Battambang

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The Bamboo train

I left Siem Reap for Battambang yesterday and joined in with a tour group. On the way to Battambang we stopped at a school for homeless children for lunch. Battambang is the fourth biggest town in Cambodia for tourists after Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. The town is not very big but it is surrounded by some great countryside.

After arriving and booking into the hotel we went for a trip on the bamboo train.

Sunset across Cambodia

This train is as you’d imagine made of bamboo and runs on a single track. When a train comes in the other direction whoever has the fewer people on their train has to get off whilst the driver takes the train apart so the other train can pass. You then put it back together again and carry on the journey. It was pretty cool and we stopped on the track to view the sunset which was far better than the Angkor Watt sunrise (that’s on difficult!) a few days before.

Villagers cooking rice in Bamboo - very tasty!

The following day I left the tour who moved into Thailand and onto Bangkok (I’m not going back there!). I hired a moto driver who took me to some of the sights outside the town. We drove through lots of villages before making our way to a place called Phnon Banan which is a temple on a hill that re-dates Angkor Watt (11^th century). Upon arriving the moto driver said he’d wait by the bike, I soon realized why, there were 358 very steep steps to the top.

Phnom Banan

The temple was pretty cool and had some great views of Cambodia. After this I went to Phnom Sampeau (another temple on a hill) and the Phnom Sampeau killing caves – which were caves used by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s of executing people. It was pretty sad to see as there were lots of skulls of the victims on display.

For this journey again my moto driver wasn’t up for the walk but arranged for me a 12 year old girl to take me up the mountain – it was another long, steep and hot walk but when we got back to the bottom I gave the girl $2 and she was well chuffed.

I’m heading back to Phnom Penh tomorrow the probably off to Kampot and Kemp before returning to Ho Chi Minh City.