Battambang
Travel Guide
In a nutshell
Rural Battambang is attractive precisely because it doesn't have too many attractions. Ride the nori or bamboo train; amble through a few ancient ruins; check out some rice paper making; and otherwise enjoy the classic Khmer scenery around the town via river or motorbike.
Battambang is the rice bowl of western Cambodia, home to some spectacular rural scenery and within easy distance of both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
This sprawling province has a range of tourist sites including Angkor-period temples, mountain viewpoints, wetlands and typical day-to-day rural scenery. Despite the wealth of attractions, Battambang province makes it onto the itinerary of relatively few travellers, making it a fabulous off-the-beaten-track destination.
The provincial capital of the same-named province, Battambang is Cambodia's second largest city and one of our all-time favourite spots in Cambodia. A relaxed and laid-back town, Battambang is primarily a farmer and trader town, a refreshing change from far more touristy Siem Reap.
Set across the banks of the Sangker River, the bulk of the town's restaurants, hotels and attractions are to the west. It is a pleasant place to explore for a day or two on foot and forms a perfect base for trips into the surrounding area, where there's plenty to see and do.
Battambang is best known for its Angkor-period ruins at Ek Phnom and Phnom Banan, but there's also Phnom Sampeau — the site of the local Killing Fields.
Big-ticket attractions aside, what often swings it for Battambang is the laid back, sleepy feel to the place. It's an attractive town in a rundown kind of way with a few colonial shopfronts and pretty tree-lined streets. Spend an evening by the riverfront munching away on fried bugs and other critters and no doubt you'll be sold.
One oddity of Battambang province is the rain gambling. Although it does happen all over Cambodia, this is the epicentre of the phenomenon. Fortunes are won and lost betting how much rain will fall at a given place at a given time. When in the capital, keep an eye out for people clustered on the roofs of the buildings overlooking the central bus station. Clutching walkie-talkies, they're communicating with both their rain-spotters who are scattered across the surrounds monitoring the clouds and their bookies at Phsar Boeung Chhoeuk. The bookies can be a bit shy about having their photo taken, but they're not too worried if you're just there to check it out.
Battambang is Khmer for "disappearing stick", referring to a legend about a cowherd named Ta Dambong who found a magic stick and used it to usurp the then-king. The king's son ran off to the woods and became a monk. In the meantime, Ta Dambong had a dream that a holy man on a white horse would vanquish him, so he decided it would be a good idea to have all the holy men rounded up and put to death. When the prince heard he was required to go into town, a hermit came up and gave him a white horse. When the prince got on the horse he found it could fly. When he flew into town, Ta Dambong realised his dream was coming true so he threw his magic stick at the prince and did a runner. Neither he nor the magic stick was ever seen again.
Battambang province borders Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey to the north, Pailin Special Zone and Thailand to the west, Pursat to the south and east and the Tonle Sap to the east. The provincial capital is linked to Phnom Penh by an excellent all weather road and to Siem Reap by a slightly more patchy affair. You can also travel by boat from Battambang to Siem Reap — a stunningly beautiful (if occasionally very slow) way to cross the broad Tonle Sap.
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Our recommendations
With Cambodia's number one tourist destination, Siem Reap, but a couple of hours away, you'd think Battambang would do a decent trade in tourists, but it's surprising just how few bother to check it out. That's their loss and your gain as far as we're concerned — as Battambang is absolutely worth at least an overnight's stay.
if you're thinking of seeing Battambang on a short jaunt from Siem Reap before returning to the same, consider doing one way by land, the other by boat — just be prepared for a pretty rough and ready experience when it comes to the boat trip.
Once you're safely ensconced in Battambang, make sure you organise a motorbike trip into the surrounds — allow at least half a day to see the highlights. There are no shortage of English-speaking motos will be on hand to guide your way.
Text and/or map last updated on 14th November, 2010.
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Onward travel
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Pailin
Siem Reap
Angkor
Banteay Chhmar
Trat (Thailand)
Chanthaburi (Thailand)
Ko Chang (Thailand)
Muang Tam (Thailand)
Anlong Veng
Ko Wai (Thailand)
The above are all within 200km of Battambang.
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Backwaters to Battambang...
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Battambang reviews
Backchat from the Travelfish community
The ultimate home stay experience 2
The review about the home stay near Battambang is spot on! We loved it! it was fabulous to live in a small village community.
