Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia

At the western end of Battambang, the old train station clock reads barely past eight. It has been that way for years – maybe decades, even – because, having lived out its purpose long ago, it stopped ticking. But the truth is, it’s already one in the afternoon, and the clock feels like it has stopped less because of technical malfunction than a result of a magical spell that froze time indefinitely. With skies overcast and streets eerily quiet – except for the occasional cars, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians – the whole place feels like a scene from a post-apocalyptic film. A couple of Western tourists ride their bikes before disappearing in a narrow alley. In another narrow street, virtually all houses and stores have their doors shut, except for one in which the doorway frames ... read more

As a last minute decision and in the spirit of travelling we decided not to go straight to Phnom Penh from Siem Reap. Instead we decided to go to the small town of Battambang, which incidentally is Cambodia’s second largest city founded in the 11th century in the Northwest of Cambodia. The name Battambang or Batdambang, literally means “loss of stick” referring to a legend of the Preah Bat Dambang Kranhoung (Kranhoung Stick King). The population is nowadays around 250,000 people . It’s a riverside town, home to some of the best-preserved, French colonial architecture in the country. The journey from Siem Reap to Battambang is about 4 hours by coach and in the wet season you can take a boat which takes about 9 hours and is meant to have some of the best scenery ... read more

HE SAID... We woke early at 5am for a 6.30am start on our last morning in Phnom Penh. We packed, showered and headed down to the lobby where our pre-ordered breakfasts were waiting for us in plastic containers. I had yoghurt with roasted cashews and honey, while Ren had a banana pancake. Our minibus was a bit late, so we ate outside the hotel while we waited. We eventually jumped into the minibus at 7am and headed to the bus station, where we transferred to a larger bus for our six hour trip to Battambang. We left Phnom Penh at 7.15am. The trip was uncomfortable, as the Cambodian roads were rough and I was feeling the onset of a chest cold. The apparent lack of road rules was also a bit disconcerting. We stopped at a ... read more

Well, after waking up at 4 to the prayers, I opened my window to check the neighborhood out that early and realized this was not buddist chanting, this was definitely middle eastern in nature. Luckily David shed some light and found out there is a Muslim neighborhood close by, so that is where the prayers are coming from. This goes on for a good hour. Today was one of my favorite days in a city, Market Day! I love to spend a good hour roaming the market checking out all the fruits and vegetables, the meats, and maybe sit and have a bowl of soup. Right after arriving, the bottom fell out again and it rained very hard for about 20 minutes and made a big mess of everything in the area. Luckily that was the ... read more

There are some days on my journeys that are good, some days are great, and there are days like today, where I wish I could have piled all of you into the tuk tuk with me and hit the road. Its not easy to put into words or pictures the experiences, sights, sounds, smells, but you know I give it my best. My tuk tuk driver is David, and his English is good enough, but as we were starting out today he made the fatal mistake of telling me that if I see anything interesting, just tell him and he will stop. I think I added an hour onto the day, but he was a good sport about it. When you are going along and you see food for sale on the side of the road ... read more