from Battanbang to Phnom Penh, with a bamboo train ride and a pottery demonstration

 Saturday, March 15, 2025

It's a new hotel so let's check out the breakfast buffet!  Yes!  they have that delicious soup and some old favorites like those yummy noodles and bacon and chicken cordon bleu!  And the coffee is great as long as it's mixed half and half with milk!

I'm just so enamoured with this flower!!  Later I will learn that this 
is the Bodhi Tree, under which Buddha was sitting when he attained enlightenment!

Such a gorgeous hotel!

Back up stairs and back down with all our luggage and we're off for the long trip to Phnom Penh.  Soy is busy imparting more knowledge and we try valiantly to absorb it all!

We pass the statue that depicts the naming of Battanbang.  It seems that a grandfather was walking with his grandson and the boy made him to made that he through his "battan", or stick, into the forest.  You can see how angry he is!

Many of the lovelier houses have blue glass - as well as the banks - so it must be very expensive.

The Banon Bamboo Train!!! The only commercial trains in Cambodia are for shipping containers, but there is this adorable amusement park-like ride that lasts about thirty minutes all told.  It is probably a little shorter most of the time;  but our driver got a message that a real train was coming towards us, so we had to clear the track!  That means first picking up the bamboo platform that we've been sitting on, then removing both sets of wheels.  And of course putting everything back after the "real" train has passed.  We get to our designated stop and the process is carried out again because the drive wheel has to be in the back for the belt to be connected to the motor. It really is a bumpy hoot!

These guys are really prepared!

Many roadside stalls

My favorite name for a beer!

Such a study in contrasts everywhere you look.

There really are mountains!  Well, okay, hills!

Our next stop will be in the pottery province (there are 24 provinces, equivalent to our states). The clay comes from the Cardamom Mountain and is called Golden Clay. We pass several houses where pottery is being made before we come to the one that Soy wants us to see.  Three generations live in the tiny place, with chickens and a cow. One of the daughters demonstrated the technique they use to create beautifully symmetrical pots without a wheel.  The potter actually does the spinning!  And doesn't get dizzy! She uses various paddles to smooth the clay and the entire operation takes less than fifteen minutes!!

The mom gives Ginger and me a "cadeau" or gift of a tiny pot and it is adorable!  I'm so touched that I give the daughter what a consider a small tip, of about five dollars.  She grins  and gives me another little pot, this one with decorations and a perfectly-fitted lid!

On to lunch at a little local spot and Soy eats with us, suggesting items we might like from the menu. We see a pitcher with a green liquid and ask what it is because it sure looks inviting.  He pulls out his phone to get the name of the plant that they add to the tea and if my keyboard has Cambodia letters I'd tell you what it is!!  Anyway, it is delicate and very refreshing, especially the first glass before the ice all melts away.

This is the Pottery Province, after all.

More driving and we arrive at Udong Hill, where there are several stupas, with a very ornate one at the top of a 400 plus set of stairs. Ginger has been catnapping during the drive and feels like that's doable!  I don't.  I make it up to the first place with a bench and am quite content to wait for her and Soy to return.  She'll take pictures and that will be good enough for me.  Plus, I take an artsy fartsy shot that I really like!

Doesn't look bad until you know there are more than 400 of them!

You have to know which critter's year you were born in.  I'm a dog.

There she goes!

Do you see the face?  What expression is that?

Three-headed elephant

More driving and we arrive at Phnom Penh with is a large metropolis with skyscrapers and everything.  Soy deposits us at the Hotel Sor, gets us checked in, and bids us a last adieu.  We'll have a new guide in the morning;  but our same capable driver.  Thank goodness.  I really don't know how people drive in this country!!  Ginger described it as a game of bumper cars, but no one ever seems to get into an accident!!  The lane markers mean nothing, as do the double yellow lines.  Sometimes I just close my eyes, especially if we're in a tuk-tuk!

It's a real city with skyscrapers and everything!

Our hotel has stars!!

And speaking of tuk-tuks, we get settled into our room and convince ourselves that we really need to go out. We figure that the night marker probably opens around 6:30, so at seven we go downstairs to look for transport and there's a tuk-tuk right there!  We ask the price and he's right in the ball park that Soy had told us, so we hop in and pray a lot during the ten minute trip.  But we arrive safely, despite our expectations, and begin wandering.  Our objectives are food and a tee shirt.

We make our way down one aisle and realize the the Chatamok River is right there! Phnom Penh is a major seasport, even though it is 180 miles from sea!  But it is the confluence of the Catamok, Mekong, Bassoc and Tonlé Sap Rivers!

The riverfront is a treat!  There is an ultra wide side walk where people stoll in the night air, and food vendors offer their wares.  You can sit on the wall and watch the lights on the river from the dinner cruises and the decorations across the river. There is even the Cambodian version of line dancing with about fifty people, mostly ladies of various ages, doing a very repetitive series of movements.  I join for a little bit;  but there are other things to do and this isn't really much of a challenge!  Oh!  The the bright orange Blood Moon is on display!!

We find a lady selling things on a stick.  Some look like meat and the others look like the tips of chicken wings.  I don't think that those are even edible!!  But we get two of the mystery meats, for a dollar, and they come with a cole slaw-like salad.  And no fork.  That's why we've been given fingers!!  We sit on the wall, watch the water, and enjoy.  The flavor is wonderful, even is there is fair amount of fat.

Once more into the fray! I've given up on the tee-shirt as there doesn't seem to be a "tack tourist souvenirs" section;  but we do locate the "food court" and an icecream vendor who has common flavors plus melon and durian.  You can get three scoops in a paper cup for two-fifty. In the center of the food vendors there are straw mats that people are sitting on to enjoy their dinners and snacks.

Ginger has decided that she wants a plain, old, wrist watch.  There are lots and lots to choose from and she finds one she likes for six dollars.  And the battery works and it has the correct time!

And it's time to go home.  There's a tuk-tuk right at the entrance.  It's a bit larger than our last one and a bit more expensive.  But, really, five dollars to get home safely!! Back at the hotel we ask where to find breakfast in the morning and then go investigate the massage and sauna facility.  It's about nine o'clock but they are still open and the lady is ready to take us right now!  But we haven't showered and no one should have to touch these bodies as they are right now!  Instead we make a reservatiom for tomorrow evening at seven and will look forward to that all day!  Sixty minutes for eight dollars.  One hundred and twenty for twelve! How could we not??

Gorgeous, carved furniture - really heavy!

Back to our room and all is well except we can't figure out how to turn off the lights above the beds!  Ginger can sleep through anything and I get the cottom, all-purpose scarf that a bought at the bamboo train and use it as a sleep mask.  In the morning I'll look for the real one that Qatar Airways gave us.