Bangkok, Poipet and Battambang

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Hi all! Well I'm now writing from a hotel room in Battambang in the north west of Cambodia waiting for the heavy rains to stop - I think we'll have to get used to this, apparently the rainy season has been pretty pitiful over the past few years so this year might make up for it! Which is good for the crops but keeps us inside! After a night bus to Bangkok last Sunday, we stayed with Carol our French friend for the day on Monday, spending it all in MBK, one of Bangkok's largest shopping malls helping her find some gifts for her family and friends, and buying a few things ourselves - I bought some new trousers to replace the ones I bought in Goa, the first week we were away... they really needed chucking!! We said goodbye to Carol that evening and spent a night in central Bangkok before getting a train to the Thai/Cambodian border on Tuesday - the Hualamphong train station in Bangkok is very old, and as most of central Bangkok is so modern now, it really didn't feel like we were in the city! The train tracks were only a small step down from the platform, and we had to climb up quite a few steep steps to get up to the train! We had a pleasant 6 hour journey through countless fields, and farmers working various crops. It was only a third class train but as the windows were down it didn't feel too hot, even though the train got pretty busy at one point... We got to the border of Aranyaprathet and Poipet, small Thai/Cambodian border towns in the mid evening and luckily the checkpoint was still open! Also there were no queues (we'd been told by others that it can get pretty busy with those doing visa runs back into Thailand as well as those entering Cambodia) and as it was mid evening it wasn't half as hot as it would have been if we'd arrived earlier in the day... So it worked out well. We stayed in a guest house in Poipet that evening before moving on to Battambang on Wednesday. The bus journey took us through lots of small villages, the poverty here is very visible and the infrastructure is still being developed after the devastating results of the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970's which destroyed much of the country's economic development along with large towns and cities in favour of forcing their people into rural labour. However, this country's people are some of the friendliest we've met so far on our travels, and are always smiling and willing to engage with us which is so lovely. We've been staying at a nice hotel in the centre of Battambang, just across the street from the large indoor market. On Thursday we paid a very friendly tuk tuk driver called Sokher to take us around the south of Battambang. We visited the 11th century Banan temple, on top of Banan mountain with countless steps up to it - with it being 35° heat it was a bit of a task! However by the time we had got up there we had a small army of children following us which was entertaining, and they enjoyed testing their English on us. They gave us some beautiful flowers at the top also 😊 the Buddhist temple was still in use, however looked in disrepair and as old as it was with fallen bricks and stones from it dotting the summit. We were surprised to see cactus as one of the plants growing around the temple also. We spent a while looking round recovering from the many steps up and taking pictures. After that, Sokher took us through lots of rural villages and stopped in Watkor village at a large old Khmer house on stilts, reminiscent of many of the rural houses in this area. A nice old man showed us around the old wooden house, which is still set up in its traditional style and hasn't been changed since it was built in the early twentieth century. Him and his family actually live underneath of the house, where it's cooler and the upstairs is now open to visitors. He also uses the original rooms for visitors to stay in if they wish. Lastly we visited the infamous killing caves in Phnom Sampov which was site of torture and many killings during the Khmer Rouge regime. There is a former prison half way up which is now a very brightly coloured temple and a memorial to the thousands that died here. On the way up there are more brightly coloured golden Buddha's and temples before reaching the caves. It was awful to think that the government threw their own people down here in their masses as recently as the 1970s.... there are hundreds of skulls and clothing from the victims still on show in the base of the cave from this horrid point in history... a very sombre experience. Just before heading back to Battambang, Sokher stopped to let us see thousands of insect bats leaving the caves just to the back of Sampov mountain at sunset to go and find insects to eat. It was an amazing sight and as we took the ride home continued to see many bats flying in a mass line to their feeding sights. We did some planning yesterday, and decided where we wanted to visit in our 4 weeks in Cambodia and also started to think seriously about our plans afterwards. Our main thinking at the moment is to find work for a few months soon after leaving Cambodia, so now it's time to start updating our CVs and applying to prospective employers... teaching English will be our best bet and we've been looking at doing this in either Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, cities we already have a feel for and those in which we have friends and other contacts within this area of work... So we'll see what comes of it! We've booked a bus ticket to Siem Reap tomorrow, a town east of here which is famous for its proximity to Ankhor Wat the massive temple complex which is Cambodia's main attraction for visitors to the country. So we're looking forward to visiting this in the next few days 😊 anyway, I think that's about all for this week! Rach xx

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