The boat - Battambang to Siem Reap

We decided to take a boat from Battambang to Siem Reap.
This involved deliberation over a few days as we read various reviews for this boat trip (which would be 8ish hours stuck on a boat once we committed!). Reviews tended to suggest that the boat was a hellish horror ride and everyone was surely going to die on the capsized boat. Other reviews described it as the best part of their trip to Cambodia!

We decided that as long as our expectations were way low.... things could only go up and it would be a better way to see floating village and general life in Cambodia than taking a tour out of Cambodia's most touristy town ever!

our boat

farmlands from the boat

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the boat. We decided we maybe set expectations a little too low.....There were 6 or 7 of us sitting on the roof (better views, a breeze and more space!) Plus around 20ish people down below.Also note the dark storm clouds that were threatening (and occasionally wetting) us the entire journey.

We were sharing the top of the boat with a dutch girl who kept telling us about how bad the sun is and that we all should go downstairs (she did go downstairs when it warmed up at about 8.30) - we figured that we had hats, long shirts, sunscreen.... and at least here there is an ozone layer to protect us! a kiwi guy, and 2 British girls who really should have been the ones getting the sun lecture also stayed up here, and got extra red!

Having to reapply sunscreen every hour (almost!) and have raincoats on hand for quick cover-ups was worth it for these views!

trading boat, it appeared to trade exclusively in green coconuts and blue poly-pipes

we did get blue sky for parts of the journey

We also past lots of little fishing boats and floating villages. Or people going to or from market, kids being delivered by boat to the floating school. Very different lives! Lots of kids smiling and waving and yelling out hello too. We stopped at various locations dropping of supplies and people before we reached the giant Tonle Sap lake. The best bit about this is that other people in Siem Reap were paying top dollar to go on boat tours of floating villages. We got it for free! and the villages we visited we real villages, as opposed to places where tourists constantly go and pay locals to take their photos.

Local kids and families

It did take a lot of hours - but the bus trip would have taken almost as long. 

There was a lot of sun - but we had the option to go downstairs and we were well prepared for sun.

We stopped for food only once, briefly and the food options for mostly expensive pringles or soft drink - but we thought ahead and got supplies.... mostly bakery products because that's what we found!

So overall - a highlight of the Cambodian trip..... When the water is high and you prepared with plenty of supplies. I would still do it in other seasons when the water is lower, it would just be more adventurous! 

Some of the highlights

These are actually crocodile farms. When we went past a couple I was trying to work out why their fish farm had some much space out of the water. Then, after I managed to see into one, trying to work out why they had tires in them.... Eventually I got a better look and realized they were full of crocodiles

This weed is devastating the rivers. It is seeing stuff like this that makes me so glad that customs and DPI are so strict on people bringing stuff into the country. Apparently this was originally introduced by the French from the Amazon, because they thought it would be a good place for fish to breed and so the people can catch more fish. Turn out, the fish don't eat it, it grows incredibly fast and it jams up boat motors when you drive over it.

Tonle Sap lake. It is gigantic! I don't think think the lake is even really full yet because it is still the very start of the wet season!

Siem Reap

If it is at all possible, consider visiting in Summer. Particularly if you live in a hot climate anyway. With a little bit of planning you can avoid heatstroke (basically, don't walk around in the middle of the day) and the tourist numbers are WAY down. This means less people in hotels / restaurants, summer discounts on accommodation and less people in the temples, helping prevent damage by over crowding and making your visit better!



Favourite Temples

Bang Mealea
100% our favourite temple was Bang Mealea. While some work has been done to prevent too much destruction, mostly this Temple is steadily getting reclaimed by the jungle. Makes for a very scenic and different temple, as well as a testament to the jungle prevailing!
Bang Mealea is quite far away from the other temples and isn't included in your Ankor pass. I believe it was an extra $5 and about 1.5 - 2 hours by tuk tuk. We left Ankor after sunrise and headed out to Bang Mealea, this meant we got there very early and were able to look around with NO ONE ELSE. Seriously, no other tourists were anywhere in this complex. As we left (at about 9.30 or 10am) the buses were arriving and people started pouring in. But still significantly less people than the main Ankor temples.

