Wat Sampeau, Battambang | Cambodia

Phnom Sampeou is one of a range, whose origin story is told in a Khmer folktale (fair warning, also a fuckboy glorifying fable):

The Legend of Reachkol and Neang Romsay Sok

The story of Reachkol and Neang Romsay Sok is a Khmer folktale explaining the origin of several hills near Battambang, Cambodia.

Prince Reachkol, enchanted by the beauty of a poor girl named Sovann Maksa, promised her his love. She had raised a magical crocodile named Athun from an egg. When Reachkol's parents arranged his marriage to Princess Neang Romsay Sok of Chan Borey (known for her magic hair that could control water), Sovann Maksa was heartbroken.

As Reachkol sailed with his wedding gifts on a junk, Sovann Maksa sent Athun to destroy the vessel. The giant crocodile attacked, causing panic among the crew who threw chicken and duck cages at it.

Neang Romsay Sok, sensing her future husband's peril, stroked her magic hair, causing the sea to dry up. Athun was left stranded and died, his body becoming Phnom Krapeu (Crocodile Mountain). The junk turned into Phnom Sompov (Boat Mountain), and the thrown cages became Phnom Trung Morn and Trung Tea (Chicken and Duck Cage Hills). The place where Neang Romsay Sok stood became Phnom Neang Romsay Sok.

Furious at the destruction, Reachkol blamed Sovann Maksa and ordered her execution. He then married Neang Romsay Sok, and they lived together until the end of their lives.

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There are 3 main sights on Phnom Sampeau: the bat cave, the killing cave, and the temple.

Reclining Buddha, symbolizing Buddha’s final illness before entering parinirvana (the state entered after death by someone who has attained nirvana during their lifetime. It implies a release from Saṃsāra, karma and rebirth as well as the dissolution of the skandhas.)

Bhumisparsha (calling earth to witness) Buddha, symbolizing the pivotal moment in the Buddha's journey to enlightenment when he was confronted by Mara, the demon of illusion and desire, who sought to distract him from attaining awakening under the Bodhi tree.

Rahula asking Buddha for his inheeritance under the Bodhi tree,

Modern Buddhist depictions have been carved into the mountain outside the bat cave quite recently, post-covid.

Between 5:30 and 6pm, the bats began to emerge.

There wasn’t a giant mass of bats, but they just kept coming! Apparently almost 2 million bats exit the cave every night. I was shocked to discover this number is a 70% reduction from the ‘90s bat population. I found a great blog post (https://therestlessbeans.com/battambang-bat-caves-cambodia/) from the restless beans that explains the situation in detail:

The species is Asian Wrinkle-Lipped Free-Tailed Bats (chaerephon plicatus).

The examples Claire gives of how the bat populations are threatened by human interference:

Shrines | the caves where the bats live are often home to Buddhist shrines. These shrines cause obvious disruptions, including cave modifications like artificial lighting, entrance adjustments and excess noise from visitors.

However, there are also more insidious consequences of these shrines. The shrines are most heavily frequented during Buddhist New Year, which occurs in April and May. This timing coincides exactly with critical milestones in a bat’s life – the reproductive stage (late pregnancy, lactation and weaning). This peak in human visitation has a direct impact on the bat populations.

Lack of Awareness | many people still do not understand the benefits provided by bats. They are caught and used as bushmeat, or sold at local markets (a news report noted that a group of individuals could catch more than 1000 a night, only using nets). Also, pesticides, used by local farmers in their fields and guano miners protecting themselves from bugs, are damaging to bats. There was even a recent video from December 2023 showing three Cambodian men flinging projectiles at the cave.

Mining | anthropogenic activities, such as mining, have a devastating effect on bats. Limestone karsts are heavily in demand and mined to produce cement, destroying bat habitats along the way.

Babies | bats have low annual reproductive rates (they only have two breeding cycles per year – March to April and October), so do not recover quickly after population decline caused by humans.

