Fri 3 Mar
Up early for the boat ride to Battambang . Again the hotel gave us a boxed breakfast as we were leaving before breakfast hours. Picked up by a smaller bus and did the rounds of many hotels/hostels for pick ups. More and more people kept coming and finally little fold out seats appeared from the side of the aisle seats – so what appeared to be 5 in a row ended up being 7 squished in like sardines, plus the luggage it really was quite the joke on the bus! We weaved around the streets, heading about 11km south of Siem Reap and finally arrived at the boat pier at the floating village of Phnom Krom. US$20 for the ticket from hotel pick-up to Battambang. 2 boats going – one to Phnom Phen and the other was ours. Very old boat but all piled in and headed off for our journey, not really knowing how many hours it would take. Starting off on the very narrow Siem Reap River, winding slowly through the narrow channel, slowing down as we pass floating houses, then enter the Tonle Sap Lake. Very scenic and passed lots of floating villages – people getting around on there little narrow wooden boats – some paddling but most have a long tail engine on them . Amazing to see stores fronting the water and people just seemed to be sitting on their decks doing nothing! Amazing communities that exist in this fashion! We were entertained by a little Cambodian girl who was sitting with her very young Mom & Dad on our boat, and she was such a little cutie. Chatted to a couple from Saskatchewan, Wayne and Lori. She had been on a months yoga retreat in Siem Reap before her farmer hubbie joined her for a 2 week trip through Cambodia. As we entered the river mouth and it started to get narrower the floating river weed/water lilies got so thick that the boat had to really struggle through it and even had to reverse and pull it off the prop a few times as it got tangled! We made a stop at a floating “café” just as we entered the Sangker River – thought it was a bathroom stop but were told to unload our bags and have lunch! Like a bunch of sheep we did as told and then after 10 mins or so were told to pick up our bags and walk to the shore (over planks to bridge the water) and find our next transportation under the shade trees as there was not enough water to continue! We got there to find 2 4x4 King Cabs that we were told would be the next mode of transport! There were about 26 or 28 of us! Oh boy, now what! The tailgates were putdown and luggage all strapped on them, covered with plastic luckily! Then the one driver told Wayne, Lori, Al & I to get in the King Cab - guess we were the closest oldies to the driver, so he grabbed us (thank goodness, as it certainly was no joy ride!)! We dared not complain as we folded ourselves into the back seats – enlightened to see there was air-con! The worst dirt road you can imagine – up and down dry creek beds, huge holes and craters on the dirt track, so bumpy and dusty and the poor guys in the back getting whacked by overhanging bushes! Slow going was hardly the right description! When we thought we should be nearing the end of the dirt track after about 2 hours we pulled up to a shack for a drink and recovery stop – we were so cramped but didn’t dare complain as would have been quickly thrown into the back! We could hardly make eye contact with the people in the back as we felt so guilt in the air-conditioned apparently luxurious seats we had . In fact the 4 of us even thought maybe we shouldn’t get out a our seats would be lynched! We desperately needed to stretch though! Quick drink stop and piled back in! Luckily was ONLY another 1 ½ hours to get to the ‘bus terminal”. Lori & Wayne hadn’t organised a place to stay yet so we told them about our Royal Hotel that we were staying at for CA$33 for 2 nights and they were picking us up from the boat pier! Seems like all the tuk tuks knew that the boats are not running so wait at the bus stop to grab up customers! Nice to see Hargreaves written on a piece of paper on arrival – so the 4 of us piled into the tuk tuk and “Soon” the driver took us off for the 5 min ride to the hotel. Again they do this for free so they can tout for your business whilst you are in town! It works because we were on a tight schedule and so asked him to give us an hour and then if he could take us on a trip to the Bamboo Train and to Phnom Sampeau and the bat caves, all before dark! Lori & Wayne joined us, you think we all would have been recovering from the trip, but seemed like we were all keen to seek more thrills! “Soon” was a lovely friendly tuk tuk driver and planned our whole trip down to the last minute so we could fit everything into a couple of hours! First stop, Bamboo Train - which is a very unique ride for US$5 each – its station is about 4km from town and it runs along 7km of warped and misaligned lines, taking about 20 mins but that depends on how many “cars” you meet coming in the opposite direction! Each train consists of a 3m long bamboo platform that sit on 2 bar-bell like bogies – one of which attaches by fan belt to a small engine that drives the train . If you meet another train coming towards you, the train with the least passengers stops, everyone gets off, the train is quickly removed from the tracks and put back when they have passed, but the drivers must help each other! Makes it a little slow going, but is a very rickety bumpy exhilarating ride as you sit on the platform