In January, we made a long weekend trip to Battambang province to celebrate Sokea’s engagement. We have been waiting to write about it until after she announced her engagement on social media (which she did earlier this month). We travelled by bus with Ringsey and Doungchann. It was a very long, very bumpy ride due to national road 5 being renovated.

After arriving we took a walk along the Sangkae river in Battambang and then through one of the city parks. Battambang is the second most populous city in Cambodia after Phnom Penh. Thailand, then Siam, annexed Battambang in 1795 and ruled it for six generations until 1906 when the French forced them to return it to Cambodia (then a French colony). Thailand took advantage of France’s defeat during World War 2 to start it’s own war against the French and in the Japanese brokered armistice Thailand annexed several provinces including Battambang. The Thai later returned the provinces to Cambodia (once again a French colony) after the defeat of the Empire of Japan when France threatened to veto their application to the United Nations.

We ate fried noodles at a stand by the river. The next morning we asked some local kids where the good Kuy Teav was and they guided us to their favorite local Kuy Teav shop. The shop was just someone’s house but, indeed, the Kuy Teav was absolutely delicious. Some of the best that I’ve had. It was also some of the cheapest that I’ve had. Funny how that works sometimes.

Then we headed to the larger of Battambang’s two “bamboo” trains. I put bamboo in quotes because it wasn’t bamboo. That was the smaller, original, and absolutely terrifying train. We went with the larger, safer, and metal train…which is still called “bamboo” for marketing purposes.

We took the “bamboo” train up through the hills by cliffs and farmland. I felt a little nervous whenever we approached a turn but it was safe enough.

At the end of the “bamboo” train track was a sprawling garden. It was lovely. I already shared many of the flowers so I’ll only include a few non-flower photos from the garden.

Of course then we had to ride the “bamboo” train back down to the train station. There was a cool manual turntable for the “bamboo” carts.

I’m going to stop here for now but I’ll continue in Mountains and Bat Caves.