Battambong province is standing about 325Km from Phnom Penh, takes 6 hours on driving on national road #5. I made road trip with my friends, we were leaving from town at 6.30am not so much traffic jam. We stopped by Kampong Chhnang province for the breakfast, the road condition was not so good a bit bumpy and had some puddles. Do not drive fast, do it slowly because there are many local people do business on the road side, also the cattle keep crossing the road. On the way to Battambong we can enjoy the scenery, green field, paddy rice and smell of buffalo poop. We stopped for some photos and moved the car’s wheel to Pusat province for lunch break. It was the long-distance road trip so we stopped by so many places for restroom and water. From Pusat province to Battambong is another 100Km to go, finally we made to Battambong town. We stayed at Holiday guesthouse, the building was okay and staff is so nice, helpful but the cleanness was not that fine for me. We arrived there almost 2pm took the quick shower and straight to the landmarks of Battambong, that was recommended by the guesthouse’s receptionist she is so nice woman, never got tired to explain us what to do where to go in here, I was appreciated about this.
Banan temple:
We headed to Banan temple 22Km from the south of Battambong, such as the ancient temple about 358-step climb up to the hill. The temple was not in the good condition anymore, some broken of stairs handle, so when you climb up must be careful. I did not climb to the top because I am the lazy one, just chill out with the views of the Banan temple was surrounded by the water and trees, so stunning for seeing. I had fried noodle with sugar cane juice quite cheap here is comparing to Phnom Penh, then we headed back to the guesthouse since everyone was so exhausted after long trip. When you visit Battambong do not forget ask local people for the best soup with reasonable price, one pot of soup is 4USD, named as [Shanghai Restaurant] not only soup but also many menu, bbq, steam fish, their foods are fantastic. In Battambong there are many people hang out at night time, I used to think before I came here was probably just a small town with nothing at all but so far from my thinking, the road is big, city full of lighting, many restaurant, beer garden but club is not including. The night in Battambong ended up with KTV. It was so convenient for us to go anywhere with our car, if not you have to rent the motorbike or grab the Tuk Tuk around.
Bat cave:
Next day we went to bat cave, I was not sure how many kinds of bat exist was like the different way of interpret about bat, but it’s still bats anyways. [Phnom Sampov] is the limestone mountain located on the road to Pailin from Battambong about 12Km, there are three natural caves on the [Wat Sampov] is where the bats living, the right time to see bats is from 5.30pm to 6pm they come out from the cave, by the way [Phnom Sampov] has many shrines, statues and rich of the history.
Grape farm:
The next stop we moved to grape farm, I did not see any plant of grape just only grape juice, grape wine and some other products of grape, maybe it already harvested. Such as the nice background for photos since my friends enjoy so much with selfie, I sat down drank my grape juice not grape wine here, because I was driving, the local grape wine quite expensive than the import wines but I heard people said the quality is best, do not trust me let try it . If you love eating papaya then grab all to home, a lot papaya stores on the road. Mission was completed with a lot of fun and photos, there are still many historical places in Battambong province I haven’t seen yet, because our time is limited hopefully, next trip going to done all those amazing places.
