In the jungle, the mighty jungle! - Battambang Province

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Battambang Province, in the North West is quoted as possessing some of the most beautiful landscape in Cambodia and it’s here that we head. It was due to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage site until illegal logging destroyed this potential profit's through increased tourism. Another example of corrupt Cambodia shooting themselves (or rather their people) in the foot.

The Cambodian public bus service however is great. Khmer karaoke all the way, the occasional near emergency stop as some cow wanders into the road - and the journey flies by. Literally. 60mph through towns, villages, over uneven bridges and around bends all with the horn blaring. Scarily this is starting to seem normal for us. God help us if we get a car when we get back home!

With a couple of local guides and a motos we head through villages, and visit temples and more killing fields. Cambodia has many killing fields, too many. Battambang Province escaped many of the early Khmer purges, but suffered greatly towards the end of the regime when the party started an inward purge of it’s own members. The “Killing Cave” offered the Khmer Rouge another way of saving bullets by simply throwing victims to their deaths into a steep cave. Grim. The bones remain, and the chill you experience has nothing to do with the weather.

Our guides are great, honest and open. One lost an older brother during the reign of terror and it took over 4 years for his full family to be reunited. He believes his mother went blind through crying every day for 4 years waiting for her family to return.

We talk about his experiences during the Khmer Rouge years. How his mother begged his teacher for his life to be spared when he was caught stealing a husk of corn and tied to a pole to die. Although he see’s no real point in the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders being prosecuted by the UN, a trial rumoured to cost $56m, he claims he would kill the teacher who tied him to a pole 30 years ago should they meet again. And also of the ongoing trauma people experience everyday with the many remaining landmines which cover the area.

Like many of the Khmer people we meet he is a friendly man who deserves so much more from his country.

Later after tearing Paul away from several glasses of rice wine in a fruit farm, we ride the “Bamboo Train”. Locals and tourists alike use the service which consists of a sheet of bamboo, a motorbike engine, and some makeshift wheels from a tank! Mad - but effective!

I think it says something that in the time the French occupied Cambodia they managed to build a railway system running the length of the country (admittedly through forced labour) and yet, the Khmer people cannot even manage to maintain the tracks. The bridges don’t seem strong enough to support our little train never mind the huge locomotives that come through 4 times daily, and the rail lines are warped and disconnected. In some places people can run faster than the train, and even going over the rails in our bamboo train is bone shaking, in stark contrast to our time on the Trans-mongolian.

We spent an truly amazing day, seeing 'real' Cambodia, talking first hand about the harsh war years and discussing their belief in Theravada Buddhism. We return to Battambang Town where I hear that my Grandad has pneumonia and is unlikely to pull through. We arrange to get back to Phnom Penh so I can fly home. However he can't hold on and upon my return to Phnom Penh I hear that he passed away less than 2 hours after I initially heard.

That he now features in a web blog that I primarily started so he could be part of our adventure is heartbreaking. And that I am unable to return home for his funeral even more so. We decide to head to Siem Reap, and visit Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. That it is the holiest place in Cambodia seems most appropriate.

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Grandad Lisle
Granddad Lisle was a great man and he will be remembered fondly by all who knew him. Rest in Peace.