Bamboo train woooo!

Trip Start Aug 24, 2008
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Trip End Jul 07, 2009


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Saturday, January 10, 2009

We took the bus to Kampot, checked in to a hotel and then went to see if we could arrange a trip into the National Park. Unfortunately the park is closed until the end of February due to construction of a drainage system (that's what they told me anyway) so we couldn't go. There is little else to do in Kampot so we counted it as a wasted journey and took the bus back to Phnom Penh the following day. The day after that we headed to Battambang. While we were waiting for the bus we were lucky enough to witness the wedding preparations of the daughter of our guesthouse owner, which involved a gold dress and a procession of guests with offerngs of food. It was very interestng (see the photos).

On arrival in Battambang we went on the bamboo train. This is a small platform made of bamboo that travels down the train tracks using a motor. It was used by the Khmer Rouge and the locals currently use it for transport. We had a go and it went pretty fast through the countryside. When you meet another one coming the other way the lighter one has to be dismantled and taken off the track so that the heavier one can pass. We met quite a few coming the other way, one with about 20 people on it! We saw the sun set and visited a brick factory where the local children gave me flowers and thought it was hilarious to look up my skirt. They were playing in the ask from the kilns so their feet were all grey.

The following day we hired a tuk tuk and headed of to Phnom Sampeou mountain which had a temple on the top. The temple was quite pretty and we got a nice view over the fields. There were also some guns up there left over from the Khmer Rouge and also some caves where they used to murder people and bury their bodies. After this we headed to Wat Ek Phnom, a crumbled ruin of a temple from the 11th century which was very cool and once again we felt like we were Indiana Jones.

We tried some excellent Khmer curries in the restaurants in Battambang and the following day got up ridiculously early to take the boat to Siem Reap.
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