 

 Sunrise at Ankor Wat

I have seen amazing images of sunrises at Ankor..... but this only holds true if the sunrise is indeed amazing. This varies with the seasons and weather - Our hotel did tell us that the sunrise was unlikely to be spectacular, we went anyway because we felt like we had to do it. I would recommend waiting for a day that is forecast to be good....  Or going out each morning at that time - but taking advantage
of everyone watching the sun to check out the temples. They get busy quickly, but in the time it takes the sun to rise you could see quite a bit of the most popular ones, with just about enough light to see by.

If you do want to take photos I would suggest getting there extra early, and getting very close to the water. When the early birds stood back from the waters edge to allow photos of the whole lake.... late comers simply stood in front of them to take their own photos.

Some of the crowd who turned out to watch the sunset. 

Hotels
There are a million hotels in Siem Reap - so as far as I can see they are very determined to make you happy and get good reviews! We stayed in one of the cheapest that we could find..... but that looked reasonably nice on the website.

I stayed at the golden temple villa www.goldentemplevilla.com . The hotel was set amongst nice gardens and down a fairly quiet street. It wasn't far from the centre of town (very easy walk) but was far enough to be out of the hustle and bustle a little bit.
The restaurant was nice, open plan and almost amongst the gardens and was a place to relax as well as just for meals. They had newspapers and magazines with padded bench seats along the side that were nice to relax on. They also had free tea/coffee/bananas down there all day.
The breakfast included had a number of options - plenty of food and was nice enough. They would even pack you a take away breakfast for early morning trips to the temples. That was good..... but consider carefully what you order for packability!

Their special also includes a free massage, and it was very nice and relaxing to be able to go take a massage before bed one night after walking around temples all day!

There were some issues with power going out at night (meaning no aircon) but this tended to come back on in about 15 minutes. Not sure if they had a generator to cover themselves or it was just luck, but I think power outages are fairly common - especially in summer with everyone using air conditioners!
When we left they also gave us a gift (a scarf) and took our photo with the reception staff. which they then emailed to us. It was an entertaining touch!


I have friends who stayed at petite villa. They said it was pretty much what they expected from the photos / description, though they did have some issues checking in, I think the hotel was full (even thought they had booked) and they had to go around the corner to another hotel. Restaurant was hit and miss and they decided that we probably got a better deal - because ours was a lot cheaper!


Restaurants
Haven
This is a training restaurant who source their trainees from the youth leaving orphanages with no skills or family to support them as well as youth from rural areas with very little opportunities for education or training.   Haven website   PLEASE BOOK AHEAD  we were very luckily able to get a table for two without booking. But only because it was the off season AND we went for dinner very early. I  am so glad we did manage it. The food was amazing, reasonably prices (many of the training restaurants take advantage of the "social good" status to up the price... a lot). Staff were very friendly and polite, even when explaining that if we wanted a table we had to be out before the next booking - easily managed as the food came out really fast!


Other than the temples:

Day in the life tour with Beyond unique escapes
http://www.beyonduniqueescapes.com/cambodia/small-group-tours/village-tours/day-in-a-life-tour.html

"Sewing" sheets of palm leaves
 for housing materials

We did a day in the life tour. This went to a small village just out of Siem Reap in which many of the families are living day to day and often don't have enough food. The tours go to a different family each day and help out - we made palm frond walls that they they can use for their walls and roof on the house. At other times you might be planting or picking rice or similar activities that these families do almost everyday. By going to a different house hold each day they are able to minimise impact on any one house, and allow each family to have the opportunity to supplement their income with some tourist money for looking after us.
They have trained some families in hygienic food preparation and so we got to have a traditional mean prepared by the local family while we watched and asked questions / joined in. The guides were really friendly and talkative, happy to discuss many aspects of Cambodian life.

Some of the family we spent the day with

It was a great way to have a day off from temples and see a much more traditional part of Cambodian life. When you buy the temple tickets they are valid any three days in a week period - so having a day off to do something different if a good way to spread them out!

We started with a buffalo cart ride through the village
to see the area. Each buffalo cart driver receives about $3 for
use of their carts - with a poverty line of $1 a day this is a massive
chance for them to save some money that wouldn't normally
be in the village at all. 

