Advertisement
Published: February 16th 2007
Edit Blog Post
What to do what to do in Battembang?? A walk around the place was just like any other place in cambodia really apart from alot more french buildings than id seen before.Busy roads,Noisy as hell,jam packed markets.There wasnt really alot to do.The night before id met some people from the boat trip and we paid for some homeless kids to sit and eat with us which the people in the cafe were not to happy abut which was a bit suprising.You think theyd want their own people to eat.We ended up leaving and taking them to another cafe,soon wed be surrounded by a huge gang of dirty children with pjamas worn for maybe 3 weeks asking for "yim yam" (food) but we couldnt pay for all,But the resteraunt owners attitude had left me with a bit of a bitter taste in mouth.Anyway I decieded to hire a moto driver to take me out for the day to see a killing cave from the pol pot era,The famous bamboo train and out to a lake for a swim.As with all moto drivers the guy looked really dodgy but turned out to be class.First he took me out to the Lake.It was
quite a nice drive and again quite painful on the gonads.When out there there wasnt a tourist in site,Just a village of children all paying underneath a dam.I got stared at again which ive come acustomed to now.And some little kids where clearly taking the mick out of me.Following me round saying stuff in Khmer.Pretty sure they were calling me a homo.Was mad just watching them all play underneath this dam ,really happy,throwin footballs at each other with their little life jackets on when a bell rang and they all ran off.Maybe to school.I went for a dip in the lake keeping one eye on my bag incase these little ratbags had me off.The 3 in particular stayed close by,Like I said Couldnt speak any english and my Khmer is not up to speed obviously ( all though I can say ï love you but you lie to me"" all i need really....oh and kiss my arse) but Im pretty sure again we were just calling each other ladyboys by the hand gestures.I had a little box with them and they kicked my arse.Probably the cheekiest little kids ive met I keep saying to everyone "how beautiful are the children
here?" not these little shits!! Then we headed off to see the Killing Caves.I spoke to the driver about teh Khmer Rouge era,Hes the first guy to be really open about it.He told me that nearly everyone in his village died,He like many escaped to the thai border,but he told me of many beatings he took,sometime the story would get lost in the wind as the moto shot through the rugged roads though.When at the cave i paid a village kid $1 dollar to take me up.The driver said he cant face to go up there.It was a steep walk up the kid ran ahead as i driped twice my bodyweight in sweat.At the top was a huge buddha overlooking the village.then down to 2 caves.Coincidently the book i was reading on the killing fields,the guy is working in these very fields that i was overlooking,now so peaceful...just 30 years ago a seen of mass murder and torture.the caves where pretty harsh,a case of human skulls there with some bones and clothing on the top and next to the main cave...just an empty cave with a hole at the top where they kill people and chuck them into this cave
like garbage.It wasnt hard to imagine due to the book and it was pretty harrowing,next to the skulls was a huge ashtray type thing where the little boy said "head ,here" then made a hammer like motion and throat slitting gesture.To be fair I was a little shook up.On the way back down I plaid with an old Vietnamese cannon used in the war and went bach down for dinner with my driver.He talked in length about th era again.But said that because no Khmer rouge where ever brought to trail now they just clame to be something else and most of them are in high levels of the goverment.Unbelievable,the head guys in the governent are ex Khmer rouge soldiers. "How can you ever win??" he said "so so sad"...........
From the caves we headed to the bamboo train.A few freinds had shown me pics of it so i knew what to expect.The was one LONG stretch of track that was clearly not safe! "wheres the train ??" i asked "they make it now" along came 2 lads putting the wheels and a few peices of bamboo!! powered by a motorbike engine!! It stretches for Miles to take food to
other provinces etc.Some Cambodians asked if they could get on,I think they wait for tourist to jump on then see if they can get a free ride which i had no problems with.Only proble on a one way straight track is what if someone comes the other way?? I soon found out when we where coming head on with another "train" we both stopped and because we had the heavest load they had to physically take theirs off the track for us to get through.Madness.After about 30 mins on the train and wondering HOW it stayed on those tracks (there was inches missing in places) We went home via a fruit bat farm,pretty uninteresting,Id had a great day and my driver had gave me a good insight into the recent past id been unwilling to ask about.Again covered in orange dust (cambodian snow) i asked him to drop me off at my guest house he hesitataed,And said culd he drop me off in town because my guest house has mafia working for them...if they saw him taking me back hed get killed. "I have wife and children Mike"
Cambodia is Crazy and im beginning to learn Life is Very cheap
here..........
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0433s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb