Big Day in Battambang – Buddhas, Bamboo Trains & Bats

January 16^th, 2025

For my first day in Battambang, I hired a tuk tuk driver through the guesthouse for a day trip to a variety of sites/attractions around the area.  My driver introduced himself to me as Peter, but I later asked what his real name was, not the simple name for tourists, and it was Pisat.  He spoke English quite well and was a slow driver on his motorcycle tuk tuk with a trailer (which I appreciated as I could enjoy the scenery more…even though I still missed a number of great photo opportunities as we cruised around).

Starting the tour with Peter.

We headed south from the city of Battambang and passed through a quieter area where the houses were more spread apart.  Our first stop was to check out three men who were chipping away on sandstone slabs, creating works of art.  In the yard, there was a big Buddha carving that was waiting for its pedestal to be finished.  Pisat explained that their customers were either temples or rich people who wanted to proudly display these statues or carvings in their yards.

A lovely area just outside of Battambang.

Passing through a nearby village.

A lovely 7 foot high Buddha waiting for its pedestal to be finished.

These guys seemed to enjoy their work.

Hard to see in the photo, but the flat bit on the left has sketchings from the pencils (on the right), to be used to chip out the design.

We pulled over at a small farm with a stall by the roadside selling goose eggs and a handful of different fruits, most of which I was not familiar with.  The farm lady came out to greet us and Pisat asked if I would like to try a few of the fruits…sure, why not?  We walked around the yard, checking out the chicken coop, the ducks, various plants and even the outside of their traditional Cambodian house.  When we returned to the stand, the woman had prepared a small plastic bag with slices of guava and of a type of grapefruit fruit for me.  There was an extra, small bag inside that had some salt and spices in it.  Dipping the bits of guava into it made it more appealing, but there was a bit of a kick to the spices.

It was hot outside, but maybe the baby ducks just like napping together regardless.

Next on the agenda was “The Hanging Bridge”.  I felt like this one was just added to make it seem like there was a lot on the tour, and in fact, there was a lot already…but whatever.  It was an old, rusty suspension bridge with a wooden deck wide enough to accommodate a scooter or motorcycle, or two people walking side by side.  I walked out to the middle of the span, snapped a few photos and then came back to the tuk tuk. 

 

The "Hanging Bridge".

Looking up river from the middle of the bridge.

It was a bit exciting when a scooter passed by...

I asked Pisat whether there was a toilet nearby, and sure enough, across the road was a temple complex with one.  After taking care of nature’s call, I wandered through by the main temple and met up with Pisat at the far side.  It was 11 am, which seemed to be lunchtime for a nearby school as a number of bicycles with cute kids, often a bigger one giving a double to a smaller one, passed by.

A temple across the street from the bridge.

Which happened to be a "motorcycle friendly" temple.

Not sure what the frogs were about...but they were about 2 1/2 feet tall and looked cool.

A nice big Buddha.

 

So rich people can afford to buy a stupa in the temple grounds to place some of their bones in after they die.  The bigger the stupa, the richer the people were.  This one was the biggest I saw, and there are pictures of the two people at the top of the black bit in the middle of the stupa.  I mistook them for two men, and asked my guide Peter if they were brothers..."No, they were husband and wife".  I could then make out my mistake.  Amazingly they both lived into their early 80s, and both died in 2020 with the wife dying exactly one month after her husband did.  Her heart must have been broken...

Other stupas in the temple grounds.  Some Cambodians will have the stupa on their own property, containing the remains of their family members who have passed.

Our next stop literally was a stop, a train stop for the smallest train I’ve ever been on.  Known as a bamboo train, but originally known as “norries”, it gets its name from the fact that the way they used to be propelled was by a long bamboo pole pushed against the ground, similar to how a gondola moves through the water.  Pisat explained that these tiny platforms, also made with some bamboo for the base to sit on, were used to move big bags of rice from the farms to a collection point.  Nowadays, they simply use cargo trucks to pick up the rice, and the bamboo trains have just turned into a tourist attraction.

