Cambodia - from killing caves to colonial hill stations

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After four fab days spent temple hopping around Siem Reap it was time to move on. Last time I was here we'd arrived by bus from Phnom Penh and left by plane to Laos.... this time I left by boat to Battambang. I'd booked my ticket through one of the travel agents in town but something about the whole booking process hadn't left me feeling too confident - fortunately the taxi truck arrived to pick me up, but it seemed I was one of the lucky ones!! As we stopped to do more pickups we almost left two people behind (much shouting and banging on the roof of the drivers cab to get him to stop!) and picked up several others who had tickets but weren't on the drivers list. By the time we reached the ferry, space in the back of the truck was tight - backpacks piled everywhere, even one on the roof of the drivers cab which two of us spent the rest of the trip hanging on to as we whizzed round corners. At the dock we split into two groups... those going to Phnom Penh, who were led off to their nice big boat, and the ten of us that were going to Battambang who were pointed over to a little tub. We'd all heard the stories about the 'reliability' of this service.... breakdowns, taking double the time etc and if we were going to be spending extra hours on the water, well we weren't liking the idea of spending it in the tub. Fortunately the ferry guys seemed to come to a similar decision and moved us to a slightly bigger but more comfortable one. Great we all thought..... much better for the journey. Five minutes after leaving the dock we broke down. It seemed this wasn't the terminal kind of breakdown though... a few hefty whacks with a spanner and a bit of tweaking of the engine and the boat men soon had us on the move again.

The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. For most of the year its only around 1m deep, covering an area of 2,700 square km. Come the monsoon rains though it increases to 16,000 square km and a depth of up to 9m as the Tonle Sap river, which connects the lake with the Mekong, reverses its flow and water is pushed from the Mekong into the lake. Surrounding fields and forests are flooded and the nutrient flux from the Mekong makes the lake a huge fish breeding groud, supporting over 3 million people and providing 75% of Cambodia's annual inland fish catch. Villagers of the floodplain area move their homes according to the season. As we crossed the lake to Battambang we stopped at a number of floating villages - now picking up passengers here was bizarre…. we’d pull up in these small floating fillages, people would paddle up in a small canoe where upon one of them would either hop on the ferry or someone else would get off. Trying to imaginine what life was like for kids living out here was difficult - we saw lots of them but where would you play? The houses are small and as soon as you left your front door you were in a boat paddling off somewhere.

We got off the boat at Battambang to find a welcoming committee waiting for us.... every guest house in town seemed to have sent someone to persuade us that theirs was the best place to stay, plus there were a load of taxi and moto drivers who all wanted to be our driver/guide.... and in a bid to get our attention they all tried to out shout the next. This was obviously a bit of a daily ritual and the boat people had put a few pieces of rope up to keep them back whilst we grabbed out bags and took it all in..... all along being heckled from every direction with shouts of 'You want hotel?', 'Guide?', 'Taxi?' or having books of recommendations from other tourists thrust at us to look at. Having had no real thoughts about where I was going to stay I quickly hooked up with an Italian guy and three Irish girls that I'd been chatting to on the boat and headed away from the mayhem and off to one of the hotels.....

Lining the banks of the Sangker River, Battambang is a quiet place with its French colonial history obvious in its architecture (although many of the buildings have fallen in into a semi-neglected state) and we spent the rest of the day exploring the 'sights' in town. Well, to be honest there aren't that many of them to see.... most of the things that interested us involved people watching - at the market, the temples, shops and boat life along the river - but compared to the tourist mecca that is Siem Reap for me that was part of the towns charm. Yes there were some hotels, internet cafe's and restaurants with English menu's but this was very much a provincial locals city - relaxed in atmosphere and, with the exception of moto drivers wanting to take you on a tour, there was none of the hassle that you got in the centre of Siem Reap. I don't think I got asked to buy postcards or a book once!

We only had one full day in Battambang but made the most of it. The five of us squeezed ourselves into a car (compared to normal Cambodian standards that's probably not really a squeeze.... I'm sure they could have found room for another 2 people) and headed off out to the surrounding countryside. First stop of the day was Wat Banan... which surprise surprise was situated on top of a hill.... how come there's always a steep hill to climb when its a really hot day??! So some 300 plus steps and several heart attacks later... that was us not the local kids who fairly ran up and down the stairs beside us chatting away as we huffed our way to the top.... and we were greeted by the some great views out over the surrounding green countryside. The Wat itself has five towers and originally dates from 11th century when it was built by Udayadityvaman II.

