Day 5: Down in Battambang

Today we travelled from Siem Reap to Battambang

I would like to go home and cosy up in my own bed.  The inevitable has happened and I have the gyppy tummy.  For breakfast I had Alka Seltzer, Ibuprofen and peppermint tea. I just couldn't manage a last taste of the excellent artisan bread and jam made from all kinds of exotic local fruit.  I was sad to say goodbye to The River Garden hotel.

Traditional Cambodian blue house on stilts to avoid flooding

Typical family transport

The journey from Siem Reap to Battambang took about 3 hours on a fairly decent road and we got to see rural Cambodia.  There was a lot of general poverty but we also saw happy people getting on with their simple lives.  Houses varied from shacks to modest wooden constructions on stilts, plus some extravaganzas.  Everyone has a scooter and it's not unusual to see the whole family on it together.  The landscape is very lush and green.  Our local guide, although heavily accented, has been most conscientious in looking after us and explaining in great detail about all the places we visited.  She took the opportunity on the long drive to get more personal and tell us a bit about her life under the Khmer Rouge.  She was a young teenager at the time and lost 4 family members - her father, brother, sister and uncle.  It was heartbreaking to hear her enthuse over her two lucky breaks.  The first was when she wandered into the woods because she was feeling unwell and when she returned she found that her group had been rounded up and taken away for extermination.  She walked many miles back home to her mother, after which she hid in her own house.  Her mother would sneak extra food back home to feed her but was eventually apprehended by a soldier who fortunately turned a blind eye.  Her second stroke of luck was at the end of the war when a neighbour got her a job in which she learnt to speak English, and that has resulted in her current 'privileged' position as a tour guide she explained.  Her sad description of the dark day they took her father away choked us all.   It's horrifying to read about how many were killed during the Pol Pot era, but her personal account tugged at my heart strings all the more.

Upon arrival in Battambang we checked into hotel La Villa, in the centre of town opposite the Sankei River.  Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia (after Phnom Penh) and has an air of commerce and burgeoning modernisation about it.  There is an excellent article in the Telegraph called Cambodia: beyond the Killing Fields, in which Christopher Hudson compares modern day Cambodia with the one that existed when he wrote the famous book. He also stayed at La Villa  and says 'Our hotel, renovated in Thirties style, is understandably described as “one of Cambodia’s most romantic and evocative boutique hotels”. But when we arrive, it is to find that La Villa is now dwarfed by two massive hotels, one of them under construction just feet away. Good food, in a shady courtyard, restores our spirits.' He was there just one month before us and his tour is remarkably similar to ours, except we paid half the price.  Thanks Silk Steps!  The comfortable bed in a cool room was too much to pass up and I skipped lunch and the afternoon's activity to sleep off my stomach problems.  I was disappointed to miss out on Phnom Banon (a mountain with a temple on top), Phnom Sampeu (caves) and a vineyard.     

Big Buddha

Reclining Buddha

Caved Buddha

MARKS OUTTA 10
 

Louise:  The views from Phnom Banon were impressive and the little girls who showed us the caves with their torches were sweet, but I'm bored with Buddha now.  4/10

Ian:  If I say that the spag bol for lunch at the hotel was the best bit, you'll get my drift.  I did enjoy seeing the countryside on the drive here, but the rest of the day involved long journeys to see nothing much.  4/10

Richard: Arriving at the hotel and having lunch was a high point, as was the top of Phnom Banon (ha!).  The vineyard was disappointing.  3/10

Jackie:  The best thing about today was having a nice hotel room to be ill in.  2/10