Battambang colonial architecture, bamboo train, Phnom Sampeou

Overview

Battambang is home to Cambodia’s best-kept collection of colonial buildings from the 1920’s, art Déco treasures of the 1930’s and early chinese shophouses, giving visitors the impression of traveling through old-style French Indochina.

Highlights

Morning city tour of architectural treasures
Riding the Bamboo Train across rice fields
Afternoon at Phnom Sampeou: pagoda, caves used by the Khmer Rouge as killing fields
At dusk, millions of bats flying into the hill’s caves

Itinerary

From Siem Reap, full-day tour of Battambang and surrounding areas.

Morning city tour of Battambang boasting a rich urban heritage with a great variety of historical buildings, the styles representing different phases of the city’s history, including outstanding heritage buildings such as the New Khmer Architecture at Battambang University, French colonial villas along the river and traditional Khmer wooden houses.

Enjoy riding the Bamboo Train across rice fields, a unique and creative form of ad-hoc bamboo-cart transportation powered by a small motorcycle engine on railroad tracks.

In the afternoon, climb up Phnom Sampeou, a hill steeped in legend, Visit the Buddhist temple, Wat Sampeou, and then explore a group of caves used as “killing fields” by the Khmer Rouge where skeletal remains of the victims can still be seen. At dusk, go down the hill to watch millions of bats flying into the caves.