Happy (Khmer) New Year!

Today is the first day of the three day Khmer (and Thai, and Burmese and Lao) New Year. More on that later.

When we last left our blogger, he was nattering on about Angkor. Then next day, back on a boat, this time to Battambang. The boat was a bit smaller, but the voyage was only 7.5 hours with one chance to get off, and more frequent chances to sort of hang over the side of the boat.

It wasn't comfortable, but much of it was scenic and it was improved by its frequent use by Cambodians to actually go from one place to another on their normal business. We peaked at 33 on board. The normal hideous episode of lugging luggage down to and up from the boat. On arrival later in the day at Battambang we were met by an "army," to quote a fellow passenger, of hotel touts to add to the adventure (one of whom recognized me the next day, and asked me why I hadn't stopped to talk).

Water levels were predictably low. We ran aground a number of times. That required a bit of backing up by the engine, some polling by the boat crew and grumbling by the passengers.
But as said, the journey was pretty good. We passed a number of curious floating villages early in the day. At first we were crossing an equally curious lake, Tonle Sap, which is said to double in size from dry to wet season. The villages simply keep moving with the shoreline. The real oddity is that the Tonle Sap River, the lake's exit to the Mekong and the sea, reverses its flow in the wet season as the Mekong floods.
We we on a small river flowing into the lake most of the day, which narrowed as we moved upstream.
Eventually floating villages were replaced with homes on the banks. And kids splashing in the afternoon.

Battambang is said to be the second largest city in Cambodia, though it seems far smaller than Siem Reap now. It is not a big place and has a complicated history as a Thai town for more than 200 years up until 1907 and, in common with all cities in Cambodia, a virtual ghost town during the Khmer Rouge period between 1975 and 1979. As a major rail point, it handled lots of forced refugees from other areas in Cambodia that were being moved internally by the Khmer Rouge, only to be murdered on arrival at Battambang.

Now it is a nice river town with some pretty temples and attractive French colonial buildings.

Next morning after arrival I took off with a guide on the back of his motorcycle to see what was to be seen in the area. Khmer ruins, a local Khmer Rouge killing field (a Buddhist mountain monastery where many are killed, with bones now on display) and lots and lots of steps. I am pretty sure the 1000 mark was met and conquered this day.
These steps came with a small portable fan.
The fan probably is more effective as a sun screen, and its wielder had a hard time remembering what he was about. Chat to me, chat to my guide, run up steps, run down steps, one swoosh of fan, sit down, examine feet, jump up, chat, run off path, point excitedly several directions saying something, one swoosh of fan. Whatever the social politics of this, it was charming.

All that work required laying in a hammock and drinking sugar cane juice for a while (not the young fan wielder, he ran off with his earnings). We were joined by another pair, the tourist being an 18 year old from The Netherlands working on month six of a nine month tour of Asia. Generally on his own. That is something. Setting aside a scout trip to Canada and another with my family to Niagara Falls, I don't think I left the US until I was in law school.

We then two pairs then went to take a ride on a local contraption called the Bamboo Railroad (stopping to look at some fruit bats for about one minute, the time limit at my request). The train is assembled from bits kept by the side of the track - bogies, a bamboo decked wood platform, a little two stroke engine and a rubber belt. I can promise it can carry five adults and two motor cycles.

This is on a spur from the main line between Phnom Penh and Battambang. It is a single track spur. What do you do when you come on a "train" heading the opposite direction? The big boy wins.
Here are three guys, having disassembled their train and low volume cargo waiting for the the five of us and our two motorcycles to move on a full speed. Which seems to be about 15 mph. Which is actually pretty exciting 8"over the rails on misaligned gappy rails.

The next day a bus ride to Kompong Chhnang (spelling seems right to me). The bus was surprisingly nice. Until it passed by Kompong Chhnang. I woke up the attendant (he was asleep on luggage), he got the bus to stop. I got a 30 minute walk back to town. Several nice motorcycle riders volunteered to give me a ride, but good as they are at balancing large bundles, I didn't like the idea of being on a bike with my now three bags.

I checked into a guest house that was hosting a group of evangelical Christians from the US that were helping building a house. I rented a bicycle and road to the Tonle Sap River (the one I mentioned earlier that changes the direction of its flow in the wet season) and hired a boat for another look at floating villages.
I thought the attached outhouses (see far left), which must be a misnomer, particularly noteworthy.

The next day, a completely uneventful minibus ride to Phnom Penh.
I had a great view of the Royal Palace and the river from a deck over my suite. The next day reason to hold and I moved to a more modest room.

Phnom Penh has a great National Museum housing all kinds of nice bits from various Khmer temples (though perhaps the Musee Guimet in Paris has a nicer, albeit more selective collection of Angkor era pieces).
Phnom Penh also has its own Temple of the Emerald Buddha, but it does not make the running list of Emerald Buddha temples I have seen. The Buddha is an impostor! Or more fairly a nice piece of green crystal made by the good folk of Baccarat.
The next day focused on some of the dark events of the Khmer Rouge. About 10 miles out of town there is a memorial to victims of the Khmer Rouge on the site of one of the killing fields. About 17,000 people were thought to have died at this location, one of hundreds that was over 1 in 5 Cambodians killed or starved to death in 4 years.

Many but not all of the bodies have been exhumed at this location.
You walk near some of the areas that were not dug up, and see the bones, teeth and clothing of victims that have been washed to the surface by the rains.
The memorial stupa holds the bones of some 8,000.

I've seen large groups of bones before, some in crypts in Europe. That was a bit macabre. The killing fields are horrible and very sad.

Next stop was the ex-high school turned into torture center by the Khmer Rouge. This was the source of the victims for the killing field I had visited earlier in the day. A fair number of torture devises were on display. Most of these seemed very basic but no less horrible for that.

Then there were wall after wall covered with photos of victims and their keepers. Most of the keepers looked like teenagers. The victims were of all ages, down to very young children. Maybe that is enough for a travel blog.
Today back to seeing the typical things to see in a Southeast Asian cities. Some temples and some markets and street life.
So, as I mentioned, today is the beginning of a three day Khmer (and Thai and Lao and Burmese) New Year celebration. I have hunting for information on what it includes, and spent some of yesterday looking for signs of preparation (beyond "Closed for the Holiday" signs). I've been told that is supposed to involve tossing water on the unwary - but surely not tourists! I have been looking forward to getting splashed.
I had no idea if I was seeing business as normal or holiday preparations, but building sand pyramids on tombs has got to be for special occasions, doesn't it?

Today at breakfast, the waiter said today I should look for:

People burying cash in piles of sand to leave any bad luck from the ending year behind (a ha!): Found it.

People taking food to temples to be blessed by monks, in memory of ancestors: Yes, some of that too.

People playing special games: And that as well. The first game involved two lines of people taking turns throwing their big seeds at the other sides big seeds. You wacked folk on the knee with your big seed before throwing it for good luck. The second game had a circle of folk, with one person walking around the circle with what looked like a sack with some cloth in it. The walking person would leave the sack with one of the people in the circle, who would then leap up and chase the person to his or her immediate right with the sack. I'm sure I have this right.

There was some non-New Year related goings on as well. This is a game of shuttlecock. But unlike badmitton, with its convenient racket, this is done with one's feet. The classy shots seem to be done behind the back.

This is not a Chinese holiday, but I noted the Chinese temple gardians getting a breakfast of eggs and bacon.

That is all from Cambodia. I am off for Vietman.

Best regards,

Sam