This is what I want to add to dano_b's review:
We were advised to take a share taxi to Sisphon and then another share taxi to Banteay Chamar. This is what we did. Set off early or you will have problems finding a taxi to take you to BC. Each journey should cost around six dollars. You leave from the taxi stand in Battambang and wait until the taxi is full. On each journey you will no doubt be sharing with EIGHT adults and a few children - we were! it's NOT comfortable at all. At Sisphon you will then wait until the next share taxi is full. Each part of the journey took over two hours with waiting time. When you return to Sisphon, again you will have to leave early, around 10.30am to ensure there is a taxi leaving the village. It might be worth hiring a private taxi as far as Sisphon, it really isn't very pleasant sharing with so many people - especially if they are large men who insist on sitting with their legs open!
The village is lovely, and dusty. You don't eat with the family, which is a shame, in fact all we did was sleep in their house. When we got out of the taxi, a man met us - we arrived unannounced but I guess he was just waiting in the village 'square'. There are several home stays in the village, but it's probably better to tell them you are coming [we arrived a day early and they hadn't seen our email]
The ruins are lovely - but of course nothing compared to Angkor Wat, so it's a great idea to go there en route to Siem Reap rather than afterwards..
We too only stayed one night. We saw loads. With another day, maybe we would have hired bikes and visited other villages, but in the one afternoon and the following early morning, we squeezed in lots.
I don't know if there are home stays nearer to Battambang. I think the only negative part of the home stay was the really long and hot journey, but unless you want to pay lots of money, this is the most economical way.
From Battambang, we also took the boat to Siem Reap which i LOVED! Yes, it's long and noisy, but if you sit on the same side of the driver, then you see all of the houses and tents and how people live as well as pass by the river traffic [perfect for photos!!!]
Thanks dano_b for this review !
By lynneb (dabbler)
Written on 30th January, 2012 after a visit to Battambang in January, 2012
Great Restaurant near Banan Temple, Battambang
The HoneyComb Restaurant is in a beautiful setting in the shadow of Banan Temple and nestled on the riverbank of the Sangker River, thus allowing visitors to swing in a hammock and watch the river life unfold while sipping one of the many beers The HoneyComb sells. All of the food is prepared and cooked using filtered water, as opposed to the river water most establishments use (no indoor plumbing or treated water in Banan). And to top it off, the food is really amazing and cheap! All of the meats are organic and the owner is in the process of organizing local growers to grow and sell organic vegetables and herbs. The restaurant’s specialty, and namesake, is grilled honeycomb. Grilled honeycomb is a Cambodian delicacy, and the honeycomb used by owners is sustainably harvested.
It really is one of the best eating experiences you are going have in Battambang, if not all of Cambodia. To get there, just look for the brightly colored hand painted sign just about ˝ km before the turnoff to the entrance of Banan Temple.
By Bareebo (dabbler)
Written on 7th November, 2011 after a visit to Battambang in November, 2011
The ultimate homestay experience
My boyfriend and I went to Battambang recently, but this review will concentrate more on a side trip we did from Battambang to Banteay Chhmar. Based on suggestions on Travelfish, we organized a homestay through a program called Community-based Eco-tourism (CCBEN www.ccben.org) which has homestays throughout the country. We heard fabulous things about Banteay Chhmar so we chose that one.
We contacted the person who runs the homestays, Sophal That (tathsophal@yahoo.com) and he arranged our booking for one night/two days in the village. One of the cool things about this tourism project in this community is that everyone in the community participates in one way or another. The place of the homestay moves around. Local women take turns cooking the food. Locals use their oxen and kuyons for the activities, as well as the locals who did the musical and rice crushing snack (more on that later).
They rotate duties so that everyone does what they can and helps out at different times. This is great since the benefits of tourism directly benefit this community! We paid 65$ for 1 night/2 days for both of us, everything included – meals, housing, activities, tour guide, drinking water etc. The experience was so amazing, it was well worth the price! We would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning about the culture and lives of Cambodians or those who like to get off the beaten track.
We started in Battambang, and not knowing how to get to Banteay Chhmar the following day for our homestay visit, we asked a tuktuk driver for advice. Being young and ambitious (and doing the number crunching in his head) he offered to drive us the whole way (2 hours to Sisophon, 60km north of Sisophon). We settled on 40$ for the trip including a visit to Ek Phnom in the morning before heading out.
We stayed at the Seng Hout hotel, a brand new hotel and paid 13$ for the best hotel room we stayed at during our entire trip. The room was plain, but clean, clean, clean with fan, private bath and cable tv. They also have a rooftop balcony which no one seems to know about and we always had to ourselves! It had great views of the city and comfy wicker chairs.
So, first we visit Ek Phnom, which was pretty impressive, but we had yet to visit Angkor Wat, so I think if you have seen Angkor Wat, this small temple in ruins wouldn’t be so exciting. While we were touring the site with our drivier, the police who was collecting admission stole our breakfast from the tuktuk, but the temple was beautiful in the early morning light and was a great introduction to temples for what was to come.
