Battambang & Siem Reap
- mollyben98
- Mar 26, 2018
- 3 min read
We arrived in Battambang around 7.30am after a relatively sleepless night. Got picked up and dropped off at Lucky Hostel for free and then crashed in the room for an hour or so. After a quick nap we met up with Willem and Tom again and hopped in Mr. Kay’s Tuk Tuk to a waterfall about 70km out of Battambang. As part of the service Mr. Kay bought a crate of beer, some cold waters and lunch for all of us - although it did cost us quite a bit. The waterfall itself wasn’t that impressive but we trekked through it for about 45 minutes and went for a dip further up from the main tourist spot which made up for it.
We all went for dinner at a really nice, and a little pricey, French pizza restaurant. We arrived with 10 minutes of happy hour to spare ($2 glass of wine and cocktails), so ordered two drinks each, and actually ended up getting all of our drinks for happy hour prices! Each meal cost roughly $15 pp inc 4 drinks each. The guys left early the next morning and we set out on Mr Kay’s Tuk Tuk tour of Battambang, but not without a couple of smoothie bowls at a health food cafe first.
We were out in the Tuk Tuk from 10am - 7pm and the tour consisted of: 1. Eek Phnom temple - pagoda next to it, built in 2001 by the son of the King Big Buddha built by the nation - can no longer build here but as it is Buddhist they cannot destroy it
2. Rice paper factory (woman’s home with four children) They produce 2000 pieces of rice paper a day and make roughly $10 per day on average 3. Rice wine factory (mans home and six children) Can produce up to 120L per day and sell for up to $60 per day in total 3. Buddhist temple (Preah Mhakunthkut) - not Pagoda as monks can’t live here 4. Bamboo train - tourist attraction ($5 pp)
5. Quick stop at fishing village 6. Fruit bats in village - they cannot fly away otherwise they will get killed and eaten, but in the village they’re in 7. Winery - very bare, grapes not in season 8. Wat Banan - 358 steep steps up to temple ruins
The road was really dusty between the next two sites so Mr Kay kindly bought us masks!
9. Killing cave, temple and bat cave - over 6million bats make flight at sunset
That night Molly and I went for a nice dinner at yet another TripAdvisor spot. We had an 8.30am bus to Siem Reap the next day, checked in to Siem Reap Pub Hostel and spent the afternoon researching and planning the Philippines leg of our trip. We wandered to the nearest supermarket and bought a baguette, cream cheese, ham and crisps to make a packed lunch for the Angkor Wat temples the next day, then went for dinner and drinks with Willem and Tom for our actual last night together, ended up doing the limbo for free shots in their hostel. We decided to skip the Angkor Wat sunrise tour (4am start!) and went for breakfast at Brother Bong Cafe recommended to us by Tom and Willem - I had the vegan chocolate smoothie bowl which I would very highly recommend.
Following a feed we set off on a Tuk Tuk tour from hostel of the Temples of Angkor Wat. We payed $18 for the small tour in theTuk Tuk for the day (5 temples including AW) and $37 each for entry to the temples. It was absolutely boiling the day we did them but so worth it, they were absolutely magnificent! We reached Angkor Wat an hour or so before sunset, had a wander around and got blessed by a monk inside (you give a donation, they bless you and tie and string bracelet to your wrist).
After a rather exhausting day we got back, showered, charged all of our electrical gear and had dinner at the hostel before setting off for our 11:15pm flight to Manila.
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