Our time
in Battambang began with an overnight bus journey from Sihanoukville. From Sam
and Vicky's previous experiences and from having spotted a few sleeper buses,
we were hoping our bus would be in the airline seat style. Instead, when we got
onto the bus, we were confronted with two rows of single bunk beds, with a very
narrow aisle down the middle. Naturally, we assumed that each bed was one seat,
but that would have been much too comfortable. Each bed was in fact two seats - just imagine having to share with a stranger. Our beds were the top bunks, which,
for someone of 5ft2 involved a lot of jumping and clambering.
The first
leg of our journey took around six hours, before we had to change buses in
Phnom Penh. The 'bus station' here was just a road full of buses and people
with no idea where they were going. After half an hour or so of questioning
everyone around us, we found the right bus, and prepared ourselves for another 6 hours of
discomfort.
We were
staying at The Royal Hotel in Battambang, which makes us sound like the
fanciest backpackers ever, but I promise it was just another budget hotel.
After a well-needed couple of hours of rest, we headed out to wander
around Battambang.
Our tuk tuk driver then took us around various fishing
villages, including one nicknamed San Francisco because of its Golden Gate
Bridge lookalike. This section of our day wouldn’t have been the same without
the knowledge and input of our driver; he took so much time and effort to teach
us about our surroundings, and we had an amazing insight into the culture and
customs of these small villages.
After this we were taken to see the Killing Caves,
which is a location that was used to dispose of dead bodies during the Khmer
Rouge regime. We were expecting a similar set-up to the Killing Fields and
Genocide Centre that we had visited in Phnom Penh, but unfortunately this area
was not as well maintained or managed, and there seemed to be a lot of
exploitation going on, in terms of young children asking for money to walk you
up some stairs. Whereas the Genocide Centre in Phnom Penh felt like an
extremely respectful way to educate the world about the horrors of the Khmer
Rouge, these caves in Battambang were being abused for the sake of tourism, and
it was quite an uncomfortable experience.

I also vlogged our stay, which gives an even better impression of Battambang, so give that a watch and subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss the vlogs from the rest of the trip!
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