...a day out in Battenbang

---

Arriving in Battenbang at 7am, we found Nitch, a tuk tuk driver who took us to a cheap guesthouse '333' where we freshened up and arranged for pick up again at midday. As we were only staying here for one night we wanted to see all of the main sights in one day so Nitch was our chauffeur for the day.

The main attraction being the Bamboo train. This is an old railway track which is no longer used for a proper train service, but used as a tourist attraction. They built bamboo platforms with an engine that run on the track. You sit on the bamboo and let the 'train diver' take you down the track. We were greeted by women and children selling stuff as usual, but some of the kids took us to see where bricks were made. This was very interesting as we saw local people at work making the bricks.

Our next stop were some temples and caves. We both had a motorbike driver who drove us up to the top of a hill where we wandered around some temples then walked to a viewpoint where a bunch of Monks were hanging out. We sat chilling with them looking over a view of Battenbang. Pretty cool.

The 'The Killing Cave' was a cave that during the time of the Khmer Rouge, innocent people were taken there and thrown down. The 'Bat' cave was an amazing experience. At exactly 17.30, bats would start flying out of the cave in which we looked up to. There were hundreds. No, millions of the little creatures.

Back near our hotel in the evening, we strolled down the road where we ate some very cheap street food and chatted to the owner - a Cambodian/American dude, followed by an early night ready for a bus journey to Siem Reap.

---