Cambodia in May - Travel to Cambodia!

May in Cambodia can be a difficult month especially for those of us with larger than average builds – it is just so hot. Temperatures regularly hit 40 degrees Celsius and often very early in the day too. Coupled with this is the start of the rains which whilst bringing some relief from the heat helps to create a very humid atmosphere. At this time of year I generally take at least one spare shirt with me wherever I go as a back up in case I break out in uncontrollable sweating and then have to meet guests at Bambu Hotel. The trick of course is to avoid any strenuous activity and never be too far away from a fan. I have got pretty good at this after four years here but there are times when I get caught out – hence the spare shirt.

Battambang Fruit Market Cambodia

I have found that I have acclimatized gradually over the years and can cope with the heat much better than I had originally feared. When I lived in the UK I wore shorts and t shirts for all bar a couple of months of the year and often found the (quite often risible) British summers to be too hot. When I moved here many of my friends were incredulous and thought there was no way I would be able to stand the temperatures all year round. I was a little worried myself but have managed it with careful planning. Two years ago I invested in an air conditioning unit for my bedroom which has been a real bonus as I often found sleeping at night very difficult in April and May. Since getting the air con I have become a self appointed expert in it. I religiously monitor the cleanliness of the filters and ensure the unit is serviced every six months. Travelling around the country I appeal my wife by inspecting air con units in hotels and guest houses we stay in. They seldom come up to scratch in my estimation! I find them either dirty, noisy (very annoying at night) or just not powerful enough for the size of the room. We invested heavily in air con at Bambu Hotel choosing some of the most expensive units available but I am proud to say that they work perfectly – each bedroom was measured for capacity and where there was any doubt we opted for a more powerful unit to ensure the room could be as cool as the guest wanted. We have had only two complaints – one guest said the room was too cold (!) and the other said it was too hot. The latter were my parents who had turned the temperature control to 32 degrees thus actually heating the room – they are used to Fahrenheit and not Celsius! I have since pointed this out in our room directories.

One of the great things about this time of year though is the wonderful abundance of exotic fruit available. Cambodians love fruit and it forms an important part of the diet. All very healthy of course. Wherever you go all year around fruit is sold and eaten in enormous quantities. Get on a bus and you will notice that over the course of the journey at least 80% of the passengers will have munched their way through an impressive amount of it leaving an extraordinary mess once the bus reaches its destination. The buying of fruit is a very important exercise. There is much prodding, poking, debate and sampling before purchasing. Unlike a market stall back in the UK the fruit is not marked with a price so this has to be negotiated with the opening figure always met with hoots of derision by the prospective customer. I must admit I find this very difficult as I never know what a fair price is and am usually happy to pay whatever the stall holder asks (which annoys my wife and mother-in-law!).

Compared to what I was used to in the UK the variety of fruit in the markets is extraordinary. All your round there are bananas – smaller than West Indian ones and sweeter, pineapples (again smaller and sweeter), longan, mangosteen (one of my favourites), jackfruit, watermelon, rambutan, lychee, tamarind, orange, durian and most especially mango. The cultivation and consumption of mangoes here has to be seen to be believed and right now is the season for them. I was used to sweet slightly orange fleshed mangoes and these are eaten here but generally Khmers like to eat the mango young and crunchy. They make a delicious snack often cut into strips and dipped in a suger/salt/chilli mixture. The Khmer for mango is “svay” and this word appears in many place names all over the country. Last year I planted two mango trees right outside the main entrance to Bambu Hotel Battambang. They were semi mature and I certainly wasn’t expecting anything in the way of fruit for a couple of years. I was mistaken however for they were positively laden most of which has been picked by guests either coming in or out of the hotel. I suspect some of the staff might have helped themselves to a few too! My mother in law makes a really tasty kind of mango toffee. She boils up a pan of the fruit and then rolls the pulp out into disc like shapes which are then left to dry. The result is a very chewy intensely flavoured snack. Absolutely delicious.

One of the more extraordinary fruits is the durian. In less civilized parts of the world – Japan and Singapore – this much maligned fruit is banned from public places because of the very unusual smell that comes from it. It is quite unlike anything else I have ever smelled but – to my nose at least – it is not unpleasant. The fruit is grown in large quantities down in Kampot province but it is also grown up here in Battambang, most noticeably in Samlot. It is a very large fruit and a very tricky one to get into as it is protected by a very prickly skin like a pineapple but much more dangerous. A very sharp knife (and a pair of gauntlets) is needed to get at the edible parts which are of a soft yellow buttery texture. The taste is magnificent and well worth all the effort (especially if someone else does all the hard work). I would highly recommend having a try at this most unusual treat if you get the chance.

