Our stay in Battambang ended to be a bit longer than expected, due to the Vietnam visa procedure. During our stay, we had plenty of time to explore the area. We wanted to have a Battambang tour, in the city or outside.

As almost every hostel or hotel, the hostel “Pomme” organizes full-day excursions, too.

There were several options, but we decided to go for the most popular 8-hours Battambang tour (and surroundings). The tour included visits to a few local artisans, lunch in a local restaurant (plus fresh water all day long), visit temples and to admire the sunset next to the impressing bat cave. The cost of the tour was 24 $ per person, all included.

This is the map with the main attractions. We visited only some of them.

Our guide’s name was Tony, a very nice and friendly 40-years-old Cambodian guy. He picked us up at the hostel with his VIP tuk-tuk with very comfortable seats,  welcoming us on board with a huge smile!

We were 4 people in total, so it felt like we had a private tour with a private guide.

We went around with the super comfortable tuk-tuk for the entire day and visited these family businesses in the middle of nowhere. I don’t recall names and locations, as they were sometimes really remote. But it has been very useful to have Tony with us, translating those people’s stories, and to understand how proud they are about their work.

We could taste every culinary speciality and enjoyed the rural and traditional Cambodian lifestyle. The real Cambodia was there.

Here below you will find the most important and touching stops in the tour. We highly recommend to do it if you stop in Battambang, as you will see some hidden gems that you wouldn’t find by yourself.

 

Battambang tour (the real Cambodia)

 

Wood carving family’s business

The first stop has been by this family who runs a wood carving business. It is impressive to see the dimensions of these artworks, they are huge and so detailed! It seems that it takes 1 month (16-18 hours per day) for 1 person to complete a piece of art. And the cost for that sculpture is around 1000 $. It has been moving to see how they were happy while saying that, because for them 1000 $ is a huge amount. We were shocked because the price paid is so low compared to the hundreds of hours worked.

In the house, everyone has its own role: men work with the wood, and women take care of the “house”, animals and food.

 

Banana business

The second stop was in a family working bananas in different ways: they slice them very thin, afterwards they dry them under the sun, or deep-fry them. You can admire these sheets of bananas along the roads, yellow like gold.

In Cambodia, and in SE Asia in general, there are only small bananas. Not as big as “ours”.

The taste is really sweet, delicious. But not only for us…

… chicken like it, too! This one was jumping up and down to steal little pieces of banana 🙂

 

Rice papers business

This couple has a business of rice paper, the ones that we normally use to wrap fresh spring rolls. They usually produce around 3000 rice papers per day, and they sell them to local restaurants or shops. To do that, they work from sunrise to sunset, non-stop.

She prepares the mixture of rice, boiling it, in this sitting position. Afterwards, she prepares rice disks, and she places them on a rudimental drying rack.

He takes them and gently puts them on a bamboo net, ready to be dried under the sun.

Once they are dry, they collect them in a big basket and they are ready to be picked up. This happens every day, 365 days per year.

 

Rice wine business

Here we go, something to drink before lunch! The “boss” explained to us how he produces this local wine in his unbelievably small hut. He has built several big clay pots, where he stores the fermented rice in its different stages. There is also a system of pipes connecting everything.

After seeing the process, we could finally taste the rice wine which tastes more like grappa than wine… There were 2 kinds of rice wine: regular rice wine, and rice wine with a snake inside. We tasted both. I guess you are curious about the snake’s one, right? Well, it tests like pear’s grappa… or something similar. “Try it to know it”, as they told us 🙂

The producer said that usually they drink rice wine before lunch or dinner, or to heal strong pains.

 

Coconut and dry fish business

We didn’t stop to the fish racks as the smell was really strong. In this place, fresh fish is cut and dried under the sun. Part of it is transformed in fish paste (which is actually the one that smells so strong).

Not too far away, we also visited a coconut plantation. A couple of people was collecting coconuts to sell them to the market. Unfortunately, we couldn’t taste one because they were all already reserved.

 

Khmer old prison and killing fields memorial

This part has been very touching and emotional. Tony told us the story of the Khmer Rouge from his parents’ point of view. He was born a couple of years after the end of that period, but his family lived those terrible years. He told us how bad Cambodian people were treated, worse than animals. Sometimes they were killed without reason, just because they were in the wrong place, in the wrong moment. While he was telling us those facts, his eyes were in tears.

The first building we visited was a prison, where Cambodian people living in Battambang and surroundings were “stored” and tortured.

The second building was the Killing Fields Memorial, full of skulls and bones of the thousands of innocent people who were killed by the hand of Khmer, again in the Battambang area.

It sad because Cambodia is a really poor country, one of the poorest in the world. The blameless population has been tortured without a real reason and is still paying the consequences nowadays. Tony told us sadly that, for example, people were killed because they were able to write, or other similar motivation. Unbelievable…

 

Bamboo Train

After lunch, the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed and joyful. We took the famous bamboo train. It is now a touristic attraction, but in the past, it was a real means used to transport goods from a city to another. Every time, the wagons have to be assembled from zero.

There is only one track, but trains come from both ways. So, what happens when two trains coming from opposite directions meet on the only track?

Initially, there is a verbal fight between the 2 drivers, until one of them surrenders, invites the passengers to get out and disassembles his wagon. The other wagon can proceed and, when the track is available again, the other driver can re-assemble the train and continue the trip…

 

Temple and bat cave

Around 5 pm, we reached our next stop: a temple in the cave. It is located up on a hill, around 30 minutes of walk, and the view from up there is magnificent! We were surprised because we had to pay 2 $ for that walk…

For the ones who cannot walk, there is a car service that goes up and down for an extra charge.

You can enter the cave and go down for a bit via some wooden stairs.

If you don’t want to enjoy a caving experience, you can have a look around on the “ground floor” and assist to scenes of people (kids, teenagers, adults and elderly people) humbly asking for a blessing. Once received the blessing, they pray all together for a few minutes.

 

Bat Caves

This Battambang tour couldn’t end in a better way!

Around 6 pm we climbed a little hill, where a dozen of other curious were already sitting. We waited for a few minutes and then, at 6 pm, magically, a huge black cloud started to come out from the cave. They were millions of little bats!

Every evening at 6 pm they exit the cave and fly around looking for food. It takes approximately 2 hours until they are all out of the cave. This is one of the most amazing spectacles admired in our entire lives!

It looked like smoke, but it was a flock of bats… and there was a wonderful sunset as background. We felt like we were in a movie with special effects 🙂

Amazing, really amazing.

 

Back at the hostel, we thanked Tony for this nice Battambang tour, it has been a pleasure for all of us 🙂

See you next time!