Close quarters | if a cave is disturbed in some way, this damages all of the colony, because the bats live in close confines. This causes a larger degradation of the population in a shorter timescale.

Foraging | foraging habitats have been consistently destroyed, threatening the longevity of bats in these regions. In fact, Cambodia experienced the largest forest loss in the world between 2001 and 2014, replacing trees with agricultural land, particularly rice fields.

Though several structures are more modern, most of the temple buidlings were constructed in the mid 1960s at the height of Cambodia’s golden era under Prince Sihanouk.

The whole place is lined with floored with slippery old tile– arriving on a rainy day was a bit scary, I had to go absolutely slomo to keep from falling.

Bad Buddhists suffering in Naraka (Buddhist purgator or hell; a temporary realm of suffering experienced as a result of negative karma accumulated through past actions. Unlike the eternal damnation found in some other religious traditions, Buddhist hell is not permanent; beings remain in Naraka only for a finite period until their negative karma is exhausted, after which they are reborn into another realm based on their remaining karmic imprints.) Apparently these are such a common form of statuary to serve as a warning.

The sunset was unbelievably beautiful, like a painting; this photo is has absolutely no editing/color correction.

The entrance to one of the killing caves. They’ve since been honored with Buddhist shrines.

Thousands of people were tortured and killed, and thrown down into the caves when dead or dying.

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Out and About in Battambang | Cambodia

I spent two half days just cruising the town and countryside of Battambang with a tuktuk driver, really enjoying seeing the old houses and people going about their day.

Handmade fishing nets for sale. This is a common handicraft in the old Muslim neighborhood.

I can’t find much info on Wat Balat– online sources say it’s around 100 years old, but there’s no real verification anywhere.

The only EFEO archive image is this gate from July 1934 . . . indicating the Wat, at least as it exists today, is younger.

It’s recently been repainted this hideous lemon yellow and white.

As recently as 4 years ago its much more charming vintage, perhaps even original, paint was still hanging on.

Genuinely old or just built in the old style? It’s often difficult to tell. I think it’s genuinely old. All the houses in this neighborhood seemed old. For a post about the guaranteed heritage houses of Battambang, click here.

The local rice noodle maker

The local rice noodle maker

Post Khmer Rouge era Pali learning center

Donuts with sesame seeds on top are a popular local breakfast

Seafood at the wet market– it’s all from the river, so it’s not just fish, but frogs, toads, snakes, etc.

The knife and farming tool maker. Everything is made from melted down scrap metal of varying quality and composition, and the workers don’t even wear masks, forget any kind of ventilation system. It’s sort of horrifying.

One of the pleasures of living in Cambodia is fresh cheap pineapple or bananas everywhere for pennies.

My tour guide said frog soup is the Cambodian version of chicken soup– the standard when you feel sick.

Sticky rice roasted in bamboo

We usually make rice oudding with raisins, but here they’re sweet black beans of some kind.

Wat Svay Chom– clearly contemporary, and locally important, but I can’t find any substantive info about it.

Kids playing at Wat Svay Chom.

The older wat

It’s falling apart, but has lovely details.

Monk’s housing, with the names of the donors who paid for it honored in front.

The fish sauce factory– it smelled SO strongly I couldn’t bear to step further inside to take more photos

The rice cake seller

The dried and fried banana seller

Taken by René Têtard in Battambang between 1919 and 1926, sowing how woven grass mats used to be used much more extensively.

A woven mat seller.

Possibly the happiest sellers in Battambang, the rice wine makers.

The famous kampot pepper, used to flavor some of the wine.

The Battambang riverside 150 years ago, photographed by Émile Gsell c. 1873

Illustration after Henri Mouhot c. 1859

Émile Gsell c. 1873

Rice, of course.

I genuinely forget what was in these bags! Whatever it is has to soak in the river for a couple days.

