Siem Reap 13 - 19 May

During our Cambodia trip, we had been thinking; “I wonder where all the tourists are.” Well it turns out they all seem to be in Siem Reap. With the temples of the Angkor Wat archaeological park and the infamous pub street, I don’t think we had seen so many tourists since……well maybe ever.

The town itself has obviously benefitted from the crowds and the dollars they bring with them, with an attractive tree lined river side and a number of NGO-run restaurants and shops. Having such a large tourist population however has resulted in an even larger population of tuk tuks, and you really get sick of being asked for one every two steps. That said, we enjoyed hanging out in Siem Reap, it was an easy town to get around (we used bikes from our hotel) and it was just a nice place to be with a nice atmosphere.

While in Siem Reap, we of course went to Angkor Wat, spending about two and a half days visiting different temples. There were certainly some stunning ones; from the majestic Angkor Wat to jungle-covered Ta Prohm. Many of the temples have international teams working to restore or preserve certain sections, so often some areas were closed off.

We soon found out that clambering around and up and down temples in the heat is quite exhausting. The park itself covers a huge area, and there are different routes you can do. We did both the small and the big circuit, although missed the odd temple, and then went back to spots we had missed. Being at Angkor Wat for sunrise is a popular thing to do, so we thought we’d do that too. Unfortunately this meant leaving our hotel at the ungodly hour of 5am. The sunrise was nice, and we got some good shots, although I’m not sure I’d do it again.

Being the rainy season, our temple visits or plans for visiting sites around the city were affected a little by sudden downpours. We saw people biking between temples who were caught out in the rain and drenched in seconds – didn’t look very pleasant, although at least you cool down. Luckily we had arranged a tuk tuk through our hotel which took us from temple to temple, and our driver met us with icy cold water after each temple. While we enjoyed visiting these amazing archaeological sites, at the end of Siem Reap, we were a bit templed-out.

The rain about to pour down

Battambang 10-11th May

We arrived in Battambang from Phnom Penh and after being dropped at the bus stop we turned up at our guesthouse, named ‘bus stop’ – very confusing. An Australian-owned place that advertises “the coldest beer in town” – what is it with Australians and their beers needing to be the coldest?

The next day we turned up at the bamboo train locally known as a norry, BattamBang is one of the only places left in Cambodia that has these. During the 80’s and 90’s there were hundreds if not thousands of these things whizzing around the country. Of course before the Khmer rouge shutdown the railways in the 70’s these tracks were for actual trains and as the country recovers and repairs the seriously neglected tracks the bamboo trains become more scarce. In construction they are simply a steel frame sitting on steel wheels and covered with a bamboo base powered by what seems to be a go cart or scooter engine, which propels them down the tracks at speeds up to 40 km/h

40 km/h doesn’t seem that fast but with the low centre of gravity, the lack of suspension, sound deadening, walls, and by the looks of it nothing but a bit of wood for brakes it soon gets more exciting than you’d expect.

When another “train” is met coming the other way they both stop and one helps the other to lift their train off the tracks drives past and then puts it back on again.

moving out of the way for oncoming traffic

At the other end of the track we arrived at a small village full of eager locals for you to get out of the heat and enjoy a drink. Children create animals from flax and proudly show you around their village (of course for a small fee)

She was taking pictures of me so I got to take one back

When we got back we found an evening cooking class which involved a market tour, which along with the normal fare of meat/veges/ fruit also had fried crickets and cockroaches.
We sat in the kitchen of a family run restaurant and chopped and bashed under the supervision of the husband, while the wife and children attended to the patrons. We created a fish amok which is a yellow fish curry that is steamed in banana leaves, a sour soup and popular Lok Lak which is diced beef done with black ground pepper topped with a fried egg served with rice.

Sour Soup

Beef Lok Lak

It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh and see local life that doesn’t revolve around tourism.

The next day we left for Siem Reap.