on cushions, racing along the ground! The only shame is when you get to the end you arrive at a tourist stop and get plagued by kids and people selling all the same clothing! Wherever you go in Cambodia you hear “Laaady” or “Madaaaame” (pronouned as written) or “you promise me you buy from me” “promise me”!!! I made the mistake of favouring a little girl who I was trying to teach how to say Maple Leaf (my CAN flag on bag) who was so cute so I bought a woven bracelet from her and was consequently given the gears by an older girl with “but you promise to me!” for the next 5 mins! Urgh – Lori placated her by buying one to! Made the trip back faster as fewer trains heading towards us. Back into the tuk tuk for a 20 min ride over to Phnom Sampeau . As the road up to the temple is so steep and we didn’t have time to walk up, Soon took us to a Jeep “Taxi” to take us up the road to the temples and a killing cave up on the mountain. A Rambo wannabe in his camo clothes raced us up to the 1st stop (and he didn’t sit idly waiting for us while we looked around, he was constantly zooming up and down transporting any small groups!) and we alighted here for a look into the killing caves. There we found a staircase descending into a cavern where a golden reclining Buddha lies next to a glass cabinet memorial filled with skulls and bones from people that were bludgeoned to death and tossed into the hole at the top of the cavern, during the rule of the Khmer Rouge! Very airy and damp so quickly scooted out of there – all sorts of rudimentary statues placed outside a modern temple, depicting how these people were murdered! Rambo soon appeared and shot us up the road to a complex of temples at the top of the mountain with a beautiful view of the valley below. After a while up there we were hustled along to get back in the jeep to get down the hill and find a spot to sit to watch the bats coming out of the cave. Many tourists all sitting in plastic chairs along the road, all being served drinks while waiting for an amazing spectacle to take place. All of a sudden, once the sun has disappeared and the darkness just setting in, over 4 million bats fly out of the cave in a thick column! Incredible to witness this phenomenon, they just kept on coming out in a steady flow! Soon found us and said he would now drive us to another spot where you could see them better . He ducked through some side streets to join a line of tuk tuks parked along the main road where you could see the ribbon-like formation floating in the sky! Apparently it takes about 30 mins for them all to come out and then they disperse to feed off all the insects over the river and Tonle Sap Lake! Never seen anything remotely like it! Tired by now, we headed back to the hotel where Lori & Wayne stayed whilst Alan and I went in search of food – soon found a curry place and were happy with that!

Sat 4th Mar
Today was a day for exploring the town of Battambang and Alan had downloaded a recommended architectural tour of the city. It was a very good tour, taking us all over the town, pointing out some of the beautiful French period buildings as well as the modern architecture from the 60’s. There were 2 walking tours so we did them back to back and was wonderful exploring the town. Very hot and tired we found a restaurant to put our feet up and spent about an hour just chilling there – I wrote some blog – we had bumped into Lori & Wayne again and had made a plan to go the circus of Phare Ponleu Selpak together in the evening (we had purchased tickets online a few days before). Bought a power pack for my cell phone as battery charge only lasts half a day! Wandered passed the huge market on our way back to the hotel. Shower and change and then as Soon was already on a day trip with other tourists he sent his colleague to pick us up by tuk tuk to take us out to Phare (about 8km out of town) .  “Scorpion” was quite a character (so called due to huge scorpion tattoo on is forearm!).. This internationally acclaimed circus is based out of a multi-arts centre for disadvantaged kids so we spent some time looking around their exhibit hall at various painting, sketching’s, sculptures – all fantastic work. There was a shop there and I got talking to a guy in his early 20’s who had painted a whole lot of water colours of Bayan Temple – bought one to bring home. Was disappointed he didn’t have any with orange robed monks on them as he showed me them on his cell phone but had sold out! Calls himself Sombath Battambang and became my Facebook buddy so I could follow his progress! Ended up that he was doing all the introductions for the show. Show lasted about 75 mins and was very entertaining with all the acrobatics and antics while following a story line involving ghosts! They juggled and performed using silks and also balancing acts on chairs – they did a great show and appeared to have such fun doing it so we really enjoyed ourselves. Scorpion was waiting to take us back to the hotel and then we just walked to the river front to find something to eat for a late dinner. Lori picked a street stall that had pretty dubious food and the meal that Alan I were going to share as weren’t too hungry was so gross that I gave up after one bite. Huge fat noodles with gross gravy on it – don’t know what it was but wasn’t that hungry after all! Said our farewells and headed to room to pack as were leaving first thing in the morning.