Back in the car our next stop was Phnom Sampeau... and another trudge up to the top of a hill :0( As we got out of the car we were surrounded by a group of young boys and shouts of $2, $2... the going rate it seemed for being a 'guide' ;0) Phnom Sampeau is a striking limestone hill that rises up to dominate the flat countryside that surrounds it. We started off with a trip straight to the top of the hill and the modern, rather brightly painted temple buildings that are there. Again the views over the surrounding countryside were amazing. Our guides then took us onto another small temple that during the Khmer Rouge years was used as a prison and torture centre. For most prisoners, once they were interned here the only escape was death. Prisoners were marched 100m or so to a small opening and pushed down a 15m deep hole. Some prisoners were bludgeoned before they were pushed down, others sustained broken bones when they hit the cave of the base.... or the bodies that had piled up beneath them. Surrounded by the stench of decaying bodies and unable to climb out of the cave themselves the prisoners were slowly starved to death as more bodies were dumped in on top of them. A smaller cave nearby was allegedly used as a torture chamber and our young guides pointed at different spots and tried to explain what had happened there. Maybe 10,000 people died in these caves. There's a small simple memorial inside one of the caves that I can still picture now - bones and smashed skulls that have been collected from the site placed within a wooden enclosure. This and the tattered pieces of clothing provided a chilling reminder of events that happened not so long ago.

We had a leisurely drive back into town before our last adventure of the day - cooking class!! I'd never thought to try one of these before on my travels... being vegetarian the fish and chicken dishes usually taught aren't really my thing. The cooking school is a local restaurant where by day the owner gives cooking lessons, as well as serving anyone who just wants to eat. First task was choosing what to cook off the menu, which was fairly easy at we'd eaten there the night before and had a good chance to sample what was on offer! That done it was off to the the local market to buy the ingredients. It was an indoor market with stalls spilling outside, hot inside and with the air full of the smells of spices and dried fish.... and sundry other animal parts I'm sure. Somehow I ended up being the only one that tagged along for the whole shopping trip.... the sight and smells of fish guts, and soon to be dead fish being whipped out of a bowl and laid on a wooden block with the hatchet at the ready was all a bit too much for the others. Perversely I found it interesting... maybe that's because I didn't have to eat it! Back at the restaurant we had a hilarious few hours as we alternately cooked and ate our various dishes. I'd only ever used a pestle and mortar in a lab before but I'm a bit of an expert with it in the kitchen now too.... nothing it seemed came pre-ground a la Tesco's stylee and we had to make our own curry paste from scratch. V yum!

Next morning was an early start to catch the bus to Phnom Penh. I didn't really have much of a plan of what to do when I arrived - I'd been here last time I'd visited Cambodia and whilst I'd had 3 great days here then I wasn't too sure how long I'd stay this time. As it turned out it was all of about an 90mins. The second we got off the bus we were surrounded by a ring of 'security guards' whose job it was to hold back the swarming tuk tuk and moto drivers whilst we got our bags off the bus.... that done we were on our own!! Franchesco had decided to head straight to Kampot and feeling like I needed a more relaxed pace of life than Phnom Penh was offering at that moment I opted to go with him. There was no direct bus we could take that afternoon so we purchased the services of a tuk tuk man to take us to the out of town 'bus station' from where we could apparently get a 'shared taxi' to Kampot. At the 'bus station' (kind of like a layby come parking lot) we were faced with two options - squish into a normal size car with 6 other people or squish into a mini van with 20 other people. Neither sounded particularly comfy but for reasons that I can't quite remember we choose the mini van option... and then proceeded to wait for another hour whilst it filled up - these guys could give the Burmese a serious run for their money and I thought they were the masters at cramming people into buses! Luckily I managed to get myself a front seat so there was just me, the two guys next to me and the driver across the front - much more comfy than Franchesco who got squashed with the mases in the back... and did I mention the guys on the roof to??!!! As we finally got underway Franchesco and I found ourselves a bit of a tourist attraction... both on the bus and the few stops we had on the way down. I got off a few times at the small towns and villages we stopped at and within minutes had locals shyly coming up to try their English... giggling away amongst each other when I replied.

Arriving in Kampot we checked into a great little guest house and spent most of the next day just recovering from a day on the bus - relaxing in hammocks at the hostel or wondering round the town centre sampling the local cafe's and their excellent coffee. For our second day we booked a trip out to Bokor Hill Station. Located on Phnom Bokor (Bokor Mountain) at an elevation of @1000m this abandoned mountain top colonial hill station was constructed by the French in the early 1920s as a place for the wealthy to escape the searing summer heat in the Phnom Penh. To say the drive up the mountain was bumpy would be an understatement ;0) .... after a few slow bone jarring hours spent winding through the forest along a potholed track we were all glad to get out of the truck. The first stop was the 'Black Palace', a now derelict mountain retreat built by King Norodom Sihanouk which had great views out to sea. Back in the truck, a bit more bouncing along the road and we reached the rest of the buildings, including a stately hotel and casino and Catholic Church. The hill station was first abandoned in the late 1940s as the Vietnamese fought for independence against the French, and then for good in the early 1970s when the Khmer Rouge came. The red colour of the neglected buildings contrasts with the green of the surrounding mountain side and the fact that fighting that took place here is clear to see in broken brick work.

