It was “only” 160km from Siem Reap but super hot and we had a slight hang over from Aaron’s birthday 🤪 As it was still his birthday we had to celebrate (again) 🥳😂
But first we went to the Phare circus 🎪 one of the few attractions in this town. They have a school and some form of campus for children to lern the arts. Originally started in a refugee camp on the border to Thailand it moved since here to improve the life of children and young adults. They also got a Guiness Book record for the longest show of 24h 🤷♂️
This night it was cabarets and the youngest of the trope were showing off their skills.
Art Installation
Painted on canvas bags
The two clowns leading through the evening
Weird dancing
Kids flexing
Impressive skills
The kids did a great job, the clown sketches weren’t really to my taste but the many children in the audience seemed to like them 😄Afterwards we had some beers next to a chili 🌶️ (seed) eating parrot which would become loud if you didn’t give him a new one 😆
And some fancy cocktails in the nice Miss Wong
To celebrate we splurged on our hotel by choosing one of the pricier ones. We found it weird that they had a picture of a woman as the first one on Booking until we arrived there and realized that Angelina Jolie (and Brad Pitt, but nobody ever mentions him 😂) seemed to have stayed here and it was the managers posing with her 🤷♂️😂 Anyway it was a nice little oasis until the second night when right next door a marriage party made our windows shake with their loudspeakers 😄
One of the main attractions is the so called bamboo train. Where they came up with idea to use the derelict rail road tracks by strapping a little engine to some bamboo frame resting on some axles and riding up an down. Of course we had to try that 😀
Assembly
Cruising
As a clutch our driver just pushed the motor more or less forward and to drive back he just turned the engine around 😆 Genius!
He asked if we want to go slow or fast, obviously fast 😉 But boy it rattles and sways quite a bit at 30kmh 😅
Another main attraction is the bat cave of Phnom Sampov, south-west of town. Here ever sunset approximately 6.5 millions of Wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats emerge to go hunting for food. They help greatly reducing pests and are said to save the rice harvest. Street sellers have setup chairs and tables, sell snacks and drinks to pass the time waiting.
Some rice snack
It goes on and on
Closer look
Tourists
Buddha not made of concrete!
We left after 20 minutes and they were still emerging! Right around the corner is the so called Killing Cave where the Pol Pot regime tortured and, you guessed it, killed people. Having had enough of death we skipped that as well the hike (or drive) to the top as there wasn’t much view anyway in the hazy conditions.
And that was it with Battambang, next to the coast by way of Phnom Pen!