Caves, Carts & A Cartoon Character: Our Time In Battambang
Considering its status as Cambodia’s third largest city, Battambang is a modest and quiet place, feeling more like a provincial town than how a bustling Asian city normally feels. The Sangker River flows lazily between its steep banks, in dry season anyway, while the traffic moves slowly through its docile streets which are noticeably free of beggars and hawkers, tuk-tuk drivers wait to be stirred rather than tout for business, and incredibly a car will sometimes even stop at a red traffic light. Battambang’s modest collection of restaurants is dotted around the city rather than centred on one area, there is nothing to compare to Siem Reap’s Pub Street here, though nevertheless there are several cheap food gems to be found without too much effort.
The internet consensus seems to be that Battambang is only worth a couple of days, but our decision to give it a little longer is vindicated by how calm and untroubled this place is and how relaxed we feel here. Gone is the manic bustle of previous cities, gone is their frantic pace. It’s easy to unwind here, and this is in spite of the fact that central Battambang is one big construction site where a massive flood defence project is underway. The banks of the Sangker are being eroded more and more during the rainy season and the city is in danger of sliding into the water – indeed some of it has already gone. It’s obviously a big, big project involving hurriedly shifting huge quantities of earth before the flood season returns – a race against time.
Our tuk-tuk driver here is Tin, though he likes to call himself Tin-Tin and even wears T-shirts sporting images of the cartoon character of the same name. He quickly becomes our source of local knowledge for reasons which are to become clear later. In the environs around the quiet town, Battambang has three claims to fame, or rather two to fame and one to infamy. We take the infamous first.
Half an hour out of town are the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau, one of the many tragic scenes of genocide during the period of Khmer Rouge rule. As Pol Pot and his party ruthlessly extinguished the lives of a third of Cambodia’s population, these caves were one of the many sites of mass slaughter. Men, women and children were murdered here, their lifeless bodies then thrown down into the caves until the cave was filled with rotting, decaying corpses. Some estimates suggest that more than 10,000 bodies were left here, but the true number will never be known.
Visiting the caves today is actually not quite the chilling and disturbing experience we feared it might be: yes there is a display of skulls and bones but apart from that there is nothing to tell its awful story. No information boards, no facts, no history, just a hand written sign saying “killing caves 75 metres”. If it wasn’t for Tin-Tin we would just be staring into an empty cave, but Tin-Tin sure as hell has stories to tell. He was born in 1965, making him ten years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power – his life story is one full of horrors which we intend to detail in another post at a later date. Whilst the visit to the caves may not be chilling, Tin-Tin’s narrative certainly is. We wonder how someone with his terrible experiences can ever go on to lead the normal life that he appears to lead now.
A short ride from this site of human horror is a site of natural wonder, in fact one of the world’s most amazing natural phenomena. Inside the caves of Phnom Sampov live the most incredible size colonies of bat – the Asian wrinkle-lipped bat to be precise – where an estimated six and a half MILLION bats preside. Every day just before sunset, these bats set off from the caves in search of food and watching this unbelievable colony fly out in a constant stream is just fantastic.
It takes almost half an hour for the colony to file out, forming swirling, twisting columns in the air as the writhing black line disappears towards the horizon. Anyone who has seen a ululation of starlings will perhaps be able to imagine what 6.5 million looks like; it really is an incredible natural sight. These colonies venture up to 50km from the cave each flight – and it is estimated that their consumption of crop-damaging insects saves around 2,000 tons of rice crop every year.
And so we move on to the renowned Battambang bamboo railway, darling of travellers for so long. First, a note for anyone coming here – the internet is full of reports that the original bamboo train has been shut down and replaced by a tourist trap imitation which is no more than a plastic fairground ride. This is absolutely NOT TRUE.
Yes, the authorities have indeed built the new one, apparently an inauthentic crappy ride from car park to amusement park, but it is absolutely untrue that this has been at the expense of the original – you just have to make sure you go to the right one. News of its demise, by the way, is purely propaganda by the authorities to get tourists to go to the new one.
Anyway, the ride. It’s fantastic fun. All you have is two sets of wheels on two axles, a separate flatbed made from bamboo, an outboard motor nicked from a boat, and a young lad who will be your driver. Off you go, just a few inches above the track, nothing to hold on to, at around 32kph for about 25 minutes until you reach a small settlement where the locals try to get you to buy a drink, a T-shirt or maybe a silk scarf.
And then it’s back the way you came, rattling another 25 minutes through rice fields and countryside, past cows on the line, over open bridges, back to the start point. It’s an amazing thrill and a helping of adrenaline rush. The pinnacle of amusement comes when you meet a “train” (actually, the correct name for the cart is a “norry”) coming the other way, as there is only a single track. There is an etiquette: the lighter of the two loads now has to dismantle the norry, lift the whole thing off the track, and let the other norry or norries pass, after which, they rebuild your norry, sit you back down, and away you go to continue your journey. It’s probably the funniest most offbeat rail journey we’ve ever done – and that’s saying something!