After a quick lunch we split up into two groups - some heading to a waterfall and others, including me, for a forest walk..... we quickly realised we should have chosen the waterfall.... the best/funniest part of our walk coming at the end as we discovered that flip flops really aren't the footwear of choice when stuck in a mud bog and ended up being hosed down after taking a somewhat ungainly slide! After we'd bumped our way back down the mountain, stopping to see the most humongous spider and its web on the way, we headed to the river and our boat ride back to town. A great way to end the day - we chugged slowly along, watching life go by on the river bank and stopping for a swim, which provided some entertainment for the locals - some of the kids joined us in the water, others looked on and laughed as we fell in again trying to pull ourselves back into the boat..... I think it took everyone at least two attempts to get back on board!

The next day Franchesco headed back to Phnom Penh and I started my journey back to Bankgok. I had two options for getting to the boarder at Koh Kong - 1) take the ferry from Sihanoukville or 2) take the bus. I guess I should have realised what 'bus' meant.... but thinking it would be more scenic than the boat option 8am found me hanging out at the roundabout that is Kampot 'bus station' waiting for my 'bus' to leave. Time ticked slowly by, more and more people piled into the minivan, the minivan showed no signs of leaving and I got more and more concerned that I wouldn't make it to the Thai boarder that day.....so I decided to bail off of the bus, get a taxi to Sihanoukville (easy as the 'bus station' also doubled up as the 'shared taxi' station) and try and get on that darn boat. At this point I was sat by the window carefully guarding my seat (having already had a row with a local who thought he had bagged the spot.... I was claiming squatters rights) and I tried to explain to the driver who was standing outside that I needed to get out and leave... he nodded, dashed off, and came back with a black bin liner, made vomiting motions into the bag and handed it to me, much to the hilarity of half the bus - guess I need to work on my Khmer. We finally left about 90 mins late, with the requisite small village of people packed inside and on top of the bus, along with seemingly endless boxes of lord knows what that we picked up from various stops on our way of of town. The road to the boarder was longgg (maybe 6 hours on the bus plus waiting time.... a fraction of some of the other journeys I've done but it seemed like an eternity), bumpy, hot (window open type of aircon) and cramped.... but the scenery was really stunning. I'd started thinking that Cambodia was all flat - most of the scenery I'd seen was flat green rice fields as far as you could see, but here still green, the flat turned into hills and peaks. The most entertaining part of the trips was the ferry crossings..... 4 of them. Apparently at some point bridges are going to be built/repaired but at the moment its the old fashioned way - you arrive, join the vehicle queue (at which point everyone scrambles out of the van in search of some air, space and maybe a cold drink), wait for the 'ferry' (v dubious looking floating piece of nailed together metal sheets that the vehicles drive onto.... OK slight exaggeration maybe), board, drift across, pile off at the other end and squish back into the van again. At the first crossing I was surprised to find that I wasn't the only foreigner - there was a large, older, balding man who was on the boat to. We got chatting and it turns out that he was an Australian guy, a bit sleazy, something to do with property development and amused that I didn't know who he was. Guess that should have been a sign. He laughed when he saw the van I was in and pointed out his nice air con car.... did I want to join him he said?.... no I said, I quite like the cultural experience of being squashed like a sardine.... me and him in the back seat?? I think not. At the second crossing we met again... where was I staying at the boarder he said? I said I'd probably try and push through to Trat. He was staying in a nice 5* resort..... and did I want to join him there for cocktails and dinner if I didn't cross? Oh dear. At the third crossing he sought me out again..... his friend owned the 5* hotel - did I want him to get me a room there?? Ahh it'll be out of my price range I said... Oh but am sure he will give you a discount he said, and you can spend the evening relaxing in the pool in your bikini with a cocktail..... what colour is your bikini he said??? Yuk yuk yuk and why do I always manage to attract the sleaze bags! Fortunately when we got to the fourth crossing they'd already gone across so I was left chatting with the much nicer locals. Finally I made it to Koh Kong with enough time to jump on a moto and get across the boarder before the crossing closed. Once on the other side I settled onto the bus to Trat... a minivan much like the one I'd just spent the last 6 or so hours in.... except it had aircon of the electronic kind... and only 6 of us in it!!! Quite boring really ;0)


Next up... Thailand to Sydney, the scenic route....

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