Freshly skinned and fileted fish by the riverside, ready to grill or perhaps dry to jerky in the sun.

Wat Ta Mem, yet another temple we didn’t go inside. I’m unclear on why or if this temple is particularly significant because, having joined a group of 4 other women from all different countries, my tour guide stopped here to give us a speech about why Cambodia needs peace with Thailand. It made exactly as much sense as his bumper lettering– Cambodia needs peace, but also refuses to hear Thailand out. He really tried to convince us that after decades of peaceful trade at the border, Thai soldiers just woke up one morning and decided they wanted an extra Angkorian ruin and would kill Cambodians to get it.

‘Don’t Thai to me’ has become the phrase used in response to any defense of Thai actions or motivations, though at different points (and often the same points) in the conflict, both sides have been wrong. It’s clear as crystal that leaders of either country are initiating these border skirmishes as means to solidify their own power domestically, by rallying all the jingos to vote for ‘no change’ while their country is ‘at war’. It reminds me of when this worked in 2004 with George W. Bush in the US, how unexpectedly effective the play was– even my beloved, sensitive, highly intelligent boyfriend fell for it, and voted for it, due to peer pressure, particularly from his boomer war-hawk conservative father. I remember our votes cancelling each other’s out, and feeling a bit helpless and betrayed, politically, for the first time in my young life. Writing a blank check to the military industrial complex and upholding autocracy is horrid, and no one is less of a patriot for refusing to do so.

But back to 2025– it’s also incredibly impractical for most while being extremely beneficial for an influential few, which muddies the waters. Nationalist social media influencers have made their names and fortunes on this, and one can’t help but think that while some are true jingos, most know better and are simply greedy. Just like Cambodian civilians, especially those living in border regions, have little control over their government and want peace, Thai civilians have little control over their government and want peace. “Don’t Thai to me" is an insanely reductive and racist attitude to take towards them, and all the related, histrionic government measures– blocking Thai websites, halting Thai imports, refusing to renew visas and work permits for Thais– make it seem like a new norm Cambodians must conform to, even if they personally don’t agree with it intellectually or morally.

For someone making a living off tourists, such cheerful self-sacrifice is absurd: in 2024 Thais made up 30% of tourists to Cambodia, more than any other nationality; Chinese made up 12.7%, coming in third behind Vietnamese. In 2025, the Chinese stopped coming due to scam center kidnapping stories finally hitting their news; so with Thais being actively mistreated and denied service by all classes of Cambodians, Cambodia has effectively killed off about 40% of its tourism industry in a single year! Truly impressive own foot shooting, I think they got both.

My guide’s trusty steed.

The Sangkae river. All rivers in Cambodia are green-brown.

They’ve decided this “rope bridge” is a good tourist spot: wobbly enough to probably not feel like home, safe enough that absolutely nothing can go wrong. Needless to say, I’ve crossed far sketchier bridges.

The famous bamboo train. This is the ‘old train’, on old French track; there’s also a ‘new train’ purely for tourists. Both are marked clearly on google maps. It’s basically just wooden platforms with metal wheels grooved at the appropriate gauge, apparently called norries, powered by an external motor. It’s not particularly thrilling or scenic, more what you would expect– a straight shot through mostly rice fields. The stations and railcars were blown up by the Khmer Rouge, and one blown up shell of an old train station is visible along this route. The system in this area was never rebuilt by the Cambodian government (they only got around to the Phnom Penh - Poipet route in 2017), but it still goes more or less village to village, so it’s used by locals sometimes to transport things when cheaper or more direct than a truck would be. Before car ownership became the norm, it was much more popular; these days it’s mostly a novelty for tourists.

More sticky rice! It became one of. my favorite snacks.

The roadside grilled rat seller! It seems crazy, but rats are a nostalgic food here, reminding people of something a bit good during the Khmer Rouge era. Field rats are the norm, considered fat, clean, and tasty. But over the past five years or so, some sellers have also started farming rats.