Battambang (BB), Cambodia 10/5

Battambang, or BB from now in the blog, is the capital city of the province of the same name located in NW Cambodia; it was founded in the 11th century and is "well known" for being Cambodia's leading rice producing province as well the country's best preserved French Colonial architecture since the French colonized the country from  1863 until 1954.

• BB is Cambodia's 2nd largest city. 
• It has an average of 8.8" of rain in October, i.e. when we were there last month, compared to only .2" in January.
• In BB we stayed a ways out of town at BB My Homestay as I mentioned in the last blog post; Mr Kun, the owner, always has a number of tuk tuk drivers he has made arrangements with to be on call for his guests.  I was initially uncomfortable with this as I knew from reading many, many posts on the BB forum of Trip Advisor which tuk tuk drivers in BB were highly recommended; I wondered if any BB My Homestay's tuk tuk driver's price would be a lot higher and the guide possibly not as good in terms of taking us all over BB province and being able to explain to us clearly in English what we were seeing. 
• We decided it was not worth it to ruffle Mr. Kun's feathers by making arrangements to have a driver not associated with his guesthouse to take us hither, thither and yon and ended up with "Happy" our tuk tuk driver for the next 5 days, who was fantastic.
• There had been, before we got there, a huge amount of rain in the BB area which caused the worst flooding there in over 20 years and we also experienced a lot of rain during our days with Happy; he constantly had to ask the locals if the roads ahead were flooded.
• It was clearly evident that BB is an incredibly poor province, based on the road conditions, people's homes, the huge number of children playing outside morning, noon and afternoon and therefore not attending school, the infrastructure, etc.  It was certainly my first experience with such overwhelming poverty.
• Instead of my usual blog post, I'm going to end the text here and just post photos with captions where appropriate.

Our tuk tuk with Happy, the driver/guide.

The market area of BB.  Motorcycles were about 20 to 1 over cars in BB area.

The oxcarts, formerly exclusively used by villagers, used to park where the Smart sign is; that is directly opposite the market in the above photo.  Villagers used to transport their goods by boats only from the river to the "market" i.e. under a tree.

The French built this bridge in 1916; the building at the end is a provincial government hall.  The bridges in BB aren't high enough for most boats to travel under.

Some photos of how badly flooded the area was when we were there!  That's Happy in the mirror.  Schools were closed down b/c they were inaccessible due to the flooding.

3rd statue of Mr Ngou built in 1994 as the other 2 fell down; food and other donations are left there while the incense sticks burn down; if however the people leave before their incense sticks burn all the way down, the police take their offerings to the market to sell them so the money can then be used for the statue's cleaning or the money is given to the poor, OR likelier the money is kept by the police, Happy said!

Views from our tuk tuk: water buffalo.

Imagine trying to gain access to your home after the torrential rains!

Steven in the tuk tuk wearing the poncho from our tour to Doi Inthanon Park outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Kids playing Tarzan!

On the locally famous Bamboo Train; formerly used to transport passengers, now mostly used to transport rice and bamboo wood; 90% of tourists to the BB area get on it; in low season when we were there. there are about 15-20 trains a day compared to high season of 40-50 trips a day.

8 kms train ride to closest village;  train, run by a small awn mower type engine, went about 20 mph which seemed pretty darn fast; it was a very loud and somewhat rickety ride with nothing to hold onto!

Views from the "train"

At the end of the ride, this 11 year old girl, Jao, was waiting and presented us with this adorable coconut leaf grasshopper she had made and gave to us; notice the array of bracelets she also had made and was selling - each one took her about 30 minutes to make.

She has been giving tours for the past 2 years of the now defunct brick factory; she spoke excellent English which, she said, she had learned from tourists; she mentioned that she could neither read or write English.

Steven and I bought a number of Jao's bracelets and we both wore one each right away for the rest of the trip; Steven is still wearing his!  I've put a couple aside for our next trip.

The track is one only lane so, when 2 trains meet up, the drivers play rock, paper, scissors or flip a coin to determine which one can stay on the track; the loosing  driver has to take his train off the track with the help of the winning driver as seen in the pictures below; the whole process takes only about 10 minutes or so - glad we weren't there in the busy season!

Encountered a second train so had to do it all over again!

Our bamboo train driver.