I wish we had more time and were able to do a cooking class or something here - I have no doubt that all their tours would be as good!
















Shadow puppet theatre
I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place we saw the puppet show. It was a hotel / restaurant where you got a buffet dinner and the show for about $15-20. The buffet wasn't too bad, average buffet style food.... the show was interesting, they had people on stage doing the voices of the puppet and and while they did give an English explanation of what was happening before each scene - it wasn't understandable at all. The show was kind of entertaining, in the what the heck are we watching kind of way.... especially once we started making up stories to go along with whatever was happening. They then did a number of short dances similar to the ones we saw in Phnom Penh at the museum - but not nearly as good.
Entertaining enough if you are willing to go with the flow and have a laugh..... but definitely not an amazing high class act.


Phare - the Cambodian Circus
Check out the Battambang post for more info on this circus. Their school is located at Battambang and they have shows running there with students (which were awesome!). The Siem Reap show though, it is a whole new level of amazing! This is an international level circus act, and I can guarantee you won't be seeing a circus this good anywhere else for $15! The ticket and merchandise costs go towards their school and social programs to help more kids get out of bad situations in back into school and learning skills.
As well as having a smaller selection of art works from the Battambang art school they had various items such as shirts, hats or bags that would make great gifts. There is also a bar and cafe with a number of small dishes perfect for a pre-show snack!

We were blown away by the show... I wish we had gone on our first night in town not our last night...... I would have gone again! They actually have a couple of different shows which regularly change, so if your lucky you might even stay over the transition and get to see a couple of shows!

I actually didn't take any photos here.... I was too engrossed in enjoying the show! But here are a couple from the other show in Battambang!

ATM's and money matters

Picking which atm to use initially doesn't seem like a big deal,  after all a few thousand dong extra in fees doesn't seem that bad.  But when you remember that your bank will also be charging you (even if you are using a travel card often they have atm fees). Plus over a couple of weeks it adds up!

 

VIETNAM

Best pick
MB
White buildings with blue writing
NO ATM'S FEES- and this atm allowed me to withdraw 5 million dong in each transaction. 
Gives 1 million of withdrawal as small notes
In hoi an most ATM's only allow 2 million per transaction,  MB stills allows 5

 

ACB
30k fee on atm
Varies between ATM's how much you can withdraw.  2 or 3 million per withdrawal.  In hoi an they only allow 2 million. 

 

Agribank ATMs

Maroon and white.

Allows withdrawals of 2 Million (I have never been able to take more than that). The best thing about Agribank is that they give you at least 1 mill in small denominations, 20K -> 100K. This is super useful if you are getting spending money out. Most shops will get angry if you give them 500K and market stalls or small businesses just wont even accept it.

 

Cambodia

100% the most useful ATM is Canadabank. They won't charge you fees (as long as  the money is in USD. If it is a different currency you will get conversion fees). The problem is that you get most $20 or $50 bills, but if you go in branch they will actually change the money to lower denominations for you for free, so that was pretty awesome!

 

Once I discovered these ATMs, I didn't use any others!

 

The currency advice is that if you do take a chunk of money in local currency, and ask people at markets the price in riel, they will either work out the price in USD and then convert it, or sometimes they can't do that maths in their head and will quote you a closer to cambodian price.... so you end up paying less.

For hotels, tours, and big purchases you will be quoted in USD. You may as well use these as at least if you have money left over you can spend it in other countries and it's free to get from ATMs. But keep that small change for buying water, snacks etc. Don't stress too much about changing money, often if you pay a hotel in USD, your change will be in Riel - just watch that exchange rate for any weirdness!

A weekend in Kampot

Getting there?
We took a bus there. Giant Ibis for about 8-10 dollars depending on where you book. This was like, a medium sized bus. About 20 odd seats, with a tv that played movies on the way down! sure, we couldn't hear because the volume was way down...... but I think that is better than if the volume was way up!
You have allocated seats - so if you want to be at the front due to sickness let them know when you book and they will make sure you get a good seat.

