Next, we went to Battambang, I had found a few interesting things and places to see and thought we could do it by taxi or tuk-tuk, but in the end, we got a tour booked via TripAdvisor. The two highlights for me were the bamboo train and the bat cave. First, we went to visit the Samrang Krong Torture Museum for torturing people during the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979.
<<< a stupa
They were torturing people by suffocation, removing their nails, drowning them in water and in many other horrendous ways. The museum was originally a temple but during the regime, it became one of the places for prison and torture. Next to the museum was a place like a cemetery, they build a structure called a “stupa” to keep the ashes of the deceased one. Usually, rich families can afford to have a stupa. During the regime, the temple became a prison and mosques they converted to pig farms. We went to see the victim’s skulls and bones in the memorial. There are different scenes carved in stone depicting all the cruelties Khmer Rouge regime has done to people. For the exact scenes depicted, check the Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) section/post and see the photos in the gallery, also this video might be interesting (credit to the person who recorded it). Now, let’s continue with something more positive.. it was really interesting to see how they make rice paper and how they dry it. We previously had another tour in Viertnam, a cooking tour, where we made spring rolls with rice paper by first adding a bit of water on the paper to soften it and then adding some vegetable and meet and rolling it on. But it was great to see how the paper itself gets prepared by adding some of the rice+salt mixture onto a sheet cloth, forming a circle shape with the help of a bowl and then putting it on a bamboo roll, then the bamboo roll is taken and the sheet is put on a bamboo frame to dry for a few hours under the run. There’s a nice video here of the process and i believe i recognize the same woman who comes behind the lady on the video to be the same woman from my photos too. This might very well be the house we visited in Battambang. Futher on, we went to see some temples and then it was time for the Bamboo train.
It was basically a bamboo platform put onto the train tracks, having a little engine at the back and someone to drive you, and you sit in front of the driver, on a carpet 😀 It was quite a hard ride 😀 And noisy, but also way too fun! We rode on the train for about 20 min maybe, until we reached a farm, where people sold us fresh cold drinks, we hung out there for a bit, the kids at the farm were very interested in one of the girls who was with us, a Dutch, blond girl with blue eyes. For them, that’s super interesting and she found herself with one child in each hand being pulled around the farm 😀 I think she was also having a lot of fun, I sure was, just by looking at them haha 😀 While we were staying there, the train approached and the guides took the platform and the wheels of each bamboo train off the tracks to let the train pass safely. Then,
they put them back on, in the opposite direction, to prepare for our return. The funny thing is they said the train is going to close soon so it was SUPER important to go on it. But that’s, of course, not true 😀 The train existed for many years and wouldn’t just disappear. Finally, before the bat cave, we went up the hill where the cave was, to see the killing cave and the park around it. There is a tree in Cambodia the bark of which is covered by sharp thorns, I think it might be Ceiba speciosa (might be wrong), it’s really painful just to lightly touch it. They used this tree for torturing too.. Our tour guide told us that since they don’t have the concept of heaven and hell in their religion, their moms would scare them with this tree, telling them that if they don’t listen, when they die, they will be forced to climb this tree up and down forever..
Well, i’d rather have the hell concept, I think 😀 Anyway, finally, we settled back down at the base of the cliff/mountain where the killing cave is and the bat cave down there, we had to wait for a good 30-40 min but the patience was well awarded – suddenly thousands and thousands of bats started flying out in a string.
They said that in total around 10 million (2021, source) bats (although sources say numbers between 1.5 and 30) live in this cave and come out every night for the period of 45m. This was such a great experience. They also told us that the stink is unimaginable and a few times a year a few people dress up in protective suits and enter the cave to collect guanu. They use the guanu as fertilizer for their crops. Apparently, they also poach the bats for food and sell them for 1.7 USD 😡 This is a terrible thing but in Asia they really eat absolutely everything that moves. We were riding on our tuk-tuk and on the street there was a street food stand with.. something being grilled.. it was frogs, rats and snakes. All of them on sticks and over the fire, the lady was putting some oil on them and bringing them back on the fire. The guy from the other couple wanted to try the rat meat and he got one. He ate half of it and said it’s not that bad. But well.. thanks, but no thanks.. That was what our Battambang trip looked like 🙂