I'm a lazier cyclist than I am hiker so I'm only likely to sign up for a flat tour; and Battambang city is nothing if not flat. We arrived late the previous afternoon and our hotel greeter asked if he could book any tours for us. We promptly booked a half day cycle tour and half day tuk tuk tour to the bat caves of Phnom Sampeau and the Bamboo Train. Action packed and relaxing, it was one of my favourite days in Cambodia.
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(I'll talk about the tuk tuk tour in another post). There is quite the range of cycle tours in Battambang but we chose the 1/2 day local livelihood tour with SoksabikeTours, and we were not disappointed. We felt like we were going backstage to the way the Cambodians make a living producing goods from simple ingredients using simple technologies.
Off we go a cycling
The bikes were delivered to our hotel and we were greeted by our guide ( I wish I could remember her name) for 4 hours and 22 km tour of the local micro industries in the area. We were off the main roads for most of it and passed through farms and pastures, houses and shops. It was scenic in that tropical Asian way with lots of coconut trees, bananas, rice fields, mango trees and so on. As Battambang is flat its an ideal town for a bike ride. But then most of Cambodia is flat. As we were there in late May, it was hot....really hot and steamy.
No trip to Cambodia is complete without experiencing one of the many killing fields. We visited 2 in Battambang, and they moved me to tears. As uncomfortable as it is, its important to understand the dark history of this country. I remember hearing about the war in Kampuchea on TV as a child. Being up close and personal makes it so real. A real insight can be gained into what shaped the people of Cambodia. Some of the perpetrators of this horror are still imprisoned. They were not executed so that the country could heal from all the killing.
The fish sauce factory and drying plant was an extremely smelly stop, although curious stop on our cycle tour. Located right beside the river implied that the product was fresh, in more ways than one. The sun heat and odor was oppressive so we continued on without delay to our next more fragrant but no cooler stop, to the sticky rice preparation "kitchen".
When I say kitchen, it is in the very minimal and resourceful use of the word. These ladies prepare the bamboo that the rice is cooked in with seasoning over a long coal pit. The results are extraordinarily yummy and a conveniently, fully compostable container (the bamboo tube). You peel back the thin inner bamboo tube to expose the warm tasty contents.
When our guide told us we would be stopping at a rice paper making facility I imagined we would be able to purchase a notebook for travel tales. It turned out to be much yummier than that. They make rice paper for spring rolls. Each one was hand made and it was hot work at that. It was quite an extensive process and we got to sample the product, of course.
The fruit drying operation was very low tech and amounted to drying bananas, mango and any other seasonal fruit in the sun on simple bamboo racks. Peeling and cutting the fruit is repetitive work but much chit chat goes on while they work. I hoped that the comings and goings of cycling visitors added some variety to what looked like tedious work We had a go at cutting bananas into wafer thin slices and realized its harder than it looks.
Back on our bikes we meandered past rice paddies and mixed farms, temples and villages. We skipped the crocodile farm, as we are lifelong vegetarians and animal lovers. Our tour ended back at our hotel in time for lunch and the midday half hour thunderstorm. Yahoo! what a storm. It arrived in a hurry although we'd been watching the clouds build for a couple of hours; it thundered, lightening cracked and the skies opened, then left as quickly as it arrived.
Getting to Battambang
Battamband is located in central Cambodia in western Cambodia, about 100km from the Thai border, on the Sangker River. This River runs back to Tonlé Sap Lake by Siem Reap. We chose to take the Angkor "Express Boat" from Siem Reap and take in the floating communities that live on and make their living off the river. The guidebooks maybe right about how scenic this journey is... a most times of the year. In May, at the end of the dry season, I don't recommend it. As the water recedes during the dry season the Water Hyacinth, a floating weed, concentrates. The Express Boat has no choice but to go through an impenetrable wall of it, in very shallow water, and it gets stuck in the propeller big time. So you are frequently stopping and reversing and raising the "long tail" to get the stuff off. The river communities are intriguing but this journey is best done in the wet season or shortly after.
During the dry season the bus is your best bet getting to Battambang. There are several buses each day from Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. These are quicker and a better option in the dry season.