On the way back we were with some other company (sorry, can't remember the name!). They went via Kep and lots of little back roads - picking people up and dropping them off willy nilly. Plus they finished up at some weird bus station that was not the official station! very confusing and lots of tuk tuks trying their hardest to rip you off! It took WAY longer to get back to Phnom Pehn - my advice, stick with Giant Ibis!



Samon village

Our bungalow. Nice and airy.

Bungalows here are nice and cheap, I think it was $8 a night for a bungalow that sleeps 2 people. But they are bungalows. This means open space around the floor and top of each wall. They do provide mosquito nets on the beds and a fan (which wasn't really that effective at getting air around the room - particularly to the bottom bunk!). But the open walls do mean that you may end up with some wildlife, cats, geckos and the like in your room.
Not really a big deal - but if that is going to be an issue you should probably not stay here!

Food at the restaurant was ok. we had a bbq the first night - cooked by us at out table which was fun. But breakfast was a bit ordinary so we went elsewhere for future meals!


advice - Do not trust any tour advice from these guys. They booked our bus back to PP, we specifically asked for a bus that didn't go via Kep. and said we wanted to Giant Ibis bus again. He assured us that he would put us on a good bus, that doesn't stop to let people on just anywhere, and goes straight to PP. He didn't.
He also told us that the tuk tuk would pick us up at 1pm. We almost missed the bus because the tuk tuk came at 12.30, and our lunches took 45 minutes to arrive!

What to do?
Samon village had a nice deck overlooking the river. So mostly we relaxed. All the places along the water hire kayaks and arrange boat trips.
We did the buffalo tours one day - It was meant to be history and waterfalls. Our understand was we would drive up a giant mountain and look at king's summer palace, then visit a waterfall where we could swim. Then a sunset  cruise on the river.

What we got
A tour of deserted derelict buildings....

The most interesting part of the Summer Palace

 The summer palace was a three room besser-block building, completely gutted. It did have some cool graffiti. And another smaller but equally cool building off to the left (as you approach the "Palace") which is interesting for it's graffiti and the forest that steadily reclaims it. Beware of landmines though - I was pretty scared walking along the path that we could step on anything. It was a conflict zone and not everywhere has cleared!

The french casino

The much more palatial building was this one, the old french casino/hotel. This building was cool. You were able to climb to the top to look at the view and explore the rooms, it would certainly be creepy at night! It actually looks amazing, and with some ahem.... aesthetic repairs would be an amazing hotel - in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. But a new casino with heaps of hotel rooms was just up the road a bit in a much less interesting place!  


The derelict church!
I did promise run down buildings. As we approached this church it was pretty spooky. mostly because we could hear soft voices singing hymns. Less spooky once we got closer and established that there was a bus load of Vietnamese tourists inside singing.
Pretty cool stone arched building none the less

the view from near the old church 

Next up was the waterfall. Turns out It is dry season (despite the rain) and so no water in this waterfall for swimming. We ate lunch (fried rice that had been waiting in the car- but was alright... there just wasn't a lot, so byo snacks might be a good idea) and had an hour or so to hand about the waterfalls. I walked around as far as I could go and found this lovely spot.

view from beside the falls rather than above where we started

bonus falling down building I found on my adventure
to the waterfalls

Last up was the sunset cruise. Once we got back to the hotel we had some time for relaxing before the cruise with our tour group. Some of the smarter lads and lasses went into town and got supplies, and the drinks (though somewhat nasty) did make it more relaxing! Less relaxing once the already mildly insane driver got in on the drinking action!

unfortunately the tour ended before the sunset, especially as it was a nice sunset - what we could see through the trees back on land!

the crazy somewhat drunk boat driver
who kept telling me to take his photo, then hiding

exploring Battambang

Staying:
We stayed at coconut house.
It is a little way out of town, but we figured they would be able to tell us how much a tuk tuk to town is (the real price, not the tourist price)! The woman on the desk had no idea, saying she rides her motorbike instead. That is fair enough.... but as a hotel out of town it would be reasonable to expect them to know!

