On the 24th October John and I took a boat from Siem Reap, across Tonal Sap lake and down one of its connecting water ways to a Town called Battambang.
On the way we past the floating village of Chong Kneas and many other water dwelling villages, all the children came out waving and singing 'hello'. It was an awesome 6hrs but it was a bit taxing on the behind because the old wooden boat came with planks for chairs.
<----------------- These contraptions are for fishing, they hold a big net with weighted edges that gets dropped into the water and then hauled in and sorted.
This is one of my favourite photos from Cambodia
BATTAMBANG - After negotiating with our new Tuk-Tuk driving friend Yayas about which hotel we should stay in and settling in we then negotiated the costs of having him take us around the sights the following day. We agreed $15us would be good for both parties and organised an 8am pick up. Battambang is a small city a little bit dirty but with alot of charm - many of the old French Colonial style buildings still exist or have been renovated and many left unused. We took a stroll on our first afternoon in Battambang to the local market - bought so weird sort of pickled vegetable and some fruit and rice and took it down to the river for a little picnic and pulled out the sometimes trusty Lonely Planet to see what the remarked upon sights were and what we would like to spend our time doing.
Down by the river bank many adults and young people exercised and played games like badminton and hacky sack, some like us - too lazy for sports and physical activity, sat with friends and ate and chatted.
Some of the marketed goods
Bamboo Train - slightly funny, very noisy and a whole lotta fun. Yayas took us out to have a ride on the Bamboo Train first thing in the morning, along the way we saw many rice fields and people farming and stopped off at one small village for a coffee and a chat with old Sonu - a very well travelled and intelligent man who was in the army for many years and could have even been caught up in the Khmer Rouge. It was really nice talking with him as he shared his life with us, the highs and the lows and the portraits of his beloved 8 children. So the Bamboo Train was a functional part of the lives of many farmers and commuters throughout Cambodia at one stage but now it is just an attraction depicting bygone times. The train is made up of 5 parts - 2 axles from either a train, car or truck which sit on the train tracks, 1 fan belt, which turns the back axle to make it move forward, 1 slab bamboo top - to sit on or in the old days to load up with your produce for the market in town and finally 1 small motor not much bigger than a lawn mower.
There is only one track - so when two trains coming in opposite directions meet the train with the least amount of stuff on it needs to disembark. Both drivers, first take the bamboo platform off the axles and place it to the side of the tracks, then they each take an axle and do the same. The the driver of the train which is still on the tracks pushes his car forward and past and then helps to rebuild the others train and they say their farewells and move on. This event is quite funny at first but by the time you have to get up and move and the like 4 or 5 times on your short journey you soon get sick of it.
Children showed us how they weave grasshoppers, flowers, stars and many other cute designs. In return we offered them some food and a nice interaction.
Sonu - really enjoyed conversing and sharing his stories - such a strong minded old fella - he also showed us his war wounds across his chest from shrapnel which looked like it would have been pretty intense.
Phnom Sampov - a beautiful mountain that is said to resemble a ship in the sea (see story below for further details).
Beautiful country side full of rice farms and rolling hills and meadows - Yayas told us a funny little story about the small mounds and hills in this area. One of the hills is chicken mountain and one is crocodile mountain - the reason they are named this is because of an old tale where a young girl had found a crocodile egg in the Mekong and had cared for it as it's mother. One day a Prince visited her a promised to love her forever. But the Prince was not honest - he took another lover who was of noble blood in spite of his promise and sailed away. During this time the Battambang area was covered in sea. The young woman was so sad and disappointed and her crocodile took after the Prince's ship and attacked it, taking out all the sails and destroying some of the wooden ship. The Prince was so scared and prayed for help, and a magic long hair woman came to help him. She helped by soaking up the sea in her long long hair and leaving only the form of Tonle Sap lake. The crocodile soon died from lack of water and become what is today known as Phnom Kroper (crocodile mountain) and materials and cargo falling into the sea from the damaged boat became (chicken mountain) Phnom Trung Moan Trung Tea, and finally the wooden ship grew into Phnom Sampo.
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| Me and Yayas |
On our final night in Battambang we went and watched the local youth circus. This school is run by French trainers and a band of international teaching staff specifically aimed at empowering young minority people who live just outside the Battambang area. The school provides education and training in the performance of acrobatics circus and music. It also offers students the chance to join other world renowned circus groups and schools.
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