Good morning :)
We've been in Koh Samui a few days now and it's currently 11am, the others went out last night but I was a good girl and stayed in so i'm feeling fresh today as didn't touch a drop of alcohol last night and i've left them in bed to sleep off their hangovers.
So Battambang.... it's a small town north of Siem Reap and as we arrived in Siem Reap 3 days earlier, we had some time to kill so I had a look at the Lonely Planet and this place seemed like an okay place to visit.
We took yet another bus up there which took 6 hours. We were the only tourists on this bus :/ it was the most uncomfortable journey for us. The bus was packed with Cambodians all talking loudly, eating smelly food and the coaches tv was on full volume and some horrendous Cambodian movie was playing... it was an experience. It was that bad that I had my earphones on full volume trying to watch a film on my laptop and I couldn't even hear it. I finally finished the Girl Who Played With Fire, the last book of the Milennium series and had the Swedish film to watch. If you get a chance, read the books if you haven't already and the Swedish films are brilliant :)
Battambang was tiny, and there wasn't much there and not many backpackers at all... it was a strange town as was a French colony and so the Cambodians all speak french and the buildings were very different, French architecture and was way more modern than anywhere else in Cambodia we'd been.
We got picked up by a tuk tuk our hotel had organised and when he dropped us off he asked us what we'd planned to do. He told us about the killing caves which would be good to visit and also about a bamboo train which was a good experience to go to while we were there.
We agreed that afternoon to ride the bamboo train. It's hard to describe what it was but I guess like the size of a fence panel made from bamboo with wheels and a tiny motor... we got on and the driver took us up a rail track up to a little village which was about 20 minutes up and we were probably going 15-20mph. Like everywhere else we'd been as soon as we got there we were surrounded by little boys and girls selling god knows what and were shown where they make bricks. It was interesting but just was rather odd.. almost as if the whole village had set up there as the tourists were going on this train and so desperately trying to get money off us westerners.
We had a walk round that night, found somewhere cheap to eat (romantic meal for 3 as was Valentines!) and went back to the hotel. There wasn't a nightlife there which was good as we've been partying far too much recently.
Friday we had a wonder around the town, although nothing interesting to see and organised our driver to take us up to the killing caves.
We went around 3 as the midday sun is far too hot to be climbing a mountain and trekked up to the caves 2/3rd of the way up.. these weren't just caves; they were used by the Khmer Rouge as killing caves during the 70's where the communists were committing mass genocide and killing their own people! Similiar to Hitler in WW2 they took thousands of people to camps and the camps around Battambang brought them up to the top of the caves there and pushed them all in :( we didn't understand the history at this point. It wasn't until we got to Phnom Penh and went to the Killing Fields when all of this was explained to us.
We've been in Koh Samui a few days now and it's currently 11am, the others went out last night but I was a good girl and stayed in so i'm feeling fresh today as didn't touch a drop of alcohol last night and i've left them in bed to sleep off their hangovers.
So Battambang.... it's a small town north of Siem Reap and as we arrived in Siem Reap 3 days earlier, we had some time to kill so I had a look at the Lonely Planet and this place seemed like an okay place to visit.We took yet another bus up there which took 6 hours. We were the only tourists on this bus :/ it was the most uncomfortable journey for us. The bus was packed with Cambodians all talking loudly, eating smelly food and the coaches tv was on full volume and some horrendous Cambodian movie was playing... it was an experience. It was that bad that I had my earphones on full volume trying to watch a film on my laptop and I couldn't even hear it. I finally finished the Girl Who Played With Fire, the last book of the Milennium series and had the Swedish film to watch. If you get a chance, read the books if you haven't already and the Swedish films are brilliant :)
Battambang was tiny, and there wasn't much there and not many backpackers at all... it was a strange town as was a French colony and so the Cambodians all speak french and the buildings were very different, French architecture and was way more modern than anywhere else in Cambodia we'd been.We got picked up by a tuk tuk our hotel had organised and when he dropped us off he asked us what we'd planned to do. He told us about the killing caves which would be good to visit and also about a bamboo train which was a good experience to go to while we were there.
We agreed that afternoon to ride the bamboo train. It's hard to describe what it was but I guess like the size of a fence panel made from bamboo with wheels and a tiny motor... we got on and the driver took us up a rail track up to a little village which was about 20 minutes up and we were probably going 15-20mph. Like everywhere else we'd been as soon as we got there we were surrounded by little boys and girls selling god knows what and were shown where they make bricks. It was interesting but just was rather odd.. almost as if the whole village had set up there as the tourists were going on this train and so desperately trying to get money off us westerners.Friday we had a wonder around the town, although nothing interesting to see and organised our driver to take us up to the killing caves.
We carried on trekking and got to the top of the mountain and there was a beautiful temple on the top - these are the kind I like to see. Peaceful and beautifully made and I was so excited by the residents on the top of the mountain... MONKEYS :D
I bent down to have a look at one and took some photos, put my water bottle down and it ran up to me and tried to knick the bottle! I was like NO.. you're not taking that (far too hot to be letting my water be taken) so I snatched it back and the monkey in retaliation bit me on the arm! I actually drew blood!
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That was the bastard that bit me! |
We made our way down the million and one steps down to the bottom of the mountain and waited for the sun to go down and sat outside a cave near the bottom of the mountain. Once the sun had gone, like clockwork at 6pm 15 million bats left the cave to go and feed. This was by far the best thing i've seen so far. Was amazing to watch and I took a video so you can see for yourselves.
So that was Battambang really. There wasn't anything else to do there to the following night we chilled and then made our way to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia to spend our last 3 days before flying back to Bangkok to make our way to the south Islands of Thailand :)
I'm going off now to have a swim in the sea as it's such a lovely day and going to lie on the beach for a bit... and all of those who was doubtfalll about whether i'd get a tan... I'm starting to turn a nice colour :D
Keep updating me with what you are all up to... i'm really missing home at the moment so be nice to hear from you all.
Lots of love Hannah xxxxxxxx
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