When we arrived only one room was ready for us to move in to. It was already 2pm, So we weren't trying to check in early or anything. For some reason it also took 2-3 hours for the room to be ready!
Lastly, I would advise not eating breakfast here - the sign says to order 30 minutes early, but the food took an hour to arrive, wasn't very good. It was also very very cold - which kind of makes sense seeing as I saw the food walk in to the hotel 15 minutes before we got it!


What to see:

The bamboo train carriages

This kid hitched a ride with our train.
He got let off halfway along the track
at what I assume was his house

.



Bamboo Train
 These train carriages are flat boards with a little motor and two sets of wheels that hook onto the very dodgy train track. Turn out, real trains don't run on this track because the lines are so dodgy and wavy and terrible. For $5 each we got to ride out to the end of the line and back.  It was actually a lot more fun than I had expected. We got to look at the countryside scenery, wave at kids, and the train went quite fast - now I see why people referred to it like a horizontal roller coaster! Especially as some parts the train tracks were noticeably uneven.

Unfortunately at the end of the line you are made to get off and spend 10 minutes standing awkwardly in the centre of a group of market stalls selling scarves and "bamboo train tshirts". At least, awkward if you don't want to buy - or even look at the products in the shop (not look at was because I didn't want the harassing. total indifference is the way to go).

The wibbly tracks

Also a collection of children trying to give us free little things (grasshoppers, stars etc) made from palm leaves. "For you" "no thank you" "Free, free for you" "no thankyou" "TAKE IT it free take it". For a "free" item the kids were incredibly rude and pushy. No doubt because once you take the free thing you are guilted into buying a selection of crap woven bracelets. Or something. I refuse to buy anything, accept tours for money, or give money to kids. My theory is if they are earning cash having fun talking with tourists or by handing out bracelets what is their motivation to go to school? Many kids I have met in Vietnam are so excited to see tourists and talk to them to practice English. And if these kids wanted to talk to us that would have been great fun for everyone - and I would have happily hosted an impromptu English lesson. But no, just forcefully yelling TAKE IT FREE does not make me inclined to interact with them at all.

Anywho, The bamboo train then got loaded back onto the platform for our return journey. we obviously got here before the rest of the tourists because on the return journey we had to disembark and dismantle our train to let other people go on the one way track. The rule is..... the least loaded train has to make way for the other train. It was fun to have to jump off and wave to people going past.... or be the victorious ones who didn't have to jump off!

This is how the dismantle the train to let others pass

The end was also a bit of a let down.... the money taking person started telling us to tip the driver. Personally I hate this. We payed $15 (for three people) for this short ride on a basic train thing. Our tuk tuk for the whole day of driving around various bumpy country roads, talking to us and telling us stories and Cambodian fables and all his petrol/tuktuk/bike repairs was $20. We actually told the guy that $15 seems like enough money. I think tips are for specially good service. The driver didn't talk with us (I know he probably didn't speak English.... but I have had amazing and hilarious conversations / interactions with people with no actual language being understood on either side). It also wasn't the driver who asked for / looked annoyed when we didn't tip - It was the money taking guy who just sits around in the shade all day. So I wonder if when people tip, he pays the driver less and keeps more for himself. But maybe I am being too sceptical.

Much stairs at Ba Nan

Ba Nan Temples 
These were surprising far away, but a really nice drive down little country roads and past villages. Lots of kids waving and shouting hi! We then had to tackle to formidable 356 steps to the top. The first section seemed like a cruel punishment (not sure why it was so bad.... in Phnom Penh we were staying on the 4th floor of an elevator-less hotel). I actually expected once we reached the top we would have another set as big as the first.... but it was nice and small.
The view over some forests and bamboo groves as well as the old, crumbling temples at the top made the climb well worth it.
Back down for lunch. We were pretty glad that we ate lunch AFTER the climb, we saw a few of the people who were at the bamboo train arriving and lunching - I pity them climbing those stairs on a full stomach!

More stairs. they seemed never ending!

There were 5 temples like this as the reward
at the top of all those stairs!

We were also pretty impressed that people
must have carried all these stones all
the way up this hill!

Some seem a little.... lean-y

Next we loaded back into the tuk-tuk, this time it was a little bit mystery tour like because we forgot to ask where we were going. It was also down a road that had suffered the beginnings of the wet season. But it was interesting because this road is obviously a short cut that gets a lot less tourist actions. People were staring and waving a lot more!

