After our wonderful visit to Angkor Wat, our next destination in Cambodia was a town called Battambang. We didn’t know much about the town, except we could easily get our Vietnamese visas there, but we were really excited to travel there by boat from Siem Reap.
A taxi picked us up at our hotel on January 13th and drove us out of town to the docks. As soon as we were out of the car, several girls and ladies bombarded us to sell snacks. We finally relented and bought water and 2 baguettes of really good bread! Our boat was small with a lower deck full of wooden benches and an upper deck to store luggage. We stashed our bags and grabbed a seat near the front away from the noisy engine. After waiting for the other passengers to arrive, we realized how sore our bottoms were from 2 days of riding and got our handy Therma-rest pads from our bags for extra cushioning.
Finally, all passengers arrived, and we set off on our journey. The river that we started on was flooded, so many of the trees nearby were underwater, which made for a pretty view. After an hour or so, we arrived at Tonle Sap, which is SE Asia’s biggest lake. It was huge, and we couldn’t see any other banks besides where we came from.
By this point, Mike and I were freezing, as we wore tee-shirts and shorts, not thinking that it would be cooler on the water. Our bags were buried upstairs, so we had no other layers to put on! Mike was thinking outside the box and suggested we wrap our Therma-rests around us. Wow, what a difference that made, and I was much warmer!
After another hour, we arrived at another river to head upstream. Along this river, there were many floating villages that we passed. Most villages had 20 small houses that were all connected together on each side of the river. We saw lots of dogs, waving kids, and even floating barns with pigs and chickens! When we arrived in each town, the captain honked our horn, and a few small canoes would paddle out to meet our boat to drop off passengers and packages.
 As we continued, the river narrowed due to water plants and trees growing in the river. The passageway was only wide enough for our boat. We did meet a few other small boats, and it was a tight squeeze with big tree branches coming into our boats windows!
 The river widened again but became very windy. Our boat did not have a good turning radius, so a few times we ended up stuck in the opposite bank. We also got our motor clogged a few times with branches and a fishing net!
We saw many families that were each living on 12’ boats covered in plastic with several kids and a wood burning stove on board. It was some of the poorest living arrangements that we have seen on this trip, but all the kids always had huge smiles and waved as we passed by.
After a nine hour journey, we finally arrived in Battambang. It was a wonderful journey and a nice way to see how the river people lived and worked.
The next day, we headed to the Vietnamese consulate to apply for our visa. I was nervous about getting our visa since we had a flight booked to Australia already, but 20 minutes after arriving we walked out with a 30 day visa to our first communist country!
I convinced Mike that we needed to rent a motorbike to explore some of the sights outside of Battambang. It was a challenge to stay alive getting out of town, as there are no stoplights or stop signs! So when you approach a 4-way intersection, you just go across and try not to hit anyone or get hit. I just closed my eyes and hoped we wouldn’t die!
Our first stop of the day was at Cambodia’s only winery. They only make one type of wine, so we tasted that in addition to their brandy, grape juice, and ginger juice. The wine was very fruity, but did not taste good. So we bought a bottle of ginger juice.
Phnom Banan was our next stop which is a set of 5 temples on top of a hill which slightly resembles Angkor Wat. The temples were not in good shape, but the view from the top of the hill was great. It was neat to see the farm land, the river, and the forests from this vantage point.
Back on our motorbike to find our next destination using our handy tourist map showing our turn. Well, after driving up and down the highway for 45 minutes, we finally decided to take a well-used dirt road in hopes of it being the right one. After dodging tractors, cows, and pot holes, we finally arrived at our next town.
We were both starving, so we just pulled over at a shop with a bunch of motos in front. After sitting down and looking around, we noticed that everyone only had coffee. So we enjoyed an excellent iced coffee and continued on our way to find another spot to lunch. This is one of the things that I love about travelling – you never exactly know what you are getting yourself into.J
Our next destination was Phnom Sampeau, which was another set of temples on top of a big hill. We were both templed out at this point, so we just enjoyed the view. This hill used to be occupied by Khmer Rouge and there were 2 of their guns still in place near the temples. The Khmer Rouge also used this area as a killing area so there was a monument to the victims as well.
The last excitement of the day was a visit to the bamboo train. The bamboo train runs 3.7km to a nearby rice factory and is used to transport the rice to town. However in the evening, tourists can ride the train. The carriage is a bamboo platform which sits on two sets of wheels and is powered by a small gas engine. Mike and I climbed on, and off we went. It felt like a roller coaster because the rails were old and slightly out of alignment, making for a bumpy ride.
The ride stopped at the rice factory and a couple of drink stands. While our driver manually turned our carriage around, we enjoyed a pop and talked to the locals. The stand was run by an old man and his wife and their grandchildren. I really enjoyed talking to the old man, and I couldn’t help but think what he experienced in his life living through the Khmer Rouge. We have seen very few old people here as 25% of the population was killed during this period, so it just makes you wonder what terrors that they lived through.
After a quick tour of the rice factory where the local kids schooled us on rice and then begged for tips, we were back on the bamboo train. On the way back, we ran into several carriages coming the other way. When this happens, one of the carriages gets dismantled and the other passes by. It was a strange operation, but really fun to experience.
Our stay in Battambang was fun, and I really liked our day exploring the sights by motorbike. Cambodia continues to exceed my expectations, and the people here are some of the friendliest we have met–always smiling and the kids are always wavingJ
