Western Cambodia – Battambang and the Cardamom Mountains

Western Cambodia – Battambang and the Cardamom Mountains

Western Cambodia’s largest city – Battambang is in reality a little French town, spread along a winding river next to a series of rugged hills honeycombed with astonishing caves. It’s a relaxing spot to hole up for a couple of days, reaching here by boat from Siem Reap across the wilds of Tonle Sap lake. There’s light adventure too – on the bamboo train – products of Cabodian ingenuity made from reed platforms set on bogeys and powered by small outboard motors, they whirr along the railway line around Battambang like little cars, linking the villages.

The Cardamom Mountains which stretch towards the border with Thailand are Cambodia’s last substantial surviving part of a the huge tropical rainforests that once swathed the whole of Central Southeast Asia. They are a vital preserve of critically endangered, endangered and threatened species, including Clouded Leopard, Siamese Crocodile, Pileated Gibbons, Asian forest elephants, Sun Bears and Indian civets. The park has a number of pretty lodges – in the forest and floating on the winding, forest-lined Preak Tachan River.