New Year Celebration in Cambodia - Khmer New Year

Happy New Year Cambodia!

Those of us fortunate enough to live in Cambodia get to enjoy three different New Year celebrations. International New Year on 1st January used to be a barely celebrated event here but of late it has become more important warranting a public holiday and special events including fireworks. I remember being in a nightclub in Siem Reap on New Year’s Eve many years ago and when the DJ started counting down to New Year I was preparing to rush around greeting strangers and wishing them all the best for the next 12 months. No one was even slightly bothered though when the countdown reached zero and I found myself looking rather foolish as I leapt in the air and prepared to embrace the person next to me. Everyone else was waiting for the lucky draw (always a popular event here and the reason for such a large attendance in the club) to begin. Cambodian attitudes to International New Year are changing but it remains the least celebrated New Year event.

Khmer Buddhist New Year Celebration

Chinese New Year is a much more important celebration albeit an unofficial one as, unusually, there is no official public holiday to mark the occasion. This occurs in either January or February and lasts 3 days. It seems to be celebrated by everyone regardless of any Chinese lineage and the country more or less shuts down for the duration to enable families to visit relatives and return to their homelands.

Khmer New Year Experience

The most important celebration for Khmers though is Buddhist New Year which falls in mid April. This is celebrated by absolutely everyone and traditionally marks the end of the harvest and anticipates the onset of the rainy season. The holiday itself lasts three days but in the week before the roads are full of traffic as people travel around the country to join up with family and friends for the celebrations. In the days before the holiday people spring clean their houses (I usually find something important to do elsewhere while this is happening) and on the first day households erect an altar to welcome the New Year spirit. Local temples are visited with food and alms for the monks and prayers are said for ancestors. It is a time of great feasting, parties and generally relaxing with family and friends.

New Year Celebration Cambodia

Obviously over this period everyone wants to spend time with family and friends and most businesses shut down for the duration of the holiday. Of course as a hotel we at Bambu Hotel Cambodia have to stay open but I tried to ensure that our staff could enjoy the festival whilst maintaining our usual excellent levels of service! We actually held an impromptu party one evening as our guests wanted to enjoy the Khmer New Year experience. Within the space of an hour or so the chefs had knocked up some delicious food, a sound system was somehow produced from out of nowhere and much dancing and fun ensued. I don’t think our guests had experienced anything like it but they thoroughly enjoyed it – or at least they told me so!

Cambodia New Year Celebration

Cambodia has an extraordinary number of public holidays – 26 days – which surely must be more than anywhere else in the world. There are holidays for the major religious festivals obviously but also for more secular events – 3 days for the King’s birthday, a day each for the King Father and King Mother, Human Rights Day, International Women’s Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Coronation Day to name but a few. Most small businesses stay open for the majority of these holidays but banks, government departments and larger businesses shut down. Of course if some of these holidays fall over a weekend they are carried over to the Monday which means you have to be quite organized – I have often found myself turning up at the bank only to find it closed when I wasn’t expecting it. As a fairly large business – well with 22 staff – we have had to register with the Ministry of Labour and so of course we have to ensure our staff get the holidays they are entitled to. As well as these public holidays there is also annual leave entitlement so juggling the staff rosters around has been fairly difficult although to be honest most of the staff have never experienced paid holiday leave and are very grateful for it!

Transportation in Battambang, Cambodia

Planes, Trains and Automobiles in Battambang, Cambodia

Improvements to infrastructure here in Battambang over the last few years have made significant changes to everyday life. New roads have made the city accessible like never before and Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and the Thai border can be reached quickly and without too much bruising to the backside. Like most provincial capitals Battambang had an airport with daily flights to Phnom Penh but with the improvements to the roads this service was no longer required and the airport closed about five years ago.