Very  hard for Steven to turn around on the train when it was traveling fairly quickly so I could take his picture,

After the train ride, we drove to a nearby town to tour this "Ancient House" built in 1920 of teak and other woods; 

View of the home

This lady gave us a tour, in French, of her beautiful home; thank goodness I had not forgotten my French!  During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, her parents, brother and 4 children were all killed.  The house is still standing b/c it was used to feed 200 soldiers at a time when the Khmer Rouge were in power.

Before the Cambodian had toothbrushes, these items were all used to keep teeth cleaned; every new bride was given a set on her wedding day.

Rice field

Built in 2001, this is one of only 3 suspension bridges over the Stung Sangkey River; before the bridges were built, boats would cross from one side to the other; the one way cost was 200 riel or 5 cents to us.

Our guide/driver, Happy on the bridge.

Can't begin to tell you how happy the children were we passed by in our tuk tuk, day after day after day; to a one, they all, without any prompting by either peers or parents, waved and shouted out Hello, Hello with huge smiles on their faces.

Next drove to the Banan Grape Farm/winery.

This is Cambodia's only winery; they produce about 10,000 bottles a year; the plantation opened in 1999 and the winery in 2004; grapes are harvested 2-3 times a year; the  brandy sells for $12 each and the red wine sells for $15 per bottle; poor Cambodians cannot afford these prices; they drink either palm or rice wine or beer, Happy said.

Kids playing in the swollen river waters.

Flying foxes or fruit bats in trees near the grape farm/winery; the bat wings are the size of an eagle's! Many Cambodians, including Happy, prefer bat meat to red meat b/c it's so tender; they normally kill them with slingshots but NOT these ones b/c they're considered sacred b/c they're very close to the temple seen in the photos below.

We finally stop for lunch at 2:30; Happy explained that Khmer breakfasts are normally either rice, porridge or noodles and they eat the same meal for both lunch and dinner; he also said that kids start school at age 6 and up and attend for a half day; Cambodian teachers and police are only paid between $80 and $120 a month; many of the teachers end up being guides as well to supplement their teacher salaries but this results in their not having sufficient time to prepare lesson plans, etc; the end result is a very low quality of education.

Boy making sugar cane juice.

At Wat (i.e Temple) Banan.

I truly think we should have nicknamed our trip the Trip of Steps as we have never climbed so many steps in our lives! Built in the 11th century, the wat can only be seen after climbing 358 steps!

Truly these are "oranges" - green obviously on the outside but a pale orange inside.

Next drove to see some dragon fruit trees - see more detailed photos below.

More beautiful flowers near the dragon fruit.

I loved them - edible seeds, mildly sweet, quite juicy and a gorgeous color as you can see.

A better view of the grasshopper Jao had given us, once we had gotten it safe and sound back to our guesthouse.

Cambodia, here we come!

Here I am FINALLY getting back to the blog after we've been home in Denver almost 2 weeks now.  I had planned to complete the Cambodian portion of the blog well before now but time got away from me.  I actually had drafted the written portion below weeks ago but never included the pictures - mea culpa.  Be patient with me as I do vow to finish it soon, especially as we've already begun to plan or think about our next long trip!


If you've been reading this blog/journal from the beginning, you'll remember that Steven and I went on this fantastic around the world trip because he wanted to visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia and I wanted to go on the Trans Siberian train trip.  When he was in this part of the world at the age of 23 (the same age you are, Alexander), no American tourist was able to enter Cambodia. 

Finally, after leaving our  home in Colorado more than 2 months ago, on October 24th we were just a few hours away from the country Steven has waited 42 long years to visit. I wonder what new vistas will be on his "bucket list" now that he can cross off Cambodia!

