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Published: March 9th 2009
Canyon
Gorgeous Canyon we hiked into to find ancient Khmer statues for offerings.Day 52/53/54 - Battambang
We've just been having the best time torturing Rob with all kinds of pranks. Unfortunately, since we are hoping other friends will be joining us we can't reveal any of them now. But the two us have spent the last 3 days laughing it up at poor Rob's expense (but don't worry, he absolutely loves it). He also has provided us with such comic relief such as telling us he doesn't want to "be a sheep that cried wolf" (yeah, that is a direct quote). Our childhood dreams of having a little brother to pick on has truly been answered.
The first day in Battambang was pretty chill since we had such an early wake up call that morning and it was another scorching day in Cambodia. However, the next day (Sunday - March 3rd) we hired 3 motorbike drivers to take us around for the day after a bit of haggling on the price - we ended up paying $9 each. G's driver was full of information and told her about how 2 of his siblings were killed by the Khmer Rouge for eating corn out of a field bc they were starving. His
G, S, and Roberto
Hanging out at the top of Phnom Sampeau. father had to work in a camp and this mother fled the country to Thailand until the unrest settled. But despite all he and his family have gone through, he was really sweet and quite the comedian. He said that the bumpy roads were "Free Cambodian Butt Massages" and they gave the drivers "monkey butt - red like a monkey". Steph's driver was also an absolute riot and cracked jokes left and right all day. He told her that there are only 4 roads in all of Cambodia - a bumpy one, a dusty one, a muddy one and a slippery one. He said that the "peace" sign in Cambodia doesn't mean peace but rather "two dollars". Rob's driver was also quite informative but being that he was 68 years old, he was not the wise-cracker as our two drivers.
We started off the day by heading to Phnom Sampeau via a few difficult roads. At the base of the mountain was a Buddha statue and to the left a medium size opening that looked like an entrance to a cave. This little boy pointed for us to go in so G followed him in with Rob behind her
and Steph at the rear. About 25 steps into it, G noticed something glistening from the flashlight and the little boy looked back and they both saw that it was a snake. The boy jumped over the snake and past G and booked it for the exit. As soon as Rob and S heard G yell "snake!!" they booked it out of there asap. A group of Cambodian tourist we standing around the Buddha and all started laughing as the 4 of us came screaming out the hole in the mountain. We decided to declined the offer for the boy to show us around but ended up having to get this little girl to show us around as the paths were not marked at all and a few times they forked off in two separate directions. We made our way halfway up the mountain to the Killing Caves. This is where the Khmer Rouge would bludgeoned people to death and then throw them down into the cave via the skylight. There now sits a peaceful reclining Buddha and a memorial of skulls and bones in a glass case. Next we headed up further to the summit and chatted with a
Rob
Rob taking every opportunity to jump into a hammok. The Khmer people call it the 'national sport' monk that lived in the temples on the mountain. Afterwards we went down a steep canyon into a "lost world". There were two Angkorian statues and just tons of overgrowth with stalactites, vines and trees. On our way back down the mountain we explored two more cave - but these were not a closed in as the first one and no snakes to be seen anywhere.
After a quick bite to eat, we headed down yet again another dusty and bumpy road through villages toward Phnom Banan. The mountain has 358 stone steps to the top, so we took it easy and stopped every few minutes to enjoy the view of the countryside. Two little girls and one boy joined us on our walk and were quite the entertainment. Halfway through we stopped and sat on a pavilion like rest stop and danced around with the kids, had runway walk offs and pretended to do some kung fu fighting. It was so hilarious as the two little girls kept talking to us in Khmer and the two of us just smiled and nodded. We eventually got to the top of the mountain where five brick towers still remain from
the 11th century (they are said to be the inspiration for Angkor Wat). The bas-reliefs were still in pretty good condition considering they were built over a thousand years ago and were fired upon my the Khmer Rouge.
After downing some water and fanning ourselves with our bamboo fans, we then hopped back on the motorbikes towards the bamboo train. We stopped by a monastery one the way that had a huge tree on its ground with hundreds of upside bats. Our drivers said there are usually more but that most had gone to the seaside for winter. G and Rob went to check out the inside of the monastery while S stayed behind on a bench with the drivers as she wasn't feeling so well. The inside of the monastery was brightly decorated with neon acrylic paint that depicted Buddhist life. The down stair's panels were actually being repainted by the monks so G and Rob got to stop and watch.
We then had beautiful ride through rice fields and villages and eventually arrived at the tracks for the starting off point of bamboo train. In Khmer the trains are called - norry (nori) and consist of
Beautiful Kids
They hiked all the 300+ steps with us to Phnom Banan. a wooden frame with bamboo slats that rest on these barbell like wheels and are pushed along by a gasoline engine. It cost $3 each for 30 minutes, so we piled on and went for a ride of a life time (see video). The tracks are old and uneven which left our behinds quite sore. About halfway down the track came another bamboo train but since there were only two people on it, they had to get of and dismantle the train from the track. We eventually had to to get off ours though as a train was carry two guys and 3 cows. It was the highlight of our day especially since their are plans to upgrade the train service btw Battambang and Phnom Penh thus banning the use of the bamboo train, which locals use to to transport to and from the nearby markets.
At about 5pm we finally got back into the city and grabbed some dinner at the White Rose restaurant and chilled out the rest of night (taking long showers to get the dust out of our hair and skin).
In the AM, we actually ran into one of Swiss guys we met
Phnom Banan
Although it is more humble, Banan is older than Angkor Wat. in Siem Reap but quickly had to say goodbye as our bus was picking us up at 9:30AM to take us yet again back to Phnom Penh (round 4).
After a hot, sweaty bus ride with the weakest A/C ever we arrived in Phnom Penh and checked into "Okay Guesthouse" for $5 each a night.
Read more about Phnom Penh and our last few days in Cambodia at Koh Kong in the next blog.
xxx
G & S
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