the water. There is much trash in the area and the water does not seem clean.

Like so many towns and villages in January, this town is preparing for a wedding. They are multi day events with loud music, talking (on loudspeakers day and night!) and, of course, food. We don’t see many tourists, but there are actually a couple of home stays here. I think it would be tough going given the unpleasant smells and cleanliness of the water.

We journey from here to the village of Kompong Chhnang, a riverside town known for its production of clay pottery.  The particular pottery maker we visit makes among other things, traditional clay Cambodian stoves. People have traditionally relied on wood and charcoal for cooking and still do to a large extent.  Projects have been underway to increase the efficiency of these stoves and to reduce their consumption of fuels and carbon emissions.  Anyway, I could see these selling well at Home Depot and ending up on people’s patios!

We make one more stop at a village known for silversmithing. The “shop” we stop at is on the ground floor of a home on the Tonle Sap river. The whole family participates in the crafting. We enjoy our visit with the family. Tracey needs to use the restroom, so the young girl leads her, by holding her hand, upstairs and through the house.

Later, I go upstairs with the father and see the view of the river from the back. The home is a traditional wood home on stilts. I also see and hold a dismantled artillery shell found in Cambodia…as I pick it up it must weigh 50 pounds. There are many shells on Cambodia that have been found and unfortunately maimed many people. We actually saw a crew today working along the roadside still searching for unexploded bombs not far from this area.

Anyway, we buy a few grams of silver, an elephant and a turtle (we know someone who loves turtles back in Florida!). There are wonderful items here that they make from the sterling silver all by hand. We also enjoy visiting with the sweet children here!

We arrive at our Hilary Boutique Hotel after a slow rush hour drive through Phnom Penh. We spend our last night in this city of around 2.5m in the BKK area. This area is the “yuppie” area, one that we would say in the US as being “gentrified”. We opt for pizza at Piccola Italia Da Luigi, very good “Italian” style pizza. We like this area as it looks like many fun spots, restaurants and pubs.

All in all a restful way to spend our last evening in this city.  We hope to return one day! And we may to attend Sophea’s wedding!

 

And a few more pics…

 




















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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