Battambang’s back streets are an odd place to ramble, neighbourhoods where there is no perceptible boundary between the complexes of Buddhist monasteries and temples and the ordinary town houses where children play and washing hangs on lines. Two boys kick a ball against the base of a stupa. Tuk-tuk drivers sit on the plinths of statues to smoke cigarettes. The majestically designed temples are strangely scruffy and unkempt: frayed bunting hangs limply above dirty terraces where fallen masonry lies broken where it hit the ground. Weeds sprout between the ornate paving slabs, fallen fruit stains the tiles. Every door is closed, the temple interiors apparently out of bounds. It’s unusual to see such beauty being neglected like this, especially as they are still in use: the orange robed monks are evidence of that.
Checking on the sun’s position as she’s lining up a photograph of one temple, Michaela looks up to the sky and gasps. Above us is a rare weather phenomenon, a circular rainbow around the sun – apparently this is known as a sun halo, though neither of us have ever heard of it, let alone seen one before. We stand awestruck for a few moments, it’s an amazing sight.
Elsewhere in town, Battambang’s architecture is a fascinating mix of grand French colonial, Buddhist temple, Thai imagery and, perhaps the most unique, the older Khmer dwellings known as “shop houses” which run along several of the streets with their decorative balustrades hanging over mundane shop doorways. Our own base here is a huge French colonial house, now a hotel which the owners have chosen to split into only seven bedrooms despite its sizeable presence. Furnished in colonial 1930s style – in other words sparsely and more shabby than chic – we feel a bit like we’re entering a British Rail manager’s office in the 1960s, especially when I sit at the characterful wooden desk writing notes for this blog. It’s a British Rail office with a big four poster bed in it – it’s almost, but not quite, lovely. It’s almost, but not quite, ridiculous.
Our three excursions from Battambang have been varied, ranging from disturbing to thrilling, while all day the town itself ambles along at a certain pace, determined to be ordinary as if shaking off its place in Khmer Rouge history.
Until the afternoon, that is, when storm clouds gather and shopkeepers rush out to batten down the hatches, pull in the parasols and secure anything which moves. Wow – when Asia storms, she really storms. Each of our afternoons here has brought a thunder storm, prolonged and more violent day by day, up to Saturday when the huge storm flashes, crashes and rages like you wouldn’t believe: palm trees buckle, terraces and streets flood in minutes and fork lightning draws vertical lines from cloud to ground. Thunder rattles window frames. Dogs cower under cars.
Don’t you just love places like Battambang.
25 Comments
Nemorino
I’ve read quite a bit about the history of the Khmer Rouge regime, but never knew about the killing caves at Battambang.
Phil & Michaela
There are regrettably many sites of mass killing here
Mike and Kellye Hefner
I love seeing places like Battambang through your posts! Such sad history in such a lovely place. The bamboo railway looks like so much fun, and the smiles on your faces prove it. I enjoyed all of your photos, but I have to admit that the sun halo is pretty spectacular. Safe travels, y’all!
Monkey's Tale
I can’t believe we missed the train! We actually missed almost everything in Battambang since Richard had a very bad traveller’s stomach. I do remember its slow pace. Love the comment about having to rouse tuk tuk drivers, I much prefer that to the ones that hound you. Maggie
Phil & Michaela
Ah shame about the stomach thing because Battambang is a nicely laid back city…liked it a lot. The biggest hazard was that, because of all the works, it was hellishly dusty until it rained, after which is was a mudbath. Our shoes may never recover!
wetanddustyroads
I can already see in your first photo that there are far fewer motorbikes (which made me think we will love Battambang)! Wow, that’s a LOT of bats – they look like stripes painted in the sky! Oh, I like the bamboo train … like you said, so much fun! Great photo of the sun halo. We have seen it a couple of times (but never managed to take a photo) – just during this weekend, we saw a moon halo. You have beautiful photos here – I can see that you had a great time in Battambang!
Phil & Michaela
It was good ❤️
Toonsarah
It’s clear from your descriptions and Michaela’s photos that Battambang is worthy of the amount of time you’re devoting to it. The bat caves look like as awesome sight, the bamboo railway sounds great fun and I like the look of the somewhat shabby temples and your off-beat hotel. As to Tin-Tin and his past experiences of the Khmer Rouge era, you said that you wonder how someone with his terrible experiences can go on to lead a normal life. From our conversations with our guide Van in Phnom Penh, leading a normal life is the only thing they CAN do and it’s the one thing they really want to do. Not just for themselves but out of respect for those who came before them and couldn’t do so. They don’t want to forget, far from it (and they want us to remember too) but they do want to put the past behind them as much as they can.