 

In researching things to do in Cambodia, I saw “bamboo trains” and it is one of the main reasons I came to check out Battambang.  I’ve always liked riding on trains, and when I saw a photo online of what this was about, I had to come and give it a go.  It’s unique experiences like this that I love about travelling, like when I went “volcano boarding” in Nicaragua or “hydrospeeding” in Colombia.

The assembly of my bamboo train.

All aboard!

For $10 USD, I had my own “train” and engineer (ironically, I’m listening to a radio station online right now as I type this and the song is “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne!).  The journey would be about 4 kilometres down the track, and back again, which would take about 20-30 minutes.  My train engineer was a young guy, only about 20 years old, who didn’t speak much English.  To start, he pushed our little train down the track, hopped onboard and fired up the little portable engine that was connected to one of the train axles by a fan belt.

Starting to roll down the tracks...

My train engineer was probably all of 20 years old.

Cruising down the tracks at around 35-45 km/h, the click clacking of the wheels was methodic and entrancing…but combined with the engine, a bit loud.  I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the local people with houses by the track, who have to tolerate with the noise of these tiny tourist trains passing by all day.

Crossing a little bridge.

In the distance I could see a speck on the track, which grew and grew in size.  It was another bamboo train returning to the “station”.  We slowed down as we approached them.  The protocol seemed to be that outbound trains yielded to inbound ones.  So I hopped off my train, the driver of the other train helped my guy to lift off our train’s platform to the side of the tracks.  Then the two axles with the wheels were picked up, the other train moved passed us, and the procedure was done in reverse to get us back on our way.  It only took a matter of a couple of minutes.

We ran into traffic.  Outgoing trains had to yield to inbound ones.

Reassembling our train.

Nothing like rolling down the tracks...

My happy train engineer.

We reached the end point, which seemed somewhat arbitrary, but there were some simple shops with clothes, souvenirs, snacks and cold drinks for sale.  Our train was disassembled for the last time to allow three other trains to head back in the opposite direction.

At the turnaround point...of course there were shops selling clothes, souvenirs, snacks and cold drinks.

I wanted to find out how heavy the axle and wheels were...probably about 15 kg.

Some other bamboo trains leaving the station.

Ten minutes later, after declining various sales pitches from the shop owners, I was back on the bamboo train, heading back to the starting point.

We are ready to go.

Getting a running start...

When do you get this perspective on a set of railroad tracks?!?

Catching up to a heavier loaded train.  I saw one train with seven passengers!

It was a super cool experience, and just the right amount of time (or earplugs might have been required!).

Riding through a rural area.

We stopped to talk to a couple working on their spicy pepper farm.

Next on the list was checking out some fruit bats.  As the name implies, these large bats primarily eat fruits for their diet, which does not endear them to the local population.  Farmers shoot them when they can.  We pulled over to the side of the road and there were two or three large trees filled with fruit bats, hanging upside down and trying to sleep.  I asked Pisat if they were found in other trees around the Battambang area as it seemed like this was a known spot to find them as some other tourists showed up a few minutes later, on a similar tour.  Across the road was a temple and because of that, the bats were safe here and had somehow figured that out.  No local would dare shoot them in the proximity of this holy place…interesting.  I actually saw fruit bats in December 2023 in Rwanda on Napoleon Island.  And in that situation, we were able to get much closer to them as they were in trees on a steep hillside, plus many more of them were flying around (which is awesome to watch), so this stop was not a big highlight of the day, but still good.

A tree loaded with fruit bats.

There is a rice harvester, like a combine we would have cutting down wheat in Canada, in the field.  Kids are running behind it and I asked Pisat what they are doing.  "They are trying to find rats" he responded.  Why?  To eat of course?!?

Wat Banan was next on the list as the day just kept rolling.  It was now after 2 pm and both I and Pisat hadn’t had lunch yet, so that was the first priority.  There were a number of food stalls, but Pisat seemed to have his favourite one, and was friends with the lady running it.  Situated right by a small lake, it was a nice spot to sit down for a bite to eat.  There was a menu, with some western-ish options on it like fried rice but I decided to get whatever Pisat was going to order…why not go with the local?  It was simply rice with some beef (the traditional dish is called Lok Lak) and a bit of lettuce and tomatoes.  It was tasty and filled a gap.

Before checking out the Banan Temple, we stopped for lunch by a little lake at the foot of the hill where the temple is located.

