Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 18

Cambodia has so many concrete statues, for more than Borneo. As an expatriate journalist in Kampot writes, It makes sense when a large part of the population cannot read, ... ie 'Turn right at the rhino and then left at the horse.' Besides random African animals Batambang has many pictures, statues and tableaux with obvious didactic roles. I was fascinated by these: The Killing Cave Take the painting in my second picture. It is labelled For Foreigner. The Khymer Rouge killed many people. They took them to the hole above a limestone cave, knocked them on the head, and threw them in. Some unlucky victims they threw in alive. The cave is now a shrine to the memory of the several hundred people killed here. Skulls and bones have been gathered into a glass-sided stupa. The ... read more

Wed 6th August We decided to travel south to Battambang from Siem Reap by boat. We bought tickets from a travel agent which cost US$15 each. We were told it would leave at 7am but a van would come to the hotel and take us to the pier. We waited until about 6.35am and there was still no sign of the van. The guy at the hotel said not to worry and it was normal to be late but we didn't want to take any chances. So we decided to get a tuk-tuk instead of risking missing the boat. We started regretting our decision soon after as we soon discovered that we had hired the slowest tuk-tuk in Siem Reap. The 11 kilometre journey was excruciating and as 7am ticked over the van that we were ... read more

Hej med jer Saa er det igen tid til en lille mail om hvad vi gaar og laver :-) Da vi sidst skrev var vi paa motorcykeltur i Vietnam, hvor vi efterfolgende havde et endnu et par dage. Naeste dag havde vi lidt start vanskeligheder da vi punkterede efter to min. korsel, men det var heldigvis i byen saa der skete ingenting. Som de fleste steder i Vietnam er der et lappevaerksted paa hvert gadehjorne - dvs en mand der sidder paa fortorvet med en pumpe og lidt lappegrej :-) Saa efter en lille times tid var vi videre. I lobet af dagen korte ud til et par vandfald, som ligger i "junglen" og den storste af dem var stor og meget imponerende, og man kunne komme meget taet paa og virkelig fornemme hvor meget tryk ... read more

We left Seam Reap by Boat, by the picture onthe ticket, it looked quite nice and relaxing for 7-10hrs, but when we arrived it was a small but long boat, where everyone had to sit either side and stare at each other the whole way, ha ha!! We went through a floating village called "Chong Kneas", then out on too a large lake called Tonle Sap Lake, but it was really rough, we got soaked, then back through small water ways and villages, very scenic. We saw a fair bit of wild life on the way, a Monkey among the grasses, King Fishers and a bird of pray of some kind. We arrived in Battambang mid afternoon, this place was strange, not many tourists around, lots of people just looked at you, we couldnt find any ... read more

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 P... read more