Battambang

Our next stop in Cambodia was somewhere we hadn’t really heard of before, but decided would be a good pit-stop between Siem Reap and our final destination, Phnom Penh. Th majority of those travelling in Cambodia will probably pass through the smaller city of Battembang, but it doesn’t really have a reputation in the wider backpacking community. Because of the this, whilst the area had a good number of hotels and restaurants, it had a much less touristy vibe and felt a lot more relaxed that we had anticipated.

Given our limited time in the area, we decided the best way to hit all the highlights was with a tuk tuk tour which was sorted for us by one of the guys at our hotel. For $15 he transported us around the area all day, which was great because we didn’t feel at all rushed as he wasn’t trying to offload us for another fare. We got to decide our route in advance and he stopped a few times to explain some of the history of the area, local traditions and agricultural practices and to get us some local snacks (including a particular favourite of sticky rice and red beans with sugar, heated in a stick of bamboo). We visited some local bridges, temples and an area where fruit bats roost, before heading to beautiful set of Khmer ruins at Wat Banan, which were similar in style to Angkor on a much much smaller scale with the added challenge of a set of around 300 steps to scale.

The final stop of the day was linked closely to Cambodia’s violent recent history. Situated on Phnom Sampeau mountain is a series of beautiful Buddhist temples and shrines that were witness to the barbaric and brutal murder of many Cambodian men, women and children under the communist regime of the Khmer Rouge. Like many of the now idyllic spots in the Cambodian countryside visited by tourists, it can be hard to imagine that these quiet places were once the site of horrific genocide. This particular area houses a natural vaulted cave with an opening at the top, which during the regime was used in executions, with people being thrown alive from the top to the cave floor. Unsurprisingly they are now referred to as the Killing Caves, and feature shrines and memorials made with the bones of the victims who were slaughtered there. Whilst some visitors may find this morbid, we thought it was vitally important to educate ourselves on the recent history of the country which is largely unknown in Europe but which is still in vivid living memory for older Cambodians today. We want to expand more on this in a separate blog post about our time in Phom Penh, during which we visited other sites now dedicated to preserving the memory of victims of the Khmer Rouge and document their crimes.