We had a harrowing drive to Battombang, it was meant to take 5 hours, we made it in four hours, travelling at estimated speeds of 130kph – both of us holding onto our seats tightly in the very back row to stop our heads hitting the roof with all the bumps – and there were a lot of bumps!! Arriving in Battombang, we were greeted by a rugby scrum of Tuktuk drivers, all offering rides to various hotels and guest houses (little did we know that one of the tuk-tuk drivers were sent by our guest house as a complimentary pick-up. We only found out the next day when the driver came up to me and asked if I was Emily Loan – that was a bit freaky!) so we walked in the hot sun for 15mins to find our guesthouse! One of the TukTuk drivers found out we were kiwi’s and was very excited as he had a New Zealand Fish and game hat at home. Five to ten minutes into our walk to our guesthouse, he drove up to us proudly wearing the hat, and offered us a ride -again! Unfortunately for him, the hat didn’t convinced us to spend the $.

Our hotel was ok, what you get is what you pay for as we’ve learnt! We’ve become use to carrying our bags up four flights of stairs, as no basic hotel in Asia invests in lifts. Some of the bathrooms are so small that you could literally have a shower while on the toilet and brushing your teeth in the basin which is so close to the toilet it prevents you from sitting squarely on the squat!

Battambang is a relatively small and quiet town in northwest Cambodia, famous for its well-preserved colonial architecture. The Battambang area has switched between Thailand and Cambodia several times in the last three centuries. The town itself was a nice enough town, but couldn’t be described as elegant. There were a couple of old colonial buildings which looked really nice, funnily enough, the best preserved and maintained building was the local bank!

The following day, we hired a TukTuk (one from the rugby scrum!) for the day to take us to various temples around the region, as well as the novelty bamboo train. We had considered hiring a scooter ourselves but were glad we didn’t as we were taken down many dirt back roads along the river where we saw local villages and stopped to watch men fishing in the river with huge nets – they work so hard!

Having completed one of the worlds classic train rides already across Russia-Mongolia-China, why not add to the list? Except this time it was much shorter, 3.7km on Battambang’s classic bamboo train! It runs along an old rail line left by the French, and consists of a 3m bamboo platform resting on two barbell-like boggies. It runs off what could be considered a lawn mower engine, loud, smelly, with a pull string to start. So we raced along the track at 15kph, bumping across the track connections and slanting to the left and right in reflection of the uneven tracks. It was quite hot being in the direct sun, I forgot my hat and my umbrella kept being blown inside out, but otherwise it was a lot of fun, similar to a theme park ride but more raw and risky! On reaching the next ‘station’, we got off and wondered round, being offered cold drinks, food, clothes etc by multiple store holders, and even had a 5 year old boy start to guide us through a brick making factory!
On the ride back, we came across another ‘train’ sitting disassembled on the side of the track, which was the only way to have two-way traffic!

Back on the tuktuk, we zigzagged through dirt roads to see an old traditional Cambodian house, greeted by an elderly lady who still lives there. She is the great-granddaughter of the original owners. The stilt house was made of hard wood, with one large room separated simply into various rooms and decorated with old family photos, certificates and old traditional furniture. During the day, the family hangs out under the house, lying in hammocks, cooking on the open fire (just away from the house). The house was surrounded by a beautiful orchard, as was most of the area.

Along the way we called into a local winery and tasted some local red wine, brandy, ginger syrup and pomegranate syrup. They all left a lot to be desired for, the red wine tasting like grape juice that’s gone off, not pleasant at all!

There are many temples scattered around Battambang, some quite impressive set on top of small hills (or mountains as they call them!). The first one, Phnom Banan, was on top of a hill, up 358 very steep, old and kind of crumbly steps (we were thankful for the cool breeze at the top!). The temple at the top has five towers, a couple of which are still active. I didn’t walk through temple as they looked so crumbly and unstable, with a large pile of blocks in the middle where stone had already fallen. We had a quick and yummy roadside lunch of fried rice before continuing on to Phnom Sampeau, a complex of temples sitting on top of a limestone outcrop. We hired a teenager boy to guide us through the many tracks up/down/around the mountain. It was a half hour steep climb to the top, stopping halfway to look at another temple, and the ‘Killing Caves’, where many were killed by being thrown down a cave shaft during the Khmer Rouge reign. Scott went into the cave, I’m glad I chose to stay at the top and miss seeing the cabinet of skulls at the bottom. At the top, we were greeted by many macaques, sizing us up for food, even though they were holding handfuls of peanuts stolen from the local store. The views at the top were incredible, stretching far across the flat green rice paddies to the horizon. These temples were busy and still active as well, one bright gold one and a couple of colourful mosaic temples.

That evening, we chilled at a local cafe where we got stranded by a heavy downpour. Next stop Siem Reap and Sugar Palm Restaurant!