Battambang is an odd little town with French Colonial architecture not many travelers and not much to do. The town shuts down early at night and the only sights are the bamboo train, a couple temples and the eerie killing caves. On the bus to Battambang I met a German girl traveling alone and we decided to hire a tuk tuk for the next day to see all the Battambang had to offer. That night we headed to the night market for cheap food at one of the stalls. Here we stumbled upon an English speaking Cambodian who ran a stall with his family. He was in his late 40's or 50's and he talked with us shortly about the Khmer Rouge and how he remembered being so hungry. He also introduced us to his family and told us jokes still maintaining a good sense of humor.
"Why do poor Cambodians have so many children.".......Believe me, I used sociology and science to guess about birth and death rates, help in the fields etc etc. The answer, " because poor people have bad beds and can't sleep, the richer people have comfortable beds and money for booze so they pass our quickly." Nice Cambodian joke.
The next morning we set out first to the killing caves which were used by the Khmer Rouge as a killing ground. The caves go deep into the ground and they used to push people to their deaths. We hiked a little way down but the caves were dark, steep, craggy and dangerous. They were also unsettling and a bit creepy. Coming up you can still see a pile of bones and clothes that they left behind from the horribleness that existed here.
Before we headed up the mountain to the caves we were asked many times if we needed a guide but we knew it was easy to locate ourselves and we went up alone. On our way we acquired an attachment. A young Cambodian guy decided to tag along with us guiding us about. At first I was skeptical of his intentions and was only partly listening because I knew by the end he would want money for his unwanted service. As he asked questions I reluctantly answered them. Once he discovered my English teaching he began to ask me questions about English. I slowly began to help my first Cambodian pupil with grammar and pronunciation. He thanked me continually for being easy to understand and helpful with pronunciation. As he described the caves and temple for us I corrected his grammar and pronunciation and offered answers to the many questions he asked. After our tour he left us right where he found us, he said he was repairing the road and needed to get back to work. We thanked him and he thanked us and it was a great experience.
After we headed to another temple where the children followed us up over 300 stairs waving fans at us until the top. At the top there was a beautiful but small temple with lots of flowers and land mine warnings all around. The kids were silly and we took many pictures as they thanked us, they picked flowers but them in our hair and jewelery and continually fanned us. We sat and rested and chatted with them for a bit. It was relaxing but I knew they were going to ask for money, which unfortunately they did. I apologetically said no and we were on our way to our final destination, the bamboo train.
The bamboo train is a jerry-rigged double set of wheels placed on the train tracks with a bamboo platform on top and a motor used to run it forward. It is used by locals to transport goods to the towns along the tracks. The freedom of sitting on top and exhilarating through the beautiful scenery was relaxing and enjoyable, except when there was oncoming traffic. With approaching bamboo trains the train with fewer people needs to get up and the two trains controllers pick up the one train in pieces remove it from the tracks and after the train passes they put it back together.
I enjoyed the day out and the company of my new friend but she was moving on to Thailand and I was headed to Phenom Penh so the next morning we both caught a bus in the opposite directions. Off to the capital I went.
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/Battambang?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7mzZWqsIa7sQE&feat=directlink
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