Cambodia Day 5: Battambang Tour

As usual, today we woke at 6.20 am and started our tour at 8 am. The breakfast at Classy Hotel was crowded by French tourists and offer variety of foods. Today was a relaxing day, we have only few places to visit. First we visited Wat Ek, a ruin of ancient temple thirty minutes away from the city center. Then we visited another ruins of temple called Wat Toul Bassaet. On the road between we stopped to take a picture of the rice fields. There isn’t much to see on those two site itself, but there is a monastety next to Wat Toul Bassaet that worth to take a look.

dscf0402 Battambang Provincial Hall

dscf0410 Buddha Statue in Wat Ek Complex

dscf0412 A school in Wat Ek Complex

dscf0432 Wat Ek, Battambang

dscf0440 Wat Ek, Battambang

dscf0446 Rice Fields along the way, Battambang

At eleven we went back to the city, my father and the guide ate on a small shop on the road while I was planning to eat in the hotel instead (hygiene issue). We have three hours on the hotel to relax, so I have my lunch by the pool, pizza and drink for $8.5. I also read the book I brought until we departed again at 15.00 to the Phnom Sampov mountain.

dscf0457 Wat Toul Bassaet Ruins, Battambang

dscf0462 Wat Toul Bassaet, Battambang

dscf0470 Monastery Next to Wat Toul Bassaet, Battambang

Before climbing Phnom Sampov to see the sunset, we went to a water reservoir built during the Khmer Rouge era for about 40 minutes. There are fisherman and many boats on the lake, and locals selling seafood on the street. We take a short walk for 10 minutes before heading to the mountain. Once we were at the foot of the mountain (near the bat cave), we decided to hire motorcycles to the top of the mountain instead of walking, since it take much more time and we don’t want to miss the sunset. It only cost us $2 each back and forth including waiting time.

dscf0492 Kamping Puoy Bassin, Battambang

dscf0496 Kamping Puoy Bassin, Battambang

dscf0509 Local Selling Street Food, Battambang

dscf0471 Local Selling Seafood, Battambang

In the mountain, firsr we visited a cave where Khmer Rouge used to slaughter people and kill prisoners. They push people off the cliff into a cave 20 meters below, it was a horrific place. We then rode further to the top and take a tour around the site before I set my tripod on the east side of the temple. The sunset was good, but before it was dark we have to go back to the foot of mountain to watch the bat flying from the bat cave at 5.30-6 pm. There are millions of them gettig out from the cave, creating a stochastic pattern for 30 minutes, they did gives a spectacular show for the tourists.

dscf0523 Killing Caves in Sampeou Mountain, Battambang

dscf0541 Landcsape from Sampeou Mountain, Battambang

dscf0581 Tourists Waiting for Sunset in Sampeou Mountain, Battambang

battambang8 Landscape from Sampeou Mountain, Battambang

dscf0643 Millions of Bat Flying from Sampeou Mountain, Battambang

dscf0656 Millions of Bat Flying from Sampeou Mountain, Battambang

Around 6 pm we headed back to town and ate at White Rose restaurant again, the fried noodle was good and the pork ribs wer delicious. Around 8 pm we were already in the hotel for sauna and massage to end our day.

About Journeyman

A global macro analyst with over four years experience in the financial market, the author began his career as an equity analyst before transitioning to macro research focusing on Emerging Markets at a well-known independent research firm. He read voraciously, spending most of his free time following The Economist magazine and reading topics on finance and self-improvement. When off duty, he works part-time for Getty Images, taking pictures from all over the globe. To date, he has over 1200 pictures over 35 countries being sold through the company.

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