Missy's Travels: Battambang

First, let me say that my view of Battambang is slightly biased in a negative way because almost everything was closed due to the Cambodian New Year. In fact, this is my third New Year in 2010 - first, the regular new year (January 1), then Tet in Vietnam (February 14) and now the Cambodian New Year (April 14 - 16).

Anyway, back to Battambang. In my opinion, it's just okay. The books say it's beautiful and charming. Sure, there are a few streets that have some nice colonial architecture, but it's really not worth making a trip all the way to Battambang just to see a few buildings. However, the town is a jumping-off point for a lot of different attractions in the area, and those are worth seeing. This was my last town traveling with the girls - Kelly, Anni and Alison - before heading off on my own. We arrived in the early afternoon and checked into the Royal Hotel. We spent the afternoon just chilling in the room and I walked around the town a bit. In the late afternoon we met up with Anni and Alison's friends for a drink on the hotel's rooftop bar - beautiful sunset, cold beer and good company - what more could you ask for?

Battambang

Battambang Market

The next day we did a tour of the sights around Battambang. First stop was the bamboo train - the single-track railroad is used by real trains coming from Phnom Penh, but they only pass occasionally, so the locals created their own form of train to transport goods and people from town to town. It's made out of a wood frame and covered lengthwise with slats of bamboo. When two bamboo trains meet, the one carrying the lighter load is simply dissassembled and taken off the track to let the other train pass (we got to see this firsthand - look for the pic below). We rode the train from one small town to another small town, rested at a roadside cafe, and then got back on our train and rode back.

Next stop was Prasat Banan temple - it's 358 steps to get to the top, and in the midday heat, it was torturous climbing up but I was glad I did. Prasat Banan is a complex of 5 small temples built prior to the temples at Angkor, and the view from the top is beautiful. There were also tons of Cambodians making the climb to give offerings for the New Year. Third stop was basically a limestone mountain with a lot of different attractions on it - religious temples, rotting artillery from past wars, and the killing caves where the Khmer Rouge tortured, killed, and disposed of bodies. By that time we were hot and tired, so instead of walking we hired motorbikes to drive us all over the mountain - definitely a good decision.

Our tuk tuk driver was awesome, and doubled as a tour guide. He told us the history of certain places, explained all about the Cambodian New Year celebrations that we saw, and in the killing caves he even shared his own personal experiences during the Khmer Rouge which was very touching and also saddening. Overall, it was a great (albeit incredibly hot) day. The next morning I struck out on my own and caught the bus to Kompong Cham in Eastern Cambodia...details on that to come!

excited for our bamboo train ride!

chugging along

we encountered this bamboo train going the opposite direction, it was packed with a huge Cambodian family...they got off and let us go by, even though we were the lighter train