• He actually brought out his beige collared shirt to wear for the first time all trip in honor of going to Cambodia!  Up at 4:45 to hail a taxi in the rain on the main street near our Bangkok hostel and bring it back to collect me and our ever expanding luggage for the trip to Bangkok's Mor Chit Bus Terminal in the far north of the city.
• Sungsung, the wonderful lady in charge at Khao San, assured us we didn't need to buy tickets to the border in advance and she was right on the money luckily.  Bought 2 tickets on the government run Bus 999 for only 238thb or $7.81 each for the 5 hour or 265kms trip to the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet (or Aran as even the locals call it ) - can't beat that price, can you!
• Only 8 passengers initially on this full Greyhound size and quality bus; then dropped off 2 a while into the trip, picked up one and that's the way it was all the way to the border; don't recall ever having more than a dozen on the bus at the same time; seemed like an awfully expensive way of operating a bus company; we even got bottled water and a "boxed breakfast" included in the price of the ticket.
• We saw our first flooded areas en route to the border; the Thai army was out directing traffic b/c some of the roads were impassable for pedestrians, bicycle riders and low profile vehicles.
• I had read, on Trip Advisor (TA) and other sites, probably a hundred stories, posts and articles advising other travelers how best to navigate crossing from the Thai town of Aran to Poipet on the Cambodian side; so many people have had huge issues doing the same thing we were now doing, we were a little apprehensive; part of the problems come b/c there is a significant no man's land between the 2 towns that you have to haul, drag or pull your suitcases through; the other issue so many people commented adversely on is the whole Cambodian visa process at the border.  Many people are told incorrect info in this no man's land and pressured to buy visas there and also have to wait for hours at the Cambodian border to get their visas approved and passports stamped.  That process could be made to go faster, we read, if money was given to the border agents to speed up the process!  You can imagine our trepidation wondering what we'd encounter.
• We had gotten our Cambodian e-visas several months back and it appeared to us that we had a problem with them b/c the visas' expiration date was 5 days after we were arriving in Cambodia, i.e. October 9th.  A flurry of emails from me and later from Steven back and forth to the Cambodian government explaining we needed the visas to be valid til we left on the 28th met with no recourse.
• We were pretty sure we'd need to buy new visas right at the border b/c of the expiration issue with ours but it turned out to be a total non-issue: the visas, we found out at the border, had to be "activated" by October 9th which was no problem as we entered Cambodia on the 4th - phew, "crisis" averted.
• We almost sailed through the whole border crossing, it was so easy for us - couldn't believe it BUT we knew enough of the possible scams and problems and having to constantly say "No thanks" in a very firm voice when people wanted to "help" us, etc.
• We had gotten such an early start  b/c the only bus from Poipet to Battambang or BB, our first stop in Cambodia we could realistically get was at 1:45.  Got the free bus to the station located 6kms away from the border only to find out that there were NO buses running that day to BB!  
• We didn't know it but October 4th was the last day of a Cambodian national holiday so everything was pretty closed up tight, unbeknownst to us.  The timing for our WHOLE trip was based on China's national holiday at the end of September as we knew train fares, hotels, etc would fly through the roof then.  But the fact that one of Cambodia's national holidays was ending on October 4th completely escaped my attention!
• Thanks to money not being an issue on the trip, we got a taxi all the way to our guesthouse in BB, 115 kms away.
• Had a lovely guesthouse in BB I'd found on TA run by Mr. Kun and his family - it was a huge change from our digs in Bangkok.
•  We were welcomed by a small dish of fresh local fruit every night plus a Cambodian breakfast under the thatched roof patio each morning.  Only things missing were any hot water and a kettle to boil water for tea - both new experiences this trip.  
• Mr. Kun had told me 8 or so months ago when I inquired about booking our stay there, that there'd be no hot water; Steven and I had talked about it before we decided to book the place and figured we'd be OK and that surely there'd be tanks or something on the roof to collect rainwater which would heat up in the noonday sun - well guess what, we of course were there in the rainy season and,in any event, there were no tanks, etc - very wishful thinking on our parts!

  

  Sungsung, the wonderful and very helpful woman at Khaosan Hostel/Guesthouse in Bangkok.

  
  

  

  Steven dressed in his fancy duds for our trip to Cambodia.

  
  

  

  Massive flooding on the way from Bangkok to the Cambodian border.

  
  

  

  At the border.

  
  

  

  Leaving Thailand

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Our first view of Cambodia.

  
  

  

  In front of of our guesthouse in Battambang, Cambodia - a mammoth improvement from our digs in Bangkok but alas no hot water and no kettle - not sure which I missed more!

  
  

  

  We loved all the flowers Mr Kun had by the guesthouse.  I know, Alexander, these flower photos are not your cup of tea though!

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  The road in front of the guesthouse.  Unlike all the other places we stayed all trip, it was not right in town; we were able to walk into town only once while there b/c of the huge flooding in BB and the surrounding areas.

  
  

  

  In front of the guesthouse - you can't see it in this photo but there was a large gate that was locked most of the time; it was wide enough for cars to drive through.

  
  

  

  Views of our room.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Steven with his first Cambodian beer, aptly named Angkor with one of the info pages I had taken hours and hours to cut and paste from many different travel books for each leg of the trip.  They proved to be invaluable to us although I know Nina for one thought I was beyond crazy when she saw my compiling them when she was home just before we left Denver.