Battambang 03/13 + 03/14

After a not so restful night in our hotel – we chose to use the ventilator not the A/C and both woke up with a sore throught – we ate breakfast and decided to walk into town.

We didn't walk ;-) We were pursuaded by Sarath – our moto-driver for the next two days – that it would be much more convenient, if he took us by moto.

He brought us to Battambang Market and made a date for later that day, when he would pick us up at the hotel and bring us to the bats...

We walked around the market and then through Battambang's streets. We had a really good banana shake at the Coconut Water Foundation opposite of the Gekko Bar.

                                        Coconut Water Foundation – Best banana shake ever ;-)

The Gekko Bar is the best rated restaurant in Battambang but when I saw that they only serve Burgers and Mexican food we decided not to go there. We strolled around a bit more, took pictures of the french colonial style buildings and the Governor's villa.

                                                                 The Governor's Villa

It was then already around noon and the sun was really burning down, so we went back to our hotel.

We relaxed a bit at the pool, read and drank beer. At 4pm Sarath picked us up and we drove about 30 min to Phnom Sampeau.

                                                                  Phnom Sampeau

The road uphill was very steep, thankfully it lay in the shadow most of the time. About half way to the top there was a fairly new temple and the Killing Caves. The Temple at the top was nothing specail though – except of course for the location. The view was magnificent. In addition to that there were really cute monkeys at the temple entrance ;-)

The descent was slightly more challenging since we went down a very steep and narrow staircase.

At the base of the hill about 40m high the top half of a buddha head has been carved out of the lime stone. Due to a lack of money the carving of the rest of the buddha is on hold. The buddha was originally planned to be 30m high and would certainly add to the attractivity of the place for tourists.

About 50m north of the unfinished buddha the „mountain“ has a hole in it. That is where the bats came out at dusk. I took a video and had planned to film until they had all left the cave when after about 4minutes Sarath came around and told us that the whole spectacle would take about an hour.

We called it a day and drove back to Battambang. Back on the main road we could see the batswarms in the distance looking for prey.

Back in Battambang we chose the „Smoking Pot“ for dinner. Mhhh – Lonely Planet rates it high, at tripadvisor it's mediocre. I must admit I didn't like the food. I had Amok (the traditional Khmer dish) with chicken and it tasted nothing but oily. Christian had Amok with fish and he wasn't too satisfied either.

We walked back to the hotel and went to bed early.

Sarath picked us up at 8:00 in the morning and we went straight to the Bamboo Train.

Hell of a ride ;-) First I was really worried because in our „wonderful“ western society everything is normed, secured, check double and thrice, and above all you have thousands of rules to keep you save. Here you get on a „train“ that consists of four wheels, a bamboo mat on top and a tiny motor. No safety there. The tracks have 10cm wide holes in it, and this thing goes really fast – perhaps up to 30km/h.

So no happy ending there should something go wrong – but after the initial 2minutes worrying what could happen, you switch to „what the hell“ mode and just enjoy the ride. It's a little like genuine rollercoster ;-) The train stopped about 7km later and we were shown a brick factory by three gorgeous little kids. The ride back was not as fast because at that time the other tourists were following in our tracks and we had to stop various times so the incoming bamboo train could be taken apart, placed besides the tracks and reassembled after we had passed.

The disassemble/assemble process takes about 1,5 minutes.

After the Bamboo Train Sarath took us to some fruit and chilli fields – right beside the river – and to a bat tree. The huge bats hang there the whole day...

We then went to The Winery. Cambodia's one and only winery. We tasted their red wine, grape juice, something else with ginger and their brandy.

The brandy tasted almost like the chinese stuff ;-) and the wine – in my humble opinion – cannot be really called wine. It was more of a port but without much taste. Since it's the only winery they are not afraid to charge 12$ to 15$ a bottle and the people come from all over cambodia to buy that stuff.

After the winery we went to Phnom Banan a temple that is said to be older than Angkor Wat. It lies on a little montain and 358 steep steps lead up to it. The temple is mostly in ruins but really nice to look at.

On the way up and on top you see a lot of signs warning you not to go off the tracks due to mines. At the foot of the hill we saw a sign „To the bat cave“ and we asked Sarath if we could also go there. He called an ancient man who took us there. The man also spoke a little german, having learned it while working at the german embassy in Saigon in 1963. The caves were a real adventure – no light inside, we went in with torchlights – no other tourists, the way through the caves rough, rocky, streep, hard to find your footing ;-) We loved it! In one of the larger caves the bats were hanging from the ceiling and there were also still active stalactites.

Sarath brought us back to the hotel so we could relax while the midday sun fried everything.

That's where I took this picture of complete cuteness ;-)

At 4pm he picked us up again and brought us to Wat Ek Phnom . On the way there we stopped to look at a family business producing rice papers for spring rolls.

The Wat Ek Phnom temple was also a ruin but that made the climbing around it much more fun. 

Right beside the old temple a new one was built including this huge buddha statue. 

For dinner we went to Nary's Kitchen. Not mentioned in the Lonely Planet – I don't know why – it was soooo much better that the Smoking Pot. And in addition to that also cheaper.

We called it an early nicht once again – this „vacation“ is really exhausting ;-)

PS: If you are coming to Battambang we really suggest you take Sarath as your moto driver. He was very nice, always on time, his english is good and he can also tell you a little about the sigths you go to. He can be reached on his cell at 09228246 or via the Phka Villa.