On The Rivers of Lazy Battambang

There is something different about Battambang. Even when there are cars whizzing past and motos weaving between them, this place has a whole different pace. Just walking through the streets this morning, watching the children running off to school, all waving hello with their beautiful smiles, it seems peaceful. Here is the real Cambodia, whereas Siem Reap is a tourist hub with the Temples being a world heritage listed tourist hot spot. Yesterday I sat on the Sanghri river and had a long conversation with a Monk, which was kind of surreal.

Of course there are tourist attractions here which would be remiss if I ignored them. On our first day here we went on the bamboo train. By the sounds of it you would assume it is a leisurely trip through the Cambodian countryside. Guess again! It s a bamboo platform with an outboard motor attached and flies down the tracks at lightning speed, and you hope that the odd village or cow that strays on to the tracks will move out of the way in time. And if there is someone coming the other way, one of the drivers has to pull their platform apart, take it off the tracks and let the other one go through. So its on all aboard- everyone off- all aboard- everyone off. Differently an experience I would suggest to anyone, like the whole of the Battambang Provence.

I also trekked up my first mountain here- Boat Mountain, the site of more temples and the infamous killing caves. It was sad to think that in those caves thousands of people were slaughtered by Pol Pot in the age of the Khmer Rouge. There are even skulls with bullet holes in them to prove it. And the trek up the mountain is not an easy one, so you can just imagine the mental anguish of the people who knew they were trekking to their deaths. Apparently Pol Pot choose this site because it was secluded and he could torture and murder the villagers without bring attention to what was going on. The mountain bears scars of other violent encounters that Cambodia has suffered. There are two long run cannons/guns which were put their by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam war, another bloodied mark in Cambodian history. It is inspiring to see the unfailing smiles of the Cambodian people and their warmth towards westerners- you can choose to bittery linger in the past or chose to live.

We also did a traditional Khmer cooking class at the Smoking Pot Restaurant which was AWESOME! We went to the markets and saw some very weird stuff. The fish we later ate was alive at the markets, lucky for me the chicken and cow had already meet their fate before we purchased them. Mum was squeamish and turned away, but I made myself watch the fish find its final moments. In Australia, everything is pre-filleted and prepackaged that we forget to give respect for the life we take so that we may live. Away from the bustling market with its weird smells and sights, we were off to our smoking pots to make a three course meal. Some people may find it strange to pay to cook your own food, but it was totally worth it- and I got a cookbook with the experience so watch out when we get home, its Khmer time!

After our stomachs were full we headed off to the Circus, which in performed by local teens of the area, funded by a NGO that helps vulnerable and impoverished children in the Battambang area. Although the whole thing was in the Khmer language, it was a fantastic night of acrobatics and comedy, with the edge of wondering "will they make the trick or not?"- because sometimes they didn't. but like the same spirit that runs through this area, if at first they don't succeed they try, try again. The audience was very forgiving and I must admit it was one of the best acrobatic shows that I was watched. It was also great to see a positive outlet for the children here, many of which were "human traffic" children intercepted before they reached Thailand.

Now it is off to the bus back to Siem Reap, after a six hour slow boat ride through Asia's largest lake and floating villages to get here just two days ago. Take the boat, come to Battambang and see just how beautiful the real Cambodia is.