The bus to Battambang was somewhat peculiar, besides being decorated with the most tacky, with purple curtains with embroidery, its ruffles decorating the shelves, the embroidered “leather” seats … in addition, in this, the TV showed a romantic music video playing at full speed … yes friends, this is the karaoke bus !!!!! Like those of Laos, in Cambodia they are also crazy about karaoke !!!! So you can imagine, 4 hours of hilarious romantic songs in Cambodian at full speed turns any trip into a dream … what luck that has touched us !!!!

Once at the Battambang bus station, the tuk-tuks would stick because we would choose them, without saying anything, they would haggle their price, totally surreal … so they ended up lowering the price until they reached half a dollar for taking us … Battambang started well … hahahahaha (evil laugh).

We looked for accommodation in the Tomato guesthouse, which was mentioned by most blogs, but they offered us a room for $ 5 that smelled badly … we kept looking until at the Hotel Chhaya they let us a more or less decent room for $ 3 . We stayed 2 nights, until they recommended the Hotel Royal, where we discovered our new home for the next 15 days … This hotel has a terrace on the roof with restaurant, area with artificial grass, hammocks and a giant jacuzzi! They gave us a room on the same terrace for 3 dollars a night !!!! It was very hot because the roof gave the sun full all day, but we were great with the fan …

During our stay in this city we gave a 2-week Clown workshop at Phare Ponleu Selpak social circus, an incredible and unforgettable experience that we told in a blog post on Clown Science Dreams. Also, since we worked there, we were able to attend all the functions, given by the most advanced students, every Monday and every Thursday (normal price 14 dollars). It’s worth it.

Some details: To get money from the ATM, we found that MyBank (yellow aesthetics) did not charge us commission taking out with the EVO Bank card. And to move, through the Facebook group “Battambang connect” we found a private person who rented us two bicycles all the month for 10 dollars each.

Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia. It is very busy but its main attraction is that it is very little contaminated by the presence of tourists, that made us feel very comfortable in it, to the point that we were invited to dishes in the restaurants where we were loyal.

The children never tired of saying hello with an immense smile (something less common in the cities) and adults looked at us with astonished face until our eyes crossed and then exploded in a big smile of shyness. One day we discovered a winery, like those of our neighborhood in Barcelona but in the Cambodian style, it was a Chinese Medicine and Liquor, but what was sold there was homemade vermouth of good, accompanied by tapas: bread, sausage, salad, bat to the embers .. IF IF BATCHED BRAZIL !!!! But we with the chorus the vermouth and we were ready … hahaha … so there we spent an entire afternoon talking with the grandparents. One of them was fond of Jaume … well, although I think the vermouth had a lot to do …

The city is divided by the Sangker River. Its two main markets are interesting, the Psah Boeung Chhoeuk and the Psar Nat.

In the market that is close to the Night Market, which is very seedy and very small, but where there is an area of ​​restaurants, and one in particular where we went almost every night to dinner (the one that is closer to the river on the right).

It is from a family, and the son always looked after us exquisitely. What attracted us was their menu, they have the curry with chicken for 1.5 dollars, and it is terrific, in addition to the Lok Lak, or the beef stew, typical Cambodian dishes for 2 dollars, and several very good soups. We went so much that in the end we took mutual affection with the son, and he invited us every night to a plate, or to drink, until the last day that he wanted to invite us to the whole dinner, but we insisted on paying … it was too much .. .

For a change of Asian food, we ate a pizza at La Casa, expensive but very good, $ 6, or a delicious burger with potatoes at the Khmer Delight restaurant, for $ 5.5. Right next to the Royal hotel, going to the right, there is a local restaurant where we were going to take natural vegetable soups when we wanted healthy vegetables … and they always gave us a dish of peeled fruit for dessert.

Other tourist attractions are the Wat Ek Phnom temple, 13 km from Battambang, a very pleasant bike ride that crosses very authentic villages. It is a small Hindu temple of the Ankorian stage. It was built under the reign of King Suryavarman I in the eleventh century. The temple itself is almost all demolished but retains very well the engravings of its stones.

There is also the “Killing cave” where the Jeméres Rojos executed peasants, and the “Bat cave” where every day, starting at 5:45 pm, millions of bats come out to eat, and it is a spectacle.

Thanks to contacts from Spain, we were able to collaborate with the Karuna Battambang NGOs and the NGO Sauce, making Clown for the children. To know the experience you can go to the post of the Phies school and Thagen in the blog of Clown Science Dreams.

In these experiences we met Phut, a very nice Cambodian girl who spoke perfect Castilian. She complemented us with what we knew about the recent history of Cambodia and the current situation of the government.

In short: Cambodia was colonized by the French and occupied by the Vietnamese, in addition to the Americans during the Vietnam War.

In the city you can still find a colonial building of the time like this that we saw by chance walking, it was beautiful it was all restored and very well preserved. The modernist hydraulic floors, teleported us for a few moments to our beloved Barcelona.

      

When the French and Americans retired in 1975 the army of the Khmer Rouge took power from Cambodia. All Cambodians, especially in rural areas, celebrated the victory, since they preached a communism based on the purity of the work of the land and against the perversion of money, possessions, knowledge, etc …

At that time appeared the figure of its leader, Pol Pot, who applied doctrines of Mao Set Tung that neither the Chinese had applied, being too strict.

They announced an eviction of the cities due to imminent bombings (lie) and thus they stationed all their inhabitants in the countryside, in rural areas, where they forced the entire Cambodian population to cultivate rice. They expelled everyone who had studies, intellectuals, lawyers, doctors, artists, tortured and killed them. They killed 1 in 4 Cambodians. The population was undernourished, only ate rice, and any small animal that could hunt during the long working day. They had to increase rice production to impossible numbers, and how impossible it was, they were eliminating those responsible for not reaching such figures … All of Cambodia was a forced labor camp until it was occupied by Vietnam in 1979, defeating the Jeméres Rojos.

The current government is one of the most corrupt in the world. The party is called “Cambodya’s People Party”, nothing is further from the truth … It has governed 32 years thanks to “democratic” elections. The prime minister and his family own most of the companies in the state. They are so powerful that in their electoral discourse they preach that “they will continue to govern otherwise there will be an armed conflict, and they are the ones who have the weapons” … They are mainly voted in rural areas, where the party goes home Home giving t-shirts and party propaganda caps, and giving away from $ 1 to $ 5. The peasants are delighted by the gifts … however, what they do not know (or do not want to know) is that all this is paid with state funds … So the day that Cambodia wants to heal itself there will be civil war … this is very strong…

After almost three weeks very comfortable in Battambang, the day came to leave, excited by the experiences, and grateful for how comfortable we had felt in this non-tourist Cambodian city …

The next stop was Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We buy bus tickets at the company that has a tiny ticket office on 106th Street, between 101st Street and AH1. For 5 dollars each and left at 22:30. And there we went … to the capital!