After a fabulous week in siem reap, celebrating christmas, visiting temples and learning about some wonderful NGOs and social enterprises, it was time to hit the road again and start heading south.
Battambang
Our first stop was Battambang, about 3 hours south of Siem Reap. An interesting city, it is the second biggest city in Cambodia and is a real workers city. Walking around you're often the only tourist in sight, weaving between people delivering packages, collecting labour materials or wheeling food carts along the streets. But, despite the pretty significant lack of tourists you might see walking around the streets, Battambang is a pretty big tourist hotspot! But the attractions that bring in tourists are outside the main city, and many (ourselves included this time) tend to do a flying 2 night stay to see those sights and leave. They dont spend much time in Battambang itself. It is though a very beautiful city. The French architecture from when it was colonised is still very present across the city, as is the French influence on some of it's food and drink: great coffees and pastries!
First we saw the bamboo train; an old train track network, that was originally used supply Vietnam with weaponry during the war in secret, and then later to move families out of cities and away from Khmer Rouge during the night. Originally it had no engine, and was pushed with a bamboo stick along the tracks, however now it has a small motorbike engine to run it. Its become popular with tourists as a way to see the beautiful countryside surrounding battambang, to see and experiences the journey a number of escaping families made in the 1970s, but also to experience quite a unique form of travel. There is only one track, which is used by bamboo trains used for work, bamboo trains used for tourism, and also the actual train that travels through Battambang. If you're faced with any other train coming the other way, the bamboo train must be dismantled and taken off the tracks to the others can pass - which is a pretty fun and interesting thing to see.
I had done this bamboo train back in 2020 was more than happy to try it again. Chris was particularly desperate to try it, as he was very jealous of the bamboo train tshirt I bought on my first visit and he wanted one of his own 🤣
After this, we then visited the Phnom Sampow caves. There are two main things to see here, one of the many killing caves across cambodia, used by the Khmer Rouge to slaughter innocent citizens during the genocide in the 70s, and also a naturally significant and unique experience of over 5million bats leaving the cave for the night from one small exit as sun sets.
We started with a VERY difficult hike halfway up the mountain to stop at the killing caves. I will go into this genocidal history and the Khmer Rouge in a later post when we visit Phnom Penh, but there are 100s of these killing caves or killing sites across cambodia, where over a third of cambodian people were murdered between 1975-1979 by the Khmer Rouge regime. This is one of those sites, and like many of the other sites, the government have done a clear up of the area, collected any remains and created a memorial shrine to those who lost their life. Its incredibly difficult seeing these things, but so so important to learn about cambodias recent history and pay our respects.
We then finished the hike to the temple at the top of the mountain, to see some beautiful views across Battambang countryside. The hike was hard, and I very nearly quit at one point😅 but we made it to the top and it was worth it for the views!
The finish the day, we hikes back down, grabbed some food and a beer from some vendors at the base of the mountain, pulled up a chair and prepapred to watch 5 million bats leave the cave. The second the sun sets and we hit that lovely dusk period, it began. First with just one or two bats leaving the cave, and then within seconds HUNDREDS at once. Forming the most beautiful and majestic waving lines across the dusk sky. This went on for atleast 10 minutes, its pretty incredible!
The following day, just before we went to get our bus out of Battambang, we stopped off at the most incredible and valuable gallery. The Human Gallery. Battambang was known as the artist capital of Cambodia, but the lack of tourism and funds for three years of the pandemic has affected this greatly and there is now on two remaining galleries in Battambang, one being the Human Gallery.
Its owner Joseba, a Spanish humanitarian and documentary photographer, has spent over 12 years travelling the world, immersing himself in small local communities, and helping those communities find opportunities to grow. For 7 years though, he has been settled in Battambang where he has founded a social enterprise and charity to provide safety, opportunities and education to young children who live in high risk homes, are at risk of sexual exploitation or trafficing. His gallery is the main source of income to fund private tuition for the children outside of school hours to provide them with better futures and keep them away from home, to employee social workers to work with the children and importantly their parents, and to provide things like bikes for the children to use to get to school and have some independence. Some really incredible work happening, that has been so deeply affected by the pandemic and redistribution of funding and cost of living.
Being such a small gallery, we had the opportunity to speak with Joseba for over an hour about his work, his experiences and the child he supports which was a really privilege and particularly special. Although our bags are pretty full, we always make sure to prioritise colelcting art work from local artists, and were able to purchase two incredible photo prints from Joseba.
Although it was a short visit, Battambang definitely has its charm, and has some amazing social enterprise work happening more generally. But it was time to move on.
A horrific night bus experience
After Battambang we had to get a nightbus down to Sihanoukville, a port town on the bottom of Cambodia. Its the gateway to the Cambodian islands. We were getting a "hotel bus", essential theyre a coach with small double beds in them, rather than chairs. I had previously travelled on one of these in Laos in 2020, and although me and the person I was travelling with were very squished in, it was actually fine and arguably much better than a reclining coach chair to sleep in all night. So I'd really sold Chris the dream on this bus, and was fully expecting a prerty decent nights sleep.
Oh how wrong I was.