This super cute daughter of the lady who cooked the food at this stall.

Now it was time to climb the 300 or so steps up to the temple.  At the top, there were 4-5 steep, cone-like temples made from large carved stones.  It felt like I was doing a warmup for visiting Angkor Wat.  I only spent about 10 minutes at the top of the hill, snapping some photos, and then headed down.

Starting to head up the 300+ steps.

No problem...I climbed more than 1200 at the Tiger Cave Temple in Thailand.

Good advice, you should probably never sit on a dragon.

Almost there...

The main temple.

Looking up from inside.

I almost forgot to get a selfie with my guide Pisat.  Super nice guy.

And with his chariot.

Out in the countryside in the late afternoon.

We happened upon these guys loading the huge bags of rice onto a truck.  Pisat told me about it earlier in the day, and I couldn't believe that one guy would carry up an 85-100 kg bag of rice by themselves.  They offered if I wanted to try...um, no, I think I would have ended up in the hospital!  The back and neck muscles they must have is incredible.  The plank that they walked up into the truck looked like it was going to snap at any moment.

Our last stop of the day was to visit the Killing Caves and the bat cave.  The Killing Cave is another spot where the Khmer Rouge committed atrocities.  We parked our tuk tuk and Pisat walked up the hill with me, where the Killing Cave was located.  I tried to ask him why they would bother making victims of the genocide walk all the way up this hill, and at first Pisat misinterpreted me, but then I clued in why they did it.  They could bludgeon the person in the skull and then push their body into this deep cave, way out of sight from any of the locals.  How horrific.

    A big Buddha staute carved into the side of the hill where the Killing Cave and bat cave were located.

The bat cave, where millions of bats are soundly sleeping at the moment.

There are some ramshackle houses near the base of the hill.  Pisat told me that the government has made many of them relocate since more and more tourists are showing up.  This was at the entrance to one of the remaining homes...monkey skulls.

Near the entrance to the Killing Cave, a bunch of statues were supposed to represent Hell.  It was quite odd indeed.

Like look at these guys...two chicken fighters.  It's funny because one of my best friends in university, instead of yelling out a profanity at me, he called me a "chicken lover"!  I guess I'm not going to Hell.

Looking down into the Killing Cave.

This was where victims were killed and then dropped into the cave.

Some skulls and bones in a stupa.

The cave went a bit deeper.

The view of the Cambodian countryside.

Hello Mr. Monkey!

A selfie with my guide Pisat.

So cute...

The temple at the top of the hill.

We watched a beautiful sunset by the temples at the top of the small mountain and then walked down a different way to where we had started.

Even the monkeys were enjoying the sunset.

A large lying down Buddha carved into the hill...probably about 80 feet long.

And right beside it was this sitting Buddha.

The big finale for the day was going to be watching thousands and thousands of tiny bats (specifically wrinkle-lipped free-tail bats) coming out of a cave at the base of the hill we had just descended.  There are between 3-5 million of these little guys and every evening, soon after the sun sets, they wake up and fly out of the cave, heading out to Tonlé Sap, the biggest lake in Cambodia and the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.  What’s on the menu?  Mosquitoes.  It’s crazy, and nice, to think of how many millions of mosquitoes must be consumed every night.

The tourist viewing party for the bat exodus.

I definitely wish I had a better camera on my phone...but hopefully you can see that thin line crossing from the upper left to lower right...hundred and hundreds of bats.

What a spectacle!  But also a smelly one…those bats stunk of their own guano.

It started to get too dark to see the bats, so I wandered back to find Pisat where he had parked earlier.  In the back of his tuk tuk was the woman, who was operating the refreshment stand where we sat down for a drink earlier, and her two sons, 12 and 4 years old.  Pisat asked if it was okay if they joined us for the ride back to the city as the lady’s husband was in the hospital.  Of course it was.  We began our journey back to Battambang and I couldn’t think about how every day, just after sunset, that there’s a “bat rush hour” along this road with all of the tourists returning to the city.

What a day!  I was exhausted, but very pleased as we had done a lot.  I thanked Pisat and gave him a big tip.  Tomorrow will be a chill out day, that’s for sure.