Battanbang - Cambodia - Part 42

My first night checking out the New Year here saw me down by the river; it was very different as tables and chairs lined the closed streets while the rest of the city was like a ghost town as everyone celebrated together. There was music and entertainment, a pull down screen showing Buddhist TV and plenty of food including ice-cream and popcorn.
Not sure if it was the heat or what but I was practically bed bound for the next three days with a headache and fever – I know I was ill as I slept so much and that is not like me at all.
On my return to the land of the living I had an interesting array of chats with a 66 year old South Korean retiree about how his English was better than mine and more advanced, how with an accent as harsh as mine how could I be romantic, sing or have feelings but I think the worst one was he guessed I was 42 or 45!! I can only put it down to our cultures being very different, unless I have aged much quicker than I’d thought – haha!! He also spoke to me at length about the British Empire, self-esteem of Westerners, how money could not bring happiness and how Westerners want to be brown and Asians want to be white!!!!He could not believe that we have poor and homeless people. He was actually screaming at me at times and I had to repeat myself as I spoke of immigration, the banking crisis that gave us the recession and how Presidents get their money and power and how they repay it leading to elitism. He was flabbergasted to say the least!! He also wanted to go into business creating a garage because there were not many, although he could see plenty of cars. He fancies a business in bungee jumping for tourists and he wanted me to be his business partner when he went back to Korea!!

“Battambang’s bamboo train is one of the world’s all-time unique rail journeys. The journey takes 20 minutes each way, with a 20-minute stop at O Sra Lav in between. Each bamboo train consists of a 3m-long wooden frame, covered lengthwise with slats made of ultralight bamboo connected by fan belts to a 6HP gasoline engine. It can carry ten to fifteen people, or up to three tonnes of rice, crank it up and you can cruise along at about 15km/h.
The genius of the system is that it offers a brilliant solution to the problem faced on any single-track line; what to do when two trains going in opposite directions meet. In the case of bamboo trains, the answer is simple: one car is quickly disassembled and set on the ground beside the tracks so that the other can pass. The rule is that the car with the fewest passengers has to cede priority.
With the advent of good roads, the bamboo train would have become defunct if it hadn't been for its reinvention as a tourist attraction. Yes, it is super-touristy – complete with some very determined children touting bracelets when you disembark at O Sra Lav – but there's no denying that whizzing along the click-clacking rails is a huge amount of fun.
There is talk of upgrading the railway and ending the operation of the bamboo train in the near future, but there are plans to relocate it within the province.”

Back to my normal routine of not sleeping well I decided to visit the mountain of Phnom Sampeu, another location used by the Kymer Rouge in their oppressive regime. A few ‘killing caves’ were used as mass graves, an interesting experience but one that chilled me to the core. Phnom Sampeu is also home to the Bat Cave. Would you believe my tuktuk driver was called Bat!!! Each night at the same time hundreds and hundreds of bats emerge from the cave, taking about 30 minutes. As there are so many flying together you can see them for ages. Talking to the driver I found out that the cave is protected so tourists can’t actually go in. The owners go in twice a month to collect the dung in order to sell it. It makes the best manure and they make a $1000 a month. He also spoke to me about fleeing the country because of war, then returning to Battambang to vote and deciding to stay as tourism was becoming popular and employment was available; a really fascinating conversation while waiting for my first sighting of the bats. The first bat come out and darted out to the side followed by swirls of bats that became a steady stream over the top of us going on for what seemed forever, like a rhythm, as the sunset. As I was trying to get an even better view Bat suggested we quickly get back into the tuktuk where upon he blasted through a temple on to a main road and we were able to see them disperse high in to the sky making them look like tiny black flies. The tuktuk ride home finished with the sun turning into a ball of fire looking magnificent – my only regret is I didn’t manage to a photo of it. What a great evening – another one of many.