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Battambang was a short 2 hours away from Siem Reap. We took a 'share taxi' which had Oli, me and a local in the back, the driver, and then two more locals sharing the front passenger seat. Apparently this was quite rare as usually they fit 4 in the back and then another person wedged between the drivers door and the driver! Once there in Battambang we walked around the town, looking at the old colonial buildings and the old railway station stuck at 8:02. The next day we went with Ya Ya, the tuk tuk driver to visit the bamboo trains that run on the old railway line. We paid our fee and on we got!
A bamboo wooden platform, a small engine and a driver = train.
We raced through the countryside for an exhilarating 25 minutes, passing cows, farmers and going over old bridges. Every time we went over a join between two pieces of steel, the carriage jumped and it made a loud thudding noise! We even had to get off the carriage at one point so that it could be moved off the track to make way for someone coming the other way! Once we arrived at the village we got off and were invited into a family's bamboo shack. Suddenly we were surrounded by the cutest Cambodian children thrusting friendship bracelets in our faces shouting 'buy 2 for 1 dollar' and others offering you their jewellery made of coconut leaves insisting they are free. The big sister stepped in and organised a game of Rock Paper Scissors. We would buy from the winner! The only boy won and we spent our $1 and also bought 2 cokes from the mother. After this all the kids sat around us, talking in their best english and playing simple games. Thirty minutes passed and the kids then spotted some other tourists and ran over to them instead! We spoke to the mother and asked her about the bamboo railway and its future. She said that she does not know what she will do if they re-establish the train lines in Cambodia. She didn't know how they would get money as her husband is one of the drivers. When we dug a little deeper she also said that out of the $10 that we paid for the ride, her husband got less than $2 and the rest goes to the tourist police/owners. Thats not much for a family of 6 per day!
Our driver was ready so we said our thank you's and travelled back to the 'station' crossing more cows and locals doing their ablutions in the river. Ya Ya took us to a temple complex on the top of a mountain in the middle of the flat rice fields landscape. From the bottom of the mountain another guy on a motorbike agreed to take both of us to the top! I held on for my life as I was perched on the end of the seat and it was rather steep! We visited a killing cave where the Khmer Rouge would chuck live people into it and they would fall to their death. Very grim and rather haunting. He then took us to the top where the temples were. From the viewpoint the sun was setting. We could see Battambang in the distance surrounded by rice terraces for miles and miles! We got down from the mountain via the windy track on the motorbike just in time to speak to some more Cambodian children who wanted to practice their English skills and to watch the nightly bat show. Millions of bats flew out of this one cave at sunset and made a 2km trail through the countryside. It was incredible! Apparently it takes 40 mins for them all to come out of the cave!
It had been one of the best days yet!
We were off to Pnomh Penh in the morning. Unfortunately I was very sick in the night which then followed on to the 6 hour bus journey to the capital. It was horrendous! We arrived and I spent the next 24 hours in our prison cell hostel room feeling awful with my head down the toilet! The nausea finally subsided slightly and I was able to go and explore riverfront promenade where the Mekong meets the Tonle Sap, away from the madness of the city's street sellers. It didn't feel like Cambodia at all! We ate at the amazing Foreign Correspondents Club looking over the river and I just about managed 2 slices of pizza! What a waste! We walked along and visited the Royal Palace which is not too dissimilar to the grand palace in Bangkok, only there were much less people. The next day I was feeling better so we ventured to the horrific sites of the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng Museum (the S-21 prison) by tuk tuk across the dusty cambodian roads. At the killing fields we were given audio guides which helped you to visualise what it must of been like for all these innocent cambodian people turning up in the pitch black and being chucked into a giant ditch full of other bodies. It was a mortifying yet interesting experience coming here seeing the skulls collected in the memorial pagoda, the killing tree and the rags of clothes found all over the site. It is extremely hard to believe this all happened only 40 years ago. We were then taken to the prison, where most of the torture took place before the people were sent to the killing fields. It was here that you got the true sense of the harm and genocide of the Khmer Rouge. Once a school, now just classrooms filled with makeshift cells, old torture equipment and pictures of the dead people that they found in each particular room. Sometimes there were even blood stains on the floor. Walking amongst the cells was a horrible experience and I was quickly scared and ran outside. But outside there were 3 hooks attached to a large frame where they would hang people to make them go unconscious. It was somewhere you have to go in Pnomh Penh but never again! That night we ate at another safe western option on the promenade and watched the locals undertake a giant zumba class run by the tallest and biggest Cambodian man we've ever seen!
That night we booked to go to Kep- the seaside!
- comments
Tom I've just caught up on your blog entries. Your adventure so far sounds incredible! It must be hard not to feel sorry for the locals and end up buying the bracelets from all of them. I can't believe the driver of the bamboo train only gets 2 out of the 10 dollars a day, and those killings fields must of been such a disturbing experience. It looks like you've gone to so many traditional/remote, non flashpacker places, which sound and look amazing! I can't believe how adventurous you both are! Keep up the blog posts/photos. Chat soon, miss you x
Mum What lovely photos, those children must have really enjoyed having you and Oli there. I sure the killing fields must have been so upsetting but as you say it's probably an essential part of your travels to understand the history of the countries that you're visiting! Hope you're still enjoying your relaxing by the beach....miss you! Xxxxx K
Debbie Hi, wow what a day, you both sound like you are enjoying yourselves so much, bet you felt like giving the family more than 1 dollar for their jewellery , I know I would , that's so sad. The killing fields sound awful not sure i could have gone there. We are all ok here, going to Bristol on Saturday , think Leah's sleeping in your bed! She's not interested in coming , looking forward to having a nose around Bristol, hope we have time. The weather is getting colder here down to 3c last night and loads of rain. Glad your feeling better xxxx
Debbie Ps. Tyres to rate your blog but guess need to press the other stars quicker. Wanted to rate it 5 stars!!!!
Rob N Hi Charlotte & Oli - loving reading the blog entries and looking at the pictures - you are a very good writer Charlotte, very descriptive. Would have been one heck of an experience if the taxi ride was full with a passnger between the door and driver! Sounds like you are having a fab time - sorry you were poorly. Rob