Regional Railway Battambang

My wife remembers a road trip to Phnom Penh taking three days and until fairly recently the journey could easily take a day. The air service was therefore an important link with the capital. So despite the rumours about the airport reopening I don’t think this will happen – there just isn’t the need for it any more. Battambang also benefits now from a good mains water supply in the town and fairly reliable electricity from Thailand. I say fairly reliable because every so often (at least twice a month) the supply does fail plunging the city into darkness. Thankfully at Bambu Hotel Battambang we have a diesel generator as back up for these periods – the beer will always be cold! Sometime in 2013 Battambang will be connected to a new hydro generating plant in the Cardamom Mountains which hopefully will give us a cheaper and more reliable electricity supply. One piece of infrastructure however that has remained defiantly unimproved is the railway “network” so when I noticed that the main station in Battambang appeared to be getting a facelift I was keen to investigate.

Battambang Railway

The last passenger train rolled out of Battambang a couple of years ago but by then the service was a shadow of its former self. In fact there was only one scheduled train per week from Phnom Penh to Battambang which ran on a Saturday before returning to the capital on the Sunday. The journey time was somewhat unreliable and was scheduled for 14 hours but often took much longer sometimes failing to arrive at all. Considering the distance to Phnom Penh is only around 300km this must have rated as one of the slowest railway journeys in the world. The reason for this of course was the dilapidated state of the track and the rolling stock – it simply wasn’t safer to go any faster. In fact looking at the state of the tracks it is hard to believe any trains ever ran on them. This is all about to change though. An Australian company, Toll Railways, has been granted a long lease for the Cambodian rail system and has started to upgrade the tracks and facilities. Last year the line between Phnom Penh and Kampot on the coast was reopened, initially just for freight and now they have turned their attention to the northern line which will run through Battambang and up to the Thai border at Poipet. As far as I can see all that seems to be happening at the moment though are cosmetic improvements.

Around Battambang Railway 

Battambang station is been repainted and the offices are being refurbished after years of neglect. Reassuringly though no attempt has been made to repair the station clock which still gives the time as 8.02 as it has for years. I asked one of the workmen when we might expect to see some trains here again but he just shrugged and thought that it may possibly be sometime in 2013 – and presumably at 8.02. This looks rather optimistic given the lack of urgency. The whole track needs to be dismantled and re-laid and I would imagine this would take some time. It was fun though wandering around the station and the engine sheds. Clearly in its heyday Battambang station was a busy place with a number of platforms, sidings and warehouses. Nowadays it is home to some rotting carriages, a number of cows, chickens, plenty of children and a couple of Toll Railways painters.

Battambang Railyway Station

One aspect of the Cambodian rail system that continues to thrive – albeit unofficially - is the Bamboo Train. I would imagine that just about every visitor to Battambang has had a go on this and with good reason – it is great fun. Essentially the “train “consists of a bamboo platform on a set of wheels that buzz up and down the buckled tracks propelled by what looks like a lawnmower engine. It has become a major tourist attraction here but it is more than that as the locals use it to carry all kinds of provisions to villages and communities along the line. Just before we opened Bambu Hotel last year I took all our staff for a trip on the train. Most had never been on it before and I was keen for them to know a little about it as I knew virtually all our guests would have a go during their time in Battambang. If you meet another train coming the other way the train that is deemed to be the lighter of the two – with least passengers or freight – has to disassemble, let the other pass and then reassemble before continuing. During busy times, and if you are unlucky, this can be quite tiresome especially in the middle of the day as there is no shade from the sun. These days tourists generally only go on a short section of the line – from just outside the city up to the long burned out Ou Sralou station about 8km away where there are a few drink and food stalls to relax at before returning back down the line. The track is in such a poor condition that the ride can be pretty scary and it resembles at times a rollercoaster.

Battambang Train Cambodia

Talking to some of our guests at Bambu Hotel, it appears that sadly a lot of the tour companies now are refusing to let their customers go on the bamboo train for insurance reasons. Certainly the trains and the track don’t conform in any way to safety regulations but with a bit of common sense it really isn’t very dangerous. In any case it looks like the days of the bamboo train in its present state are numbered. Obviously when the tracks are ripped up it will cease to function and although I reckon the bamboo trains will return once the new rails are laid (there probably wont be more than one proper train per day) the ride will be much more comfortable and therefore less fun!

Bambu Team Outing in Pailin

Last week we treated our staff at Bambu to a well earned day out – two days actually as they couldn’t all go on the same day or there would be no one to look after the hotel. Since Bambu Hotel opened last September we have been pretty busy and we wanted to reward everyone with a day out to a destination of their choosing.

