Battambang day 1

I saw some many spots in Battambang today. In the morning we were taken in a tuk tuk through the countryside to a few temples, a killing field, a rice wine 'farm', spring roll restaurant and a super stinky fish market. After lunch we were driven further into the countryside to the railway. During the Khmer Rouge regime, people made platforms from bamboo with wheels (bamboo trains), and used them to transport goods and passengers. Now they have proper trains that pass through a few times a day, and between those trains, the bamboo ones still operate as a tourist attraction.
The train was very basic, and was operated by a guy sitting on the back with a motor. When we met another bamboo train coming the other direction, we slowed down, hopped off, then the two drivers simply lifted up the bamboo platform off the tracks followed by the four wheels on their two axles, and the other passed by. The train was then 'rebuilt' on the tracks, then away we went.
We actually went a lot faster than expected! The scenery was very nice, but the heat was staggering with no shade.
15 minutes down the track we hopped off and sat at some stalls. At some point one of my group was handed a baby by one of the locals, who sat with us while we watched one of the real trains zoom past 🤣
Later in the afternoon, we were driven up to a temple complex in the mountains which was littered with monkeys! They also had a cave there which was used as a body dumping ground during the Khmer Rouge regime, and thus nicknamed the 'killing cave'.
The main attraction of the day was a different cave, this one full of bats! While we waited for the bats to emerge at dusk, our tour guide entertained us with beer and uno.
At around 6.30 we gathered by the entrance of a cave, surrounded by lots of other tourists all sat on plastic chairs. When the sun started to set, thousands of tiny bats started to pour out of this cave opening, filing out in perfect lines and zigzagging across the sky. There are estimated to be over 6 million living throughout the area, with over 1 million living in this one cave! I did think they'd pour out all at one go, and envisioned the sky turning black with bats 😅 but seeing them form orderly lines was pretty cute, and also impressive, as we sat there for 20 minutes and hundreds of bats were flying out every second, and were still going as we left!Read more