Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and spotless tiled rooms with hot water and a foyer stuffed
with chintzy wooden furniture an
d
asso
rted
pots. Free
internet and on-site restaurant.
Fan
$8
; a/c
$15
Thmey Thansour Hotel
Just north of the main road,
one block west of the river
T
012 962395.
Long-running
hotel with a range of fan and a/c rooms, the more
ex
pensi
ve o
nes with hot water. Free wi-fi and internet. Fan
$7
; a/c
$15
EATING
Lam Siveng Restaurant
Main road
T
012 826948.
Pretty little restaurant full of wooden furniture and
cabinets packed with marble carvings. There's an English
menu and a good range of mostly Chinese food (mains
around $2-3), plus a few Khmer and Vietnamese options.
One of the few places in town where you can get a passable
coffee (hot or iced).
Daily 8am-9pm.
Tepmachha (aka The Magic Fish) Restaurant
West
bank of the river, 750m north of the market
T
012
921144.
Friendly little place in an attractive setting right
over the river, with simple Khmer and Chinese dishes (plus
English menu) for $2-4.
Daily 8am-9pm.
2
Battambang
Cambodia's second largest city, laidback
BATTAMBANG
seems to have the best of
various worlds: big enough to have all the energy and bustle you'd expect of a city of
around 200,000 people, but still small enough to feel like a proper slice of Cambodia,
and lacking both the hyperactive tra
c and crowds of Phnom Penh and the tourist
crowds and wall-to-wall touts of Siem Reap. Headline attractions may be slightly
lacking, but there's still plenty to fill a few days in and around town, plus an
increasingly large selection of restaurants and bars fuelled by the growing number of
expats who now call the city home.
The main draw in Battambang (the last syllable is usually pronounced
bong
rather
than
bang
) is the city's time-warped collection of
colonial architecture
, with some
interesting day-trips around town - including fun countryside rides on the quirky
bamboo railway
.
Brief history
The history of Battambang, which was founded in the eleventh century, is quite
separate from the rest of Cambodia - for much of its existence the town fell under
Thai
rather than Khmer jurisdiction. In 1795, a Cambodian named
Baen
became
lord governor of
Battambang province
(which at the time incorporated territory as far
away as Siem Reap), paying tribute to the king in Bangkok, which effectively moved
Battambang from Cambodian to Thai rule. Throughout the
nineteenth century
the
province, although nominally under Thai jurisdiction, was largely left to its own affairs
under a succession of all-powerful governors from the Baen family - a self-su
cient
fiefdom, isolated from both Thailand and Cambodia.
The province was returned to Cambodia in 1907, at which time Battambang town
was little more than a collection of wooden houses on stilts. The French moved in,
modernizing the town and constructing the colonial shophouses you see today.
Battambang fared relatively well during the
Khmer Rouge
years, although the
Khmer Rouge launched repeated attacks throughout the province after they were
driven west to Pailin, and in 1994 even briefly captured Battambang itself.
Ferocious battles occurred around Wat Banan and Phnom Sampeu until the
amnesty of 1996.
Psar Nat and around
Marking the centre of town is the quirky
Psar Nat
market building, a huge, rather
mildewed orange pile dating from the 1930s with functional modernist lines and, at
either end, a pair of white clock towers, none of whose various faces ever seem to be
telling the right time.
