Battambang - Norri trains

After leaving the beach I headed back to Phnom penh for one day before getting an early bus over to Battambang.

The bus journey was very beautiful with a much better road than before and Cambodia still seems really flat compared to Laos .  We found a great cheap hotel only paying 3$ a night for 2 of us, although it was right on the top and had to climb lots of stairs to get there which was a bit of a pain if you forgot something!  The town has a really nice feel to it and I spent the first afternoon wandering around and looking at the strange statues they have around it, no idea why!  While we were looking at a temple some monks came over and asked us to join us so we spent a few hours chatting with the monks so they could practice their English which was pretty good! It was really interesting talking to them about Cambodia and school, and they gave us a tour of the temple too.

The next day we hired a tuk tuk for the day and headed out to see some of the temples around Battambang and ride on the bamboo trains. We decided to head out to Phnom Sampeau first not realising that the temple was on top hill with a 2km climb in the mid day heat!  The drive out was along a big dusty track road we got covered in red dust! and all along the side of the road everything was covered in a red coating all the trees and houses, it gave a crazy view from the top of the temple this red strip along the green.  We stopped half way up the climb to look at the Killing Caves that Kymer Rouge used, over 10,000 people were killed in the caves, its a really eerie place.

After another dusty ride back we went to see the Norri trains, the trains are a light bamboo frame  on 2 wheel shafts powered by a tiny engine.  The trains run along a single track so if you meet another train coming the other way you have to jump off your train and dismantle it on the side so the train can pass!  I was surprised at how fast the trains ran along the tracks, however it was full of tourists apparently they only run for tourist groups now as the locals prefer to use the bus which is a shame as the cost of going on the train is very high.  I guess its due to all the big buses of tour groups that come down from Siem Reip and can pay a lot of money to ride the trains. 


That evening we went too see a circus performance.  There is a school - Phare Ponleu Selpak which is a multi arts centre for children and they put on performances in the week.  It was a pretty good show lots of acrobatics and some fire juggling, I think the best bit was the guy doing back flips in a skipping roap on fire! pretty impressive for teenagers.


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