How do you call a bat with a wig ?

Seven in the morning, first day of February, we are on the terrace of the DJ Guesthouse and waiting for our pick-up. The shuttle does not take long and takes us to the bus station Sorya we booked yesterday to get to the north of Cambodia, in the city of Battambang – $9 per person.

Installed in the bus - think about the sweater, the strong and cold wind ventilation - must close an hour the driver to get us out of traffic in Phnom Penh. Step by step, the landscape changes, within building, more greenery, the Cambodian countryside, anything still well populated, made his appearance. Nous ferons deux pauses pendant les sept heures de trajet – contre cinq annoncées. Pourtant le chauffeur roule sans presque ralentir, klaxonnant son arrivée pour que les scooters, motos, tractant ou non une remorque, se poussent de son chemin.

Pause sur la route de Battambang

Lave-auto cambodgien

Un chauffeur de remorque – que tout le monde appelle tuk-tuk, les chauffeurs et nous-même compris mais qui sont en fait des scooters traquant des remorques aménagées, contrairement au tuk-tuk thaïlandais qui sont des sortes de petites camionnettes – bref, un chauffeur de tuk-tuk 😉 nous attend à l’arrivée – il suffit de demander à l’hôtel où vous allez s’ils peuvent arranger un pick-up, This is usually free while encouraging you to seek the services of this driver if you need once there - to bring us to our new home : le Lucky Hostel – $16 for two nights.

tired, Yes again, travel and get up early, we rest while concocting you the first article of this new expedition. To seventeen hours, we go we walk in Battambang - pronounced Bate / Lady / Bong. Yet second largest city of Cambodia, it is much quieter than Phnom Penh and we pass a moment Sangker river to finally stop in a restaurant at the water's edge is attractively decorated. After Cambodia beer tasted terrace we decided to eat locally, especially as we have just seen that they have an extension of the restaurant in the same river where we eat on low tables, sitting on the floor : noodles and vegetables for a, Chicken fried garlic to the other - $6,5 all. On the way back, we stop us for a semblance of roasted chocolate - best in Thailand ! – and cross the small night market.

peppers drying

Bhouddh à Ek Phnom

The next day, According to a new sleep, we rent a scooter directly at the hotel – $7 - and we're en route to Wat Ek Phnom, about seven kilometers north of the city. Built in 1027 under the reign of King Sorayak Varman I, the Ek Phnom temple was damaged under the Pol Pot regime and the war that followed, but we still gives a taste of Khmer architecture, a dollar is requested at the entrance. On the road, we find this time the real Cambodian countryside, hay stacks being dried in the sun, but also peppers, unknown seeds, rice cakes ; we spend almost a Cambodian wedding in full swing in full color ; almost every child cross we have the right to big smiles and hand cuckoos punctuated with "hello" resounding, As in Malaysia and Thailand, nous apprécions énormément les balades en scooter dans le pays !

Wat Ek Phnom

Campagne à Ek Phnom

Huttes à Phnom Banan

Temple Banan

Retour vers le sud avec un arrêt à une des terrasses en enfilade où nous mangeons pour cinq dollars un plat de nouilles et légumes chacun – oui ça a l’air répétitif comme ça mais les nouilles ne sont pas toujours les mêmes : fines, épaisses, blanches, jaunes, plates ; ni les légumes 😛 , avant de repartir cette fois-ci vers le sud de la ville, à une vingtaine de kilomètres, pour aller escalader les trois cent cinquante-huit marches de pierre menant à Phnom Banan – $2 à l’entrée cette fois-ci. Légèrement essoufflés au sommet, the effort is the view of the surrounding landscape and stroll among the ruins of 1057 whose gray stones seem to light up at sunset. The temple dates from the reign of Udayadithyavarman, predecessor Suryavarman II, bâtisseur d'Angkor Wat.

late 358 marches...

Detail of Banan

Heading south-west on a dirt road in the middle of rice fields, which opens near a newer temple : Phnom Sampov. We will not go visit, nor the Killing Caves in it - work by the same dictator - but we set down the hill like many other tourists. Right here, every night between 5:30 p.m. ET eighteen hours, more than a million bats puckered lips – Chaerephon plicatus - leave their cave and fly to chase their meal. We wait patiently to see some of them to appear, quickly followed by an impressive stream of small bats creating a black patch in the sky darkening. They will travel more than fifty kilometers to find insects. And not just any insect, those who destroy rice crops, eating fifty to one hundred times its weight, thirteen known colonies of bats in Cambodia must prevent the loss of two thousand tons of rice each year.

Chaerephon plicatus

Road to 50km ...

Back in town for our meal without insect on another terrace : a Path Siv Iv meatless for one, a beef Lok Lak another, Cambodian dishes and avocado juice to wash it all down !

Miniseries – “In the bus” :
Traveling with only two other western, we were treated to clips in the Cambodian eau de rose to the endless melodies, finally look more closely, there was rejection, blackmail, strangulation murder, not so rosy as it.
Followed by a comedy troupe making hilarious indigenous, we did not understand ; more type micro crying, more assistance laughing ?!
When one of them was an Asian hi and hit his head against the microphone, We understand, mais là c’était un de ces imprévus qui font même rire les autres comédiens.
Programme suivi d’une petite série produite par Jackie Chan – c’était du chinois pour nous 😉

Arrivée à la gare routière de Battambang, une large carrière à l’abandon un peu en dehors de la ville et un tuk-tuk nous attendant avec le prénom Claire sur une feuille. La classe.

Petite note sur l’hostel : il n’y a pas de fenêtre, et surtout, il n’y a pas d’issue de secours ni aucune issue après la fermeture des grilles !!!