Jan 21st –Battambang/Phnom Penh

Jan 21st –Battambang/Phnom Penh

Mainly a travel day today as we drove from Battambang to Phnom Penh which is about 230km south.

As we left Battambang it rapidly became more rural and we started to notice the different styles of house. Tamsin reckoned that there were 6 types ranging from the basic wooden structure on stilts, with nothing underneath and woven sides right up to the modern house on a raised platform that was made of brick and cement with the lower part now part of the house.

We elected to pass on visiting another floating village as it sounded very much like the one we’d seen near Siem Reap and none of us had a desire to smell fermented fish paste being made ever again. So we pressed on towards Phnom Penh.

Charcoal cookers

Our first stop was a pottery which makes pots and the clay barbeques that most people in Cambodia use for cooking. Its design has been around for a long time. Nobody knows for how long. These clay cookers last about 3 years with constant use. We’d passed a vehicle whilst travelling to Battambang from Siem Reap that Joe told us was the potter out to sell his wares. The little trailer was over laden with pots and cookers. Joe went on to say that he (the potter) wouldn’t return home until he sold everything. It seems a bit wasteful as the clay is put into aluminium sheet moulds which as only used once. However, rice husks are the fuel for the furnace and the aluminium is recycled.

We stopped for lunch at Kompong Chhnang. It was a place that Sophoam (our driver) know from previous trips. As we weren’t hungry we had a soup each. We asked for small and I would hate to see large. Anyhow, it was lovely.

Looking up the steps

Cement Elephants

Next stop was the stupas at Phnom Oudong. The last one was started in 1997 by the previous King (Sihanouk) for a piece of Buddhas body (his shoulder) that had been donated by India. We were promised a beautiful building, which to the casual observer it is, but the quality isn’t there and most of the cement joins can be seen. Also, they were repainting the stairway and had slopped paint all over the place. Obviously nobody had told them to protect the floor from paint drips.  At the top you have to walk around the outside before dropping down underneath where there are lots and lots of Buddha statues that have been donated by people.  Walking back down one of the male monkeys we’d seen onthe way up tried it on with me, I remembered what you have to do from our Africa trips which is to raise your arms and make yourself look bigger, that worked and I continued down.

Lice to see you, to see you ....

As we approached Phnom Penh, actually about 40kms out, the road changed as they were doing road improvements. There was  lot of dust and more traffic. Suddenly we came across a traffic jam and the vehicles heading towards Phnom Penh had become 6



wide. After about 40 mins of very little progress Joe jumped out to find out what was happening. He came back saying that the jam had been like that for a few hours and after some discussion with Sophroan we turned around and headed back the  way we came towards a bridge crossing of the Tonle Sap river.  This proved to be the right decision as we now made good progress. However, our troubles were not over as Sophroan pulled over as he had heard a noise from the van and stopped to check the bearings and suspension. He continued at a slower pace as we entered Phnom Phen. The traffic is as mad as Ho Chi Minh and once again I was glad I wasn’t driving. They dropped us off at our hotel and with some sadness we said goodbye. We hope the van held up on their 7-8 hour journey back to Siem Reap.