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021 - Cambodia - Battambang
05/31/08 - 06/04/08
The second largest city in Cambodia? Really?
Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia and, although you can sense its desire to be the next tourist destination of the country, still has a long way to go before offering Siem Reap caliber attractions. After the dramatic events that occurred in Siem Reap (check out our
previous entries if you missed them), Hannah and I wanted a few days of decompression to analyze our thoughts, write the blog entries, and regain our energies. We found a nice hotel with a bathtub, mini-fridge, air-conditioning, and HBO! Just what the doctor ordered!
Here's a little hint about travel guides: sometimes they're completely wrong! Let me quote what the 'yellow bible' (the Southeast Asia on a Shoestring by Lonely Planet) has to say about Battambang: “...Battambang is an elegant riverside town sheltering the best-preserved French period architecture in the country.” I mean, I'm no architect, and I'm definitely not one to be the judge of elegance, but you have got to be kidding me!! Battambang is next to a river, yes, but besides that, it's got regular-looking old buildings scattered in an industrial
setting. It's hard to find elegance when every other shop is refurbishing old motor parts or welding metal pieces together, and the roads are filled with industrial trucks, motorbikes, and dirt. Oh yeah, and it doesn't have a grocery store, all of the street stalls close by 8PM, and the restaurants are few and far between.
We hired a couple of motorbike drivers (they were a father/son team) on one of the days for a tour around the city outskirts. We saw Wat Ek Phnom and its impressive giant Buddha statue, Wat Banan and its mini Angkor Wat ruins, and Phnom Sampeau, a mountain with a prison and caves that were used by the Khmer Rouge for interrogation and murder. The most interesting part of our day, however, was conversing with the father, Phi-Lay, as he shared with us his tragic accounts of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
In case you don't know, the Khmer Rouge basically wiped out one quarter of the population of Cambodia between 1975 - 1979 (almost 2 million people died). Nearly 80% of the inhabitants of the capital city, Phnom Penh, were killed. This means that anyone over the age of 30 lived through
this genocide, and anyone over 40 probably has a good recollection of the events and more than likely witnessed at least a handful of family members and/or friends perish. In Phi-Lay's case, both his parents and most of his siblings were killed. He was forced to work in a concentration camp for over 12 hours per day in inhumane and unsanitary conditions. He was so malnourished (as were most of the workers at the camps) that his skin would fall off and form open wounds if he scratched it too hard. It was tragic for him, but he survived and now has a big family (9 children!) in Battambang.
The motorbike tour with Phi-Lay and his son was fantastic and we got a genuine first hand description of the Khmer Rouge tragedies. We also took some long walks around the city and found the giant Battambang statue and the 'American Corner' littered with NGOs and international English schools.
After a few days of recovering and exploring the sleepy 'big city' of Battambang, we're ready for some chaos as we head to Cambodia's capital. Next stop, Phnom Penh.
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Temple Fever
At Angkor Thom, Jane and I were standing by one of the main gate roads lined with statutes on both sides that are pulling on a snake. Our tour guide explained that one side of the road was lined with demons. I asked him "How can you tell which ones are demons?" He replyed in a heavy Cambodian accent, "Dehlen . . . iz easy . . . look for the round eyes - demon have a round eye, like you." No further questions. So show that demons can be good people will ya? ; )