These double beds were so much smaller than before, and Chris and I were so squashed, but fine. Initially though we were told we had to keep our luggage with us, so in this basically single bed we also had two 40l backpacks and two small daybags. Thankfully about 30 minutes in we were told we could move our bags to an empty bed near us, which gaves us a bit of room back.
Although the beds were small, the worst bit was just that we stopped honestly every 30 minutes for about 4 hours. Everytime they stopped, the main lights came on, people were getting on and off the bus, moving around, chatting etc. So just ad we drifted off, we were woken up again. In four hours, we got about 90 miles away from where we'd left😭 every other bus we've been on, including night buses, there is one main stop where everyone gets off, uses the bathroom etc. But this never happened. Everytime it stopped we sat up thinking okay...this must be the one we get off at. But as we got our stuff sorted to go, the bus would move again. We were on the bottom bunks so didnt have a window to look out of either to spot when it looked like a services, vs the side of the road.
Pretty sure we go about 2 hours sleep in total that whole journey. Then to add to the stress, we arrived at Sihanoukville, exhausted and frustrated (and bursting for a wee!!) And at one point during the night theyd moved everyones bags from the (not so) empty bed and stored them somewhere. Some in the under bus storage, some at the back of the bus under spare bedding or in small storage cupboards. We found Chris' bag in the under bus storage once they'd unloaded some bags of stock, but it took about 20 minutes to find my bag. It was right at the back of the bus, in a staff sleeping bed tucked behind the main row of beds. Thankfully, we never ever keep anything valuable or important in our big bags, they’re with us 24/7 in our daybags. But still, it was a stress we didnt need after an awful nights sleep!
But we made it...to Sihanoukville, a pretty awful port town, full of seedy shops, casions and half build foreign investor factories and hotels. Thankfully, we just had an hour to kill before our ferry to paradise. And after a coffee and some food it was time to board our boat and head to Koh Rong Sanloem, our home for almost a week and where we'd see in the new year.
NYE in paradise
Wow, wow, wow, Koh Rong Sanloem is absolute paradise. We have of course already seen some really magically places in the south of Thailand, like Phi Phi Don, Koh Tao and Krabi. But something about M'Pai bay on Koh Rong Sanloem that just blew us away. So, theres a few different beaches/bays on the island, from the more high end Saracen bay and Sandy Beach. But we went for M'Pai bay, which is much smaller, more relaxed and known as a great backpacker spot! And I'm so glad we picked this spot, we actually met a bunch of people who stayed on other bays who cut their visit short and moved to M'Pai bay instead!
Being here for almost a week, in such a quiet and tranquil place I guess felt like a holiday? Obviously we're on a very long 6 month holiday, but when you're travelling its so often just go go go, with very little time to rest and relax. But here, there was nothing else to do other than rest and relax. We went for a swim in a clearest water I've even seen (even compared to Thailand) every single day, we went for walks and explored the various corners of the bay, and unfortunately saw some pretty sad affects of the pandemic with a number of abandoned hostels, and hung out with the great bunch of people from the hostel.
There were two particular highlights of our stay though, swimming with the biolumonescent plankton and celebrating the new year with our new friends.
The Bioluminescent plankton
This naturally occurring beauty is absolutely incredible! Once the sun sets, and its pitch black, you swim out into the sea and as you move your arms or legs the plankton react with the movement and glow so you'll see the water glowing a bright blue underneath you. Its literally like someone is holding a light under the water! Its was magical. We'd heard that Koh Rong Sanloem was a particularly spot to see these plankton, but I had managed my expectations incase it eas a bit underwhelming, but it definitely wasnt! The whole group from the hostel went together, which really added to the experience too. Sharing our excitiment and fasination together! (The photos here are from Google, they're not mine. Although the glow is impressive andbright when you're in the water. We didn't see anything this bright, and I think these are probably quite enhanced on photoshop. But this gives a sense of what it looks like)
Celebrating new years eve
The other super memorable moment from our time on the island. NYE is a super special day for me, every year I spend NYE with a big group of family friends having a party to see the new year in. I have some really special memories from these nights and I was sad to miss that tradition this year, but this year ended up incredibly memorable in its own way.
We of course started the day with a lunch time swim and smoothie by the beach, then join the folk from the hostel for some beers and games of pool. Later that evening we went for a cheeky burger for dinner, and maybe its because I'd not had a burger in two months or not, but this was maybe the best burger I have ever had! It was unreal! Then in true NYE form, the drinks began. We stopped at a few bars on the beach front, but eventually settled on at a big table on the beach, playing card games, exchaging travel stories, and did lots of hiding from all the fireworks the local kids were setting off behind us!
The whole bay had come our to celebrate, tourists and locals. But there was maybe only 80-100 people there, thats how small the place was. As it approached midnight, a countdown began and even more fireworks started, many set off the pier to the island. We then spent the rest of the night dancing on the beach with the locals. It was honestly magical and a NYE I'll hold close to my heart forever. It was a real pitch me moment, stood on a beach of a tiny island off the coast of Cambodia, with a bunch of new friends, counting in the new year with Cambodian locals.
I did miss being at home, but am so glad I got to experience a different type of NYE, a once in a lifetime NYE💕
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