Phil & Michaela
Sarah thank you for such a thoughtful and well thought through comment. We are reaching all of the same conclusions, especially now we are here in Phnom Penh. You are so right, this is perhaps the best, maybe the only, way of dealing with it. But, as we will state in next post, Phnom Penh is where that whole thing really hits you. This city is full of life.
Toonsarah
Yes, the contrast in Phnom Penh between its present and its past is very marked. I think there’s something too about it being such a young country, or rather a country with a high proportion of young people, keen to acknowledge the past but not be weighted down by it.
leightontravels
Ah, I LOVED Battambang and it was a real treat to retrace my own footsteps through your words and images. In fact, I’m not afraid to say that I felt just a touch emotional seeing these places again. Battambang is where I met one of my best friends, or at least on the bus to Battambang from Siem Reap. This is where we began our cross-country trip together, the start of a now 8 year friendship that’s seen us travel through China, Japan, Spain and South Korea together. I’m curious about the future Tin Tin post and so happy that you got to see that wondrous bat parade in all its full glory. As for the bamboo train, that was SO MUCH FUN, a highlight of any trip around Cambodia and a much welcomed contrast after soaking up the horrors of the cave history. I’m so glad that the authenticity of the experience hasn’t been compromised, as some have claimed. Love your accommodation, adore Sangke Pagoda (which I didn’t make it too) and what a fantastic sun halo. Great stuff!
Phil & Michaela
Hey that’s really cool that it’s brought back those memories. We very much liked the slower pace of Battambang, and felt very settled there in our British Rail office. Even the huge flood defence works didn’t spoilt (though hellishly dusty until the rains turned it all to mud). Quite liked a hostel bar there too…named Pomme.
leightontravels
That’s curious, I used to frequent a hostel bar called Pomme in Siem Reap. Just a five minute walk down from Wild Bar. They had a build-your-own-breakfast menu, not sure if it’s a sister branch?
Phil & Michaela
I don’t know the answer to that, didn’t see the one in Siem Reap. Pomme in Battambang was pretty cool though…and the bar next door had a pet parrot that ate the seeds from fresh chillies 🌶️
Wandering Canadians
Wonderful shot of the sun halo. I’ve never actually seen one of these in person. Sounds like you had a nice time in Battambang and got to experience a different pace of things. The (real) bamboo train looks like so much fun. And how wild to see so many bats.
Bama
It was only during my first trip to Cambodia back in 2011 when I heard about Battambang for the first time from a fellow traveler who was also crossing the Thai-Cambodian border with me. Then it led me to some Google searches from which I learned about a few ancient Khmer temples the city has. In my recent trip to Siem Reap, the usual driver who always took me and my friend around actually came from Battambang. And the sister of the friendly hotel staff we met everyday was just enrolled in a university in Battambang around that time. It all, and this post of yours, really make me think the next time I visit Cambodia I should pay this city a visit.
Phil & Michaela
Recommended, but probably at the point where you feel like slowing down a bit. Do the caves and the bamboo train and give yourself a couple of days to just wander around and soak up the slower pace of the town.
Alison
Looks like the perfect spot for some rest and relaxation. I would definitely stay longer in that amazing hotel. Michaela’s photo of the sun rainbow is absolutely stunning, competition stuff.
Not sure about the railway with a train coming the other way? I absolutely can’t stand bats and won’t be going in anymore bat caves unless I can be guaranteed to meet batman.
Yes I do love little places like these.
Phil & Michaela
OK leave it with me and I’ll arrange batman to be there for you next time 😄. Ah the bamboo train was brilliant, you have to do it if you ever get to Battambang.
Alison
It looked like fun, you weren’t tempted to lay Michaela on the line and rescue her at the last minute 😭
Phil & Michaela
I would have, but I didn’t have my batman costume with me…..
Alison
Hahaha 😅 stop
Latitude Adjustment: A Tale of Two Wanderers
Intriguing and fascinating.
Annie Berger
As Leighton wrote, your post on Baytambang brought back so many memories, too. The bamboo railroad was great fun – I remember a you g girl, perhaps five or six, selling bracelets at the spot where we had to get off the train and turn around. She spoke amazing English and took us to where her family made bricks. We still have the bracelets we bought from her. Perhaps, from the dimness of time, I don’t recall the temples that you portrayed but the bats will be forever etched in my mind.
Phil & Michaela
Makes us feel good to bring back good memories for people, Annie! Yeah the bat caves were fantastic, what a privilege to watch that whole scene unfold. Battambang was great, loved it.