Bambu Hotel Team

The general consensus was that they wanted to go to Pailin up by the Thai border taking in waterfalls and others places of interest along the way. I was dead keen to go, at least on one of the days, until my wife gently suggested that perhaps the staff would enjoy it more if their employer wasn’t with them! I reluctantly concurred. I actually paid a short visit to Pailin back in January having not been there for around 3 years. The road (National Highway 57) is now, after decades of neglect, in top notch condition and Pailin can be reached in a little over an hour from Battambang whereas before it meant an extremely uncomfortable journey sometimes lasting the best part of a day.

Bambu Team Lunch

Pailin has a touch of the Wild West about it – it was one of the last parts of the country under Khmer Rouge control holding out until 1996 when the Iang Sary faction surrendered to the government. Nowadays the town is a peaceful place and makes an excellent base to explore the local area.

Team Outing Pailin

There is some fantastic countryside nearby and with the rehabilitation of the road I think it will become a major destination in the next few years. Sadly much of the area is still heavily mined despite ongoing clearance projects although the immediate environs of the town are considered safe these days. Without wanting to sound too much like a local in the Slaughtered Lamb from the film An American Werewolf in London the phrase “don’t stray from the path” is nowhere more appropriate than here. We can also expect the border crossing to Thailand to get busier. I would recommend anyone coming from or going to Thailand to use this crossing as opposed to Poipet/Aranya Prathet – there are no queues much less hassle than at the often depressing town of Poipet. Recently some guests at Bambu Hotel wanted to go to go straight from here to Koh Chang in Trat province, Thailand.

Staff Outing

Last year such a journey in a day would have been impossible but we were able to organise a taxi from the hotel to the border in Pailin and another one from the Thai side to the port at Trat. The guests emailed to tell us that having had a late and leisurely breakfast at Bambu they were sitting on a beach on Koh Chang watching the sun go down just a few hours later! I was very jealous.

Bambu Team Activities

Khmer Weddings & Cambodian Wedding Traditions

Any visitor to Cambodia around this time of year cannot fail to notice the extraordinary spectacle that is the Khmer wedding. The wedding season for obvious reasons corresponds to the dry season and reaches a crescendo in March. These are enormous occasions which traditionally lasted for 3 days although in recent times 2 days is more normal. The first day and a half is full of ceremonial rituals attended only by family and close friends but all weddings culminate in a large feast usually at lunchtime on the second day. I have attended quite a few where there have been 1500 guests but I suppose 7 – 800 is more the norm. The smallest wedding I have been at was my own two years ago to which “only” 300 were invited! Needless to say this can be quite ruinous for family finances and there is much saving (and inevitably borrowing) to pay for it all. Every family wants to put on a “good show” and will not want to be seen cutting corners. With these kind of numbers attending you can imagine that wedding invitations come thick and fast.

Last year I was invited to 32 although I didn’t attend that many – it is perfectly acceptable to send a deputy in your place and my brother in law Rong is usually happy to oblige. On arrival at the feast you are seated at a table of 10 which when full can start dining. There are usually about 8 courses and copious amounts of beer are provided – you can understand why Rong doesn’t mind helping me out! Other than the sheer numbers two other things stick out to the casual observer. Firstly the women wear the most amazingly beautiful and colourful clothes with the men very drab in comparison. Secondly, and equally obvious, is the extraordinary noise level of the music coming from the massed banks of speakers. The volume is turned up so high that the music is often so distorted it becomes painful to listen to. Locals don’t seem to mind but it does make conversation very difficult. As wedding rituals get underway at 5am anyone living within 500 metres has an early morning alarm call! Strangely one does get used to it after a while although it is something that tourists often find quite bemusing. When we were looking for a site for Bambu Hotel we were very conscious of finding somewhere away from late night karaoke bars and beer gardens and this is something we have achieved although there is little we can do if one of our neighbours has a wedding. Generally our guests have found it very interesting and like to talk to our staff about local traditions – we have also been lucky that none of our immediate neighbours has felt the need to tie the knot yet!