Monkeys hanging on the stairs

Turns out we were headed for a mountain with more steps (yey). The tuk tuk driver did give us the option of paying $3 each to get driven up the mountain. We opted to be cheapscates and get some extra exercise on the stairs. I am so glad we did. The views at each different height were really interesting. Plas I found a random little cave to explore, but I didn't have a light... and no one else came in with me so I had to turn back before it got too dark.We also turned a corner to discover..... treacherous path of monkeys....
We opted to follow the rules of the wildlife park - don't show your teeth, don't threaten and don't look them in the eyes, and slowly walk past the monkeys.
The strategy worked and no one got attacked. Our guide did later tell us that sometimes the monkeys bite people (thanks for the warning buddy!) but I believe those people had fruit / tried to touch or pet the monkeys.

monkeys hanging in trees above the stairs (just waiting
to drop down on someone)

At the top was a pagoda, a series of people guarding the pagoda from monkeys (with slingshots) and a few people trying to sell drinks to thirsty tourists. We found some stairs leading through a cave/valley and back up the other side. We then heading off down the road to find the killing caves (a place where the Khmer Rouge would kill people and use the cave as disposal for bodies). Here we had a 13-ish year old boy come running up and inform us that the killing caves are that way (up a side path that looked to us like it went to a statue of a buddha and nothing much else. We thanked him, and tried to work out how we can walk up there without him being our "guide". Eventually telling him that we don't need a guide. I felt a bit like he did help us, and maybe I should tip him a tiny amount. But he kept harassing us. Telling us that he needs money for school and going and going and going. We also quickly realised that actually, where we were walking towards would have taken us directly to the cave, and his directions were a detour designed to make us feel like we need to pay him.

The view from the top. 

The random cave we found to walk through.

The caves here didn't really have any information or much to look at. But, we also didn't have to pay to get in. I was glad that we walked up the stairs though - that was definitely the highlight of that part of the trip.

The amazing incredible fairly lame bat cave

Once back down the driver asked if we want to stay to watch the bats come out. He said it would be at about 5pm (in an hour). I have seen plenty of fruit bats at Tolga.... but I didn't mind sitting and having a cool drink to wait if the other people wanted to watch. 5 turned into 6.... and we were fairly ready to leave - but just as we asked to go the bats started. I guess if you watched the bats for an hour, the shear number might be amazing. but I expected more to be pouring out like some amazing column of batty goodness.









Cooking class as Nary's Kitchen

Market tour with the cooking class

 We got a market tour, bought some of the ingredients for the food and then learnt to make Beef Lok Lak, Fish Amok and spring rolls.

The teacher / chef was friendly. They obviously read and take on the reviews people write - I noticed a lot of people complaining that they didn't get water etc. but we each got a bottle.

$10 for the whole morning class and lunch! definitely worth it!






Phare, The Cambodian Circus

That night we headed off the see the Cambodian Circus. This was originally set up as an arts school for refugees in camps on the Thai border who did art therapy to help them after the Khmer Rouge. It was hugely successful and evolved to include dance, music and circus. The aim was partly to help people but also to prevent the arts from being lost because many artists were killed during the khmer rouge regime.

Now the school is set up in a very poor community which has a lot of problems with drugs / gambling / etc. They aim to get all the kids to school, and also teach them skills that they can use at the circus and to get jobs other places.

The show was funny, light hearted, but also serious and had a great story.
The performance here is a little different to in Siem Reap (it was so good we went to both!)
Here is the actual school, so you walk through the school grounds and past the training rooms to get to the big top. They also don't have the English / French translations of the script. But to be honest you didn't really need it. And I found that in Siem Reap (while it was funny and good to see what they were saying), it did distract from the show.

It is totally worth going to both shows - the school here has more and better art work (done by kids of the school) on display. for $10 a ticket it is well worth it!

The performance in Siem Reap featured older, graduated performers, had a bar with food as well as drinks and had more things to buy (shirts, singlets etc.) not really sure why the merch isn't also sent to Battambang though!