Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 25

hey everyone, im back to slow internet and no internet for the next couple of days so might be a while till i get some pics up again and updates may not happen for a couple days. But i have been upto a bit like yesterday i did sunrise at angkor wat which was really cool despite the clouds, i felt like a big geek with my headlamp but you really couldn't see anything for a while without it. So we explored angkor wat for a while then went to the land mine museum which was really good to go see, a local runs the place and decommisions mines with just a stick and a screw driver no metal detector no nothing, he also has adopted 11 boys who are all land mine victims and gets ... read more

Today we we got out of bed at another ungodly hour (5.30 am....don't these people know I'm on holidays!!), and met a bus which would take us on a 6 hour boat ride from Siem Riap to Battambang. Now while that sounds fairly shite, I can say that despite the heat and the length of the trip it wasn't too bad. I found it a fairly surreal experience to be sitting on the floor of the boat, watching houses in the middle of nowhere in the water on stilts, and having "recapturing the vibe" by Hilltops blaring through my iPod. Also I can highly recommend Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre...read half on the plane over, and half on the boat...great book!!! Siem Riap is the second largest city after Phnom Pehn (the capital) and Battambang ... read more

After a nice bit of breakfast at a cafe called 'Sunrise' we met our guide, Sam. We drove into the countryside, passing rice fields that were being worked in by women and children who smile and wave and all look really happy but well worn with their hard work. The roads were bumpy!! Our first stop was Phnom Sampeau, Phnom meaning hill and I think Sampeau means sail. This is another place in Cambodia where normal everyday people were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge. There are a couple of caves at the top and Sam took us inside one that contained a cage full of skulls and bones. Apparently 10,000 people were brought here and killed. Another gruesome piece of Cambodian history. Whilst up this hill we started to get a funny feeling about ... read more

We have a nice little room here in Battambang - power shower, much needed after the Incredible Never-Ending Journey from Siem Reap...we also have the additional luxury of satellite TV, so we can catch up on (depressing - surprise, surprise) world news. Battambang is Cambodia's second largest city. This doesn't make it particularly big, but the traffic comes as a bit of a surprise ! It has a large collection of beautiful colonial-period buildings (shophouses, mainly), some restored, some crumbling. Regardless of the state of repair they are all very attractive and give the city a very laid-back atmosphere. Our first full day in Battambang (17 July) was spent mostly watching a variety of satellite TV channels as it poured with rain for most of the day. This was a welcome break from the humidity and ... read more

Answer ? In Cambodia ! Let me enlighten you... We booked some tickets a couple of days before to catch the "Angkor Express" (oh, the irony) from Siem Reap to Battambang. This boat departs from the Siem Reap River (a few miles out of town, bus trip included), sails down it for a few miles before entering the Great Lake, the Tonlé Sap, which occupies a large part of the country. It then enters the Stung Sangker (Sangker River), and sails along that to Battambang. The journey is only possible from June to November, when the water is high enough, and the lady selling us the tickets told us it would take about five hours. The guidebook sort of corroborated this (sort of) so we gladly bought the tickets - the trip is reputed to be ... read more