Battambang

The ultimate homestay experience
By dano_b (dabbler - 5 reviews)
Written on 18th February, 2010 after a visit to Battambang in January, 2010
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!

Also reviewed by dano_b: Phnom Penh,