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Published: March 20th 2011
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We arrived in Battambang in the evening after a 5 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh, we were the only westerner's on the bus and it was our first local bus ride. We managed to score a mean deal at the Lux Guesthoue $10 a night and the room was up to hotel standards.
Battambang is Cambodia's third largest town but it is really quite small so we only planned to stay for two nights.
The next morning we organised a tuk tuk for the day, we planned on visiting some hill top temples, check out the country side and ride the bamboo train.
The first stop was the infamous bamboo train and we had no idea what we were in for. The "train" was epic, it is made up of two axels that look like dumbells on steroids with a platform made of bamboo that sits on top and a engine that looks like it came from a lawn mower!! The train only reaches top speed of 15km but when your sitting only 30cm off the tracks and have the fresh air whizzing past you it feels like your flying. The locals use these trains to transport goods and
also so the country people can come into town. Now what happens when one train meets another coming in the opposite direction? The train with the lightest load has to take everything off, disassemble let the other train pass then reassemble. We had so much fun riding the train and its sad because in a couple more months they will no longer be able to run as there is a massive upgrade planned for the tracks so that big freight and passenger trains can pass through, we were very lucky to be there when we were.
After the thrill of the bamboo train we headed out into the country side to visit a hill top temple. We paid a local boy down the bottom a couple of buck to run us to the top on his scooter. Half way up there is a killing cave where the Khmer Rouge used to murder people by pushig them into this cave from an opening 20m above, it seems no matter where you go you can not escape the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge.
Further up at the summit there is a beautiful temple and we met a monk up there, the
monks love to chat so they can practice their english. We told him we were from NZ and he knew about Christchurch which suprised us, he offered his condolences for our nation. After chatting to him further we learnt that for the past couple of years he has fundraised $3000 and built a new school and dormitory where he works teaching english to orphan children. He said that volunteers can go and work there, they are housed and fed and can volunteer as long as they choose, Jono and I wished we had more time as we would have loved to have stayed and helped but we promised we would be back one day in the future to lend a hand. Talking to this monk was truly inspiring, we donated $20 to his school and he blessed our travels and our lives it was very touching.
We had planned to head to another temple but were very tired so we decided to head back to the gueshouse and booked a boat to Siem Reap.
The boat ride to Siem Reap is meant to be the most picturesque in Cambodia, in the wet season it takes 5 hours but in
the dry season it can take anywhere from 7 t 9, it took us 8.
The ride was awesome, we went through a nework of small canals and saw lots of birds. Our boat was too big for these canals in some places to we had a Cambodian man sitting at the front of the boat with a big stick to push us off the bank when we got stuck turning corners. After 8 hours we were glad to be in Siem Reap.......
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