Back to Battambang

On Friday, I took off from work early to catch a bus back to Battambang, a city in the northwest of Cambodia. Uneventful bus ride except for two things. First, in addition to the usual karaoke music videos, the bus driver played a live performance incredibly popular with passengers featuring a cross-dressing Cambodian man (complete with moustache) speaking in a falsetto voice. Second, a small box fell off the top of the van in front of us. The driver honked, flashed his lights and motioned at the van, but it took several kilometers to get them to pull over and eventually turn around.

Upon arrival in Battambang, I checked in to a cheap guest house ($4/night) and wandered around a bit. There was a carnival going on along the river, complete with the most rickety Ferris Wheel I've ever seen, bumper cars, kiddie rides, and carnival games, which I unsuccessfully tried my hand at. After a brief visit to the carnival, I walked over to a park bustling with activity. People were walking, jogging, and yes, line dancing. Though it did not compare to the thousands at the Olympic Stadium, I was able to capture a video which I'm hoping to post. It was also in this park that I met a very interesting guy named Thorn (pronounced more like Torn than Thorn). He spoke good English, proudly told me he converted to Christianity, and offered me some popcorn. After chatting for a few minutes, he offered to be my guide out into the country side the next day. I accepted, and headed off to dinner at a place called "Smokin' Pot," which attracted an interesting assortment of foreigners. I had some delicious loc lak; it wasn't as good as The Elephant Walk, but for $1.50, I wasn't going to complain. With a happy belly, I retired to the guest house for the evening.

I woke up early, excited to hit the road. I showered and turned on the TV to see none other than my Baltimore Orioles on ESPN. They, of course, were losing, but it was still a good way to start the day. Thorn arrived a bit before 8:00 and we set off. Just a few kilometers outside of town, the road became dirt and bumpy and the scenery changed rather dramatically. Stilted wood and thatch huts dotted the road, which was bustling with kids playing, people working in rice fields, and people transporting goods. It was beautiful and no words (and not even my pictures) can come close to doing it justice. For the majority of the day I was the only foreigner around and, as such, was treated as a novelty. Every kid that sold me beamed a fantastic smile, waved, and yelled "Hellloooooo" as we whirred by on Thorn's motorbike.

After a somewhat bumpy and surprisingly exhausting 25km motorbike ride, we arrived at Wat Banan, a Buddhist temple complex dating back to the 7th century that is often referred to as a "mini Angkor Wat." Several kids accompanied us up the 358 steep stone steps (the only way to reach the temple itself), using fans to cool us down in the already hot and humid morning. We reached the top and had a beautiful view of the incredibly flat rice paddies and jungle that surrounded us. After checking out the temples (probably the oldest man-made structure I've ever seen), we trekked down the back side of the hill through a papaya plantation to some bat-inhabited cave temples. It was about as cool as it sounds, which is pretty damn cool and a nice break from the heat of the morning.

Back at the motorbike, we set off for Phnom Sampeu, a modern, still-in-use temple on the top of a mountain and the site of more caves and a Khmer Rouge camp. The road to Phnom Sampeu was even more taxing than that to Wat Banan. My butt quickly became sore and I got a few blisters on each hand from holding on to the back of the motorbike. But again, the ride was gorgeous. The steps up to Phnom Sampeu were even steeper and more numerous than those up Wat Banan. Thorn and I stopped several times to catch our breath and have the sandwiches and snacks I packed for lunch. Once at the top, we descended down a long stairway into another cave temple. Climbing again to the top, we examined the brightly colored temples and the magnificent view. From the top, we descended again into another area of the temple with two enormous statues of Buddha, one sitting and one lying down. We were greeted by a handful of monks and a handful of monkeys. From here, we descended further into another cave, which had been converted into a temple and a memorial for the nearly 2,000 who perished after being pushed into the cave by the Khmer Rouge. The case full of human bones only added to the creepiness.

Descending the steps that we originally came up, we headed on even worse dirt road to Kamping Poy, a lake created by a Khmer Rouge-era dam (the construction of which resulted in the death of some 10,000 people). Ironically, the locale is now used by many Cambodians as a popular holiday destination. Before arriving, we stopped to get some delicious fried bananas - my favorite food here. After asking Thorn if we were almost there several times like a five year-old, we finally arrived and was quite relieved to get off the motorbike. For about $0.50 you could rent a thatch hut on the lakeside and just sit in the hammocks provided and relax. We did just that for an hour and it was fantastic. Some kids came to over to check us (me) out. As usual, whenever we stopped, everyone found it amusing that I could speak even a little Khmer. They provided great practice without knowing it!

Our final stop of the day was to be Wat Ek Phnom, a 10th century hilltop temple. We set off, traveling along a dirt path - it wasn't even good enough to be called a road - along an irrigation ditch with rice paddies on either side. About halfway through the tortuous 30km ride back to the main road, it started pouring. It felt fantastic. I didn't even want to put my raincoat on. Instead, I used it as an added layer of protection for my cameras in my backpack. By the time we got to National Route 5, I was far too exhausted for another steep climb and probably even to appreciate Wat Ek Phnom, so I decided we should just go back to Battambang.

After a short rest, Thorn picked me up to take me to the place he was staying and so that he could copy my pictures to his computer's hard drive. Just a few kilometers outside of town, it was a nice house where Christian converts were living and were led by a young, scrawny, Cambodian pastor, who, upon my arrival, was teaching a handful of people how to "dance hip-hop." It was quite bizarre and felt quite sterile. I was glad to leave.

I again had dinner at Smokin' Pot because it was so good and cheap. While there, I met a cool Australian guy named Harry (or Haaa-rry) who was traveling around for a few weeks. He'd traveled fairly extensively in Asia on previous trips - Vietnam, Laos, Thailand - and had some good ideas of places to go and things to see. We finished our dinners and walked over to a place called the Riverside Balcony Bar, which, as the name implies, was a riverside balcony bar. We kicked back a few beers (at $0.60 each) and just talked about all the things that travelers talk about - home lives, politics, other travel, impressions of Cambodia, music, etc. It was a nice, enjoyable evening and it was complemented by a very good sleep.

Sunday morning I wandered around Battambang a bit before catching my bus back. I had a fantastic baguette and some oranges (Battambang is known for its oranges, which, ironically, are green), sat along the riverside, and wandered in and out of shops selling paintings and stone carvings. On the bus back, I sat next to another Cambodian, Pheak, who was eager to practice his English and "make friendship" with a foreigner because he had never had a foreign friend before. Besides being perhaps a bit too eager, he was quite nice and shared the food he purchased on the way - oranges, a weird cactus looking plant called 'chou', peanuts, etc. It was a long bus ride, but we made it back in one piece and luckily missed the torrential rains that hammered Phnom Penh over the weekend. All in all an excellent weekend. I look forward to my next adventure, wherever it may be.