Noise levels generally here are something that visitors often struggle to come to terms with. It has to be remembered that Cambodians get up in the morning much earlier than most westerners do – just before daybreak at around 5am. As a result they go to bed much earlier too – at around 9pm. Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and the coast are busy all day and night because of the number of tourists there but Battambang, being less visited, has a much more provincial feel and is virtually deserted after 10pm. I had some friends from Spain visit me a couple of years ago and they couldn’t believe that at a time they were usually getting ready to go out everyone else was going to bed! However you must not think that that Battambang has no night life. Far from it. Traditional Khmer beer gardens with live music and karaoke abound and will often stay open to midnight. As more western visitors come to Battambang a number of new bars and restaurants have opened to cater for them. One in particular and a favourite of mine is Madison Corner run by the irrepressible Patrice Belin. He stays open until 5am catering for the night owls with great food, drink and music not that I ever get a chance to stay out that late.

Battambang in March

As we move towards end of March the temperatures here in Battambang have cranked up a notch or two giving us an early taster of what to expect in April which is traditionally the hottest month. January and February were actually relatively cool and some mornings were positively chilly although not enough to get me out of my shorts. In my village the locals had taken to wearing balaclavas and scarves along with padded jackets most mornings – all because of temperatures as low as 20 degrees Celsius! These have now been packed away and I wouldn’t expect to see them again until December. Last week Battambang saw an unseasonal torrential downpour which took us all by surprise. It lasted over 4 hours and there was much unblocking of drains around town in an attempt to alleviate the flash flooding. The intensity of these rainstorms can be frightening at times and I always worry about leaking roofs but thankfully there were no problems at Bambu Hotel and the guests seemed to enjoy a respite from the sun.

Water levels in the Sangker River had been almost down to a trickle last month forcing the boat service from Siem Reap to drop its passengers off about 10km out of town and then shuttle them in on tuk tuks. The Battambang –Siem Reap boat trip is one of the most scenic in the country and very popular with visitors and locals alike. When the water levels are high in the wet season it is possible to complete the journey in around 5 hours but this figure can be doubled at times in the dry season. The Sangker River rises near Pailin towards the north of the Cardamom mountain range and as the river has a fair bit of water in it right now I can only assume it has been raining up there recently.

A couple of weeks ago I hired a kayak (from Green Orange Kayaks) in Ksach Poy village. Organised by FEDA, a local NGO, for $12 you can paddle downstream for about 4 leisurely hours until you arrive back in Battambang. A number of our guests had done this trip and had really enjoyed it so I was keen to give it a try myself. The kayaks are super buoyant sit on types and there are life jackets to fit all sizes – even me. There is plenty to see on the gently meandering river and you are provided with a, thankfully waterproof, guide to points of interest along the way. Having arrived in Battambang I was met by a driver in a lorry and we loaded the kayak onto the back before being dropped off at Bambu Hotel. A great service and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

The beautification of the Battambang riverside continues at a leisurely pace. The local authority started this project a couple of years ago and it is still ongoing. I have marvelled at some of the inefficiency – paving stones were laid and then pulled up a month later to allow for electric cables to new lampposts. The stones were then re-laid but again pulled up this time for water pipes! Works are nearing completion now and I must say it is a great improvement. I was initially alarmed to see many of the more established trees being felled to make way for the new parks and pavements but these have been replaced with new semi mature trees and I reckon it looks great.

We took delivery of a new beer at Bambu Hotel recently. It is called “Kingdom “and is marketed as a “craft beer “which to my mind sounds like an excuse to charge more. It is certainly more expensive than Angkor and other local beers but it does taste rather good and has become a favourite of mine. It is brewed in Phnom Penh and currently only available in bottles although there are plans to have it on draught later this year. I shall be keeping a close eye out for that. Although it is a pilsner it does appear more complex than most ordinary lagers and it has a slightly bitter aftertaste which suits my palate perfectly. It will be interesting to see how the beer takes off over here. Bambu is one of only a very few outlets selling it in Battambang but it is widely available in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Welcome to Bambu Hotel's Blog

My name is Pat Talbot and I am co-owner of Bambu, a new boutique hotel in Battambang, Cambodia’s second city. I first came to Cambodia in 2006 and fell in love with the country, its people and Battambang in particular. In fact I liked it so much I moved here just over three years ago.

Battambang, Cambodia

Cambodia is an increasingly popular destination for travellers and Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and the coast have become major tourist centres in the last few years. For the discerning visitor though Battambang is now a major draw and improvements in infrastructure have made it accessible like never before. The city retains its colonial era charm and the countryside around is stunning all year round.

Bambu Battambang Hotel

With plenty to see and do many visitors have found Battambang the unexpected highlight of their visit to Cambodia and the purpose of this blog is to share a slice of life here.