We set off for Banteay Chhmar and the ride was pretty smooth going until we got passed Sisophon because the paved road ends there. We drove down a bumpy, dusty dirt road for 2.5 hours on the back of our tuktuk. Word to the wise: DO NOT go by tuktuk to Banteay Chhmar!! We were filthy by the time we arrived, but luckily the homestay staff was ready for us and had a most delicious home cooked lunch ready for us when we arrived. We were shown to our wooden stilt house after which was very cool! No electricity or running water, we were provided with bottled water, candles and mosquito coils. There was a squat toilet outside, that I think was shared with neighbouring families, but it was very clean!
That afternoon we visited Banteay Chhmar with our tour guide. This temple is enormous and simply amazing! There is a restoration effort beginning now and some parts of it are being put back together, but it is mostly in ruins, engulfed by the jungle. The guide was awesome, telling us about the temple, the carvings on the wall, the restoration project and anything else we wanted to know! After Banteay Chhmar, we walked a short distance to Ta Prohm temple, a simple, small temple for a quick visit, then a villager arrived with 2 oxen and we got an ox cart ride through the village. The ride ended at the Soieries du Mekong silk factory where we got a tour to see the entire process of silk making, from the raw silk to the finished scarf. We went back to Banteay Chhmar to finish the tour (we easily spent over 2 hours at this temple, there was so much to see!)
We were fortunate enough to have the bigwigs from California who are helping with funding the reconstruction of the temple visiting that day and for the occasion, the CBT office had brought in a group of youth from Sisophon to perform some traditional Khmer dances, which we were invited to attend. The music and dances were phenomenal and the dancers were very talented and with the setting sun and Banteay Chhmar in the background, the setting was stunning! Following this, we got a private, torch-lit dinner at the temple!
With never a dull moment here in this village, we were brought to the CBT office where locals showed up to perform some traditional music and show us how to make a rice treat that involves frying rice, then smashing it in a large wooden bowl. That day was one of the best days we have ever had and we love the opportunity to see how locals live and to get off the beaten track a bit. We went to bed in our wooden house that night completely satisfied and so glad we had made the trek.
The following morning, we had another delicious meal then went to tour the local market and then got to tour villagers homes. This was super interesting because we got to see exactly what they do on a daily basis and how they sustain themselves. We learned about how they make coal from wood and then sell it at the markets, we saw a woman weaving straw roofs, we went to a cassava plantation, saw a rice mill and toured the local elementary school. Tourists are not as common here as in Battambang or other popular destinations, so we got a few odd stares, but the experience was so worth it!
Finally, we took a ride about 30 minutes away to Banteay Top temple, which was again, in a ruined state, and much smaller than Banteay Chhmar but very cool because it was tall and you could see for miles from the top of it. There was a tree growing out of the top of one of the towers too! We had a picnic lunch at this temple then my boyfriend got a lesson in driving a kuyon, which is the tractor-like thing they use for farming and transportation. They let him drive it up the road a bit and back, as long as he promised not to go too fast!
At this point our village stay was over and we were sad to leave. We had such an amazing experience here and learned so much about Cambodian people and culture. Everything we did was above and beyond our wildest expectations. The food was delicious, the people were friendly, the village was authentic, the tours were interesting, I really can’t say enough good things about this. If you are interested in more information about this email Sophal That (email above) or contact me, danobeaugrand@gmail.com.
We hopped on our tuktuk (the driver had decided that he would stay in the village and take us back to Battambang since he had come all this way) and made the long and bumpy drive back to Battambang, where we had just enough time to ride the Bamboo train before night set in. This is a must-do if you are in Battambang! We paid 12$ and got to ride on the train for well over an hour. You ride to another “station”, take a break, then ride back. We were fortunate to be riding around sunset so the driver stopped on a bridge for us to take some photos of the sunset! It was really exhilarating to ride on those tracks and funny when you came up to another train and had to dismantle to let the other train pass!
We left Battambang the next morning at 7am on the boat to Siem Reap (20$) which we were told would take 6-7 hours and actually took closer to 10 hours. Luckily the boat only got stuck in the mud 2 times on the ride and they were quick to get us unstuck. Once we reached the Tonle Sap, the engine broke down so we were idle for a good 30 minutes, but despite all that, the ride down the river was beautiful! Lots of trees, small villages, floating villages and bird sanctuary made the ride seem much shorter than it actually was!
By dano_b (dabbler)
Written on 18th February, 2010 after a visit to Battambang in January, 2010
Also reviewed by dano_b: Don Dhet, Luang Prabang, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap,