Wat Kor, Battambang | Cambodia

Like most of the other temples around Battambang, I can’t find much info on Wat Kor beyond “It dates from the early 1900s” and is in the “special Battambang architectural style blending Thai and Khmer”. I believe the proper context for understanding it is that historically, this was the neighborhood where Khmer civil servants and their various adjutants chose to live, in both Thai and French colonial eras. Their wealth afforded them a wat fitting their social status, and their exposure to Thai and French architecture and material culture diversified and refined their tastes.

I’m assuming this is about the construction, history, and/or renovation of the temple. There was nothing in English or French.

To give some context for exactly how mangled and useless translator apps are with Khmer, here’s the google translation of the text into English.

One lovely thing about the place is that, as it is not a monastery, it hasn’t been littered with the stupas of generations of abbots. The grounds, though not large, still give the relief delivered by negative space. The statuary here are more charming than tacky. Still can’t escape the mangey temple dogs though!

I was quite ill when I visited, so I took bad photos and worse videos, and am having trouble breathing in the audio. It’s a shame because this is probably the most aesthetic temple I encountered in Battambang. This video really shows what it’s like outside; even though my video is trash it does show more of the interior.

The gate guardians have brown glass eyes, making them at once more human and more grotesque.

These photos from 2018 show how nicely/recently things have been retouched

2018, from google maps

In Buddhist and Hindu traditions, these four faces represent the "four sublime states" or Brahmavihara: loving-kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), empathetic joy (Mudita), and equanimity (Upekkha)

I didn’t take a single photo of the building. This is the best I could find, from Hello Angkor.

The mix of simple European and Khmer columns is interesting. The facade is very plain, almost completely whitewashed with just a couple of paintings.

I really like the original tile. Not the colorway, but the intact original match, particularly at the borders.

My ugly foot for scale, ha!

Another from google maps that’s just way better than mine.

I saw it written somewhere that these pillars are very unique. They feature paint at the base and appliqués on the columns rather than carving, so it’s not just the supposedly unique motif of flaming scrolls, but an interesting way to get max impact with least labor.

I was so thankful to finally find an unlocked vat in Battambang! I love, LOVE old Buddhist temple painted walls, they’re such a palette, such a vibe.

I particularly like the faux coffered ceilings and stenciled border. The border is SO of its era. This photo also makes it easy to appreciate how slender the columns are, which is unique and, I think, elegant.

A much better photo of the ceiling from google maps.

I couldn’t find any archival photos of this temple. Finding new resources for this blog is always an unpredictable journey though; there will be nothing for years, then a university in France that’s held the archives of some colonial administrator for a century puts 6000 photos online at once.

The Buddhas are pretty obviously modern.

The wall paintings are from a range of decades. Some seem to be original; others, like those towards the right of this picture, are in the post 1950 style. I’m learning a lot about Khmer Buddhist paintings reading my first Roveda book about Preah Bot.

Though it is Buddhist tradition to touch up the temple every new year, they do pick and choose. I love seeing truly old paintings that haven’t been extensively retouched.

Buddha descends the celestial ladder.

Probably my favorite panel and section of border.

I really enjoy the rosettes (romdouls? lotus?). They seem a very late 1800s/early 1900s decorative touch.

I really enjoyed this little ‘back doorway’ behind the main altar

I actually hate Battambang: venting about tourist problems and a couple bad pictures of Wat Phi Pit | Cambodia

My almost 3 weeks in Battambang were a misery for several reasons, listed below for my catharsis:

1. My airbnb, which looked shiny and new in the pictures, was one of the smelliest, stinkiest houses I’ve ever endured. It absolutely reeked of fruity vape smoke, cheap perfume, sweat, and sex. The stench was so bad that I ripped off the bedding, threw it in the worst smelling room, closed the door, and slept on my own pillow and body towel (which I had luckily brought along) on the bare mattress– at least the mattress was new. I also went straight to the shop, bought two cans of aircon cleaning foam, and even after using both up on the single working aircon, the stink was strong enough to hit me every time I entered the house from outside, and bother me much of the time I was inside. It was really unbelievable for a newish looking house to stink so abominably. It was not the stink of messy prior guests. It was the stink of trashy whores living like that for months or years. The upholstered furniture was also so visibly filthy I refused to sit on it, perching myself on one vinyl covered stool I thoroughly wiped down with a clorox wet wipe.

2. Despite the property ostensibly being fenced in on all sides, one morning I woke up to hear the back door opening. I immediately got up and started shuffling towards it, which must have scared off the intruder, who ran away without even closing the door. 

3. The neighbors were absolute trash. At least every other day they played unbelievably loud bad music for unbelievably long and late hours– one Saturday during Pchum Ben, they played very very loud (I’m estimating 85 or 90 db inside my bedroom) shitty booming bass dance music for 13-14 hours straight, no breaks, from lunchtime until 3 in the morning, coupled with a rotating rainbow strobe light that shone directly into my kitchen/living/work space. They smoked the nastiest shit imaginable at all hours, and burned their trash every few days, and of course the shitty construction standards of the airbnb meant I was wearing a mask and closing the curtains (denying   myself much needed sunshine) most of the time, to avoid breathing it in as best I could, but still had serious difficulties in the already stank house. I don’t know why I even hope for better, considering I’ve never lived anywhere in Cambodia where at least one neighbor isn’t ruining everyone else’s quality of life (and at this point I’ve had 4 apartments, 4 houses, and umpteen hotel stays). It’s amazing, really; no matter how far into the countryside of Cambodia you go, the neighbors are equally and unbearably loud, smelly and antisocial.

4. The shit neighbors were not just trash, they were trolls– almost every day, sometimes twice a day, I’d find my running water was shut off, and had to walk through the front garden, unlock the front gate, exit the property, climb up onto a little mound made of tile shards, and turn it back on. There’s no way it was an accident, or caused by an animal or someone trying to get water– It’s a large blue handle that is parallel to the pipe in the off position, perpendicular to the pipe in the on position, and there’s no faucet. This continued throughout my stay. I’m guessing the nasty neighbors are also xenophobes/racists who just don’t want foreigners around, because a) obviously they are the rude, disturbing neighbors, not me (I’m not home most of the time, and when I am, I’m quiet, and I obviously don’t burn anything, litter, or otherwise bother anyone) and b) I never complained or even cursed out loud about their absolute shit behavior, so it wasn’t personal.

5. The shit construction and 2 inch gaps around all the doors also meant endless bugs in the house. I was lucky I came prepared with my mosquito bat, because I had to make extensive use of it. Between the mosquitos and the bare mattress and the stinky aircon, I was sleeping every night fully clothed, including hood, socks, and mask, often in the heat. Was there a fan of any sort anywhere in the house? Of course fucking not. But the worst bug didn’t come in through the gaps– it crawled up through the shower drain– a fucking scorpion! I was lucky I opened my eyes while shampooing my hair, because it was heading towards my foot fast when I noticed it. I sprayed it as far away from me as possible with the shower head, grabbed the cup I put my tooth brush and paste in, and tried to spray it into a corner/against the wall with my right hand and catch it under the cup with my left. The edge of the cup came down on its middle, unintended but perhaps lucky– I ground it into the floor with the cup as best as I could, which while not enough to assure it wouldn’t crawl out, gave me time to run to my luggage, naked and wet, grab my boxcutter, and slice through it around the edge of the glass, killing it. I think in the end that was better than the original plan of just leaving it trapped under the cup until the owners of the place found it. According to a bit of later research Cambodian scorpions are not deadly, just painful like an XL hornet sting.

6. The commute was much longer than I expected– a 25 minute or so tuktuk ride into the city each day, made longer by needing to call for a driver and getting cancelled on at least once or twice per trip. In addition to slowing me down and costing more than double what it should, this made delivery from restaurants impossible, which became a huge problem because .  . .

7. The house didn’t have a kitchen as pictured. Not only were the pictured full size fridge and cooktop missing, so was the aircon in the living/kitchen space. There was what I think is a drinks cooler, or maybe XS fridge for beauty products– it was much smaller than even a hotel minifridge, so I couldn’t refrigerate anything beyond a single box of leftovers and 1-2 canned drinks. So, I ended up eating things I normally wouldn’t– boxes of dry carbs like crackers and cookies, and takeout meals left on the counter for hours.

In addition to just being miserable and non-nutritious, I think I learned the hard way about fried rice syndrome. I think I got VERY VERY lucky, only taking one bite of leftover rice before remembering it had been sitting out for two nights without refrigeration. I’ve had genuine food poisoning once or maybe twice, somewhat easier but still appalling “Bali belly” a few times, and this was not those– it was the worst gastro event of my life by far. Only googling around days later did I learn about fried rice syndrome for the first time, and recognize the symptoms/severity/progression. I truly believe I’m only alive because it was only one bite AND I always carry around antibiotics, just in case.

Experience has taught me to take antibiotics early into a food poisoning or Bali belly type gastro episode; if they help, great; if they don’t, oh well, at least they don’t hurt. So, within the first hour or two of misery I took a double dose of clindamycin I had on hand completely coincidentally (thanks asshole Siem Reap pharmacist who pretended to not know what a UTI was/shamed me for having one/insisted on selling me a pointless generic antibiotic that probably wouldn’t cure a UTI because I had ‘wasted’ his time explaining my ailment and thereby reminded him of his incompetence), and taking action early could (or not, I don’t know) have saved me. Apparently clindamycin is one of the antibiotics that helps with fried rice syndrome, though not a first line med.

The pain was so strong, the fever so high, and the diarrhea and vomit so unrelenting that I put my pillow on the tiled bathroom floor; there was no time to walk the perhaps 6 feet from bed to toilet, and my balance was failing. I’d experienced that before with food poisoning; the difference this time was that during my previous worst episode, 6 or 8 hours into it coming out both ends I was thinking “Force yourself to drink this water, drink, drink, drink; if this vomit/diarrhea doesn’t stop in 5 or 6 more hours, we’ll (my physical and mental selves) go to the hospital”. This time, I was in too much pain/too weak and dizzy to even crawl 5 feet to find/see my phone to call a hospital, certainly physically unable to exit the house or enter a vehicle unaided, and that’s not even accounting for the language barrier.

No one reads my blog anyway so I can be graphic; in the last few hours of the episode, I was no longer vomiting or defecating excrement, I had none left; just lots of congealed blood. I knew rationally it was probably related to internal hemorrhoids/strain but it was still terrifying, moreso because I had no one and no way to call for help; thankfully that aspect resolved within 24 hours. I spent the next 3 days bedridden, the first 2 still sick/sleeping, and it took maybe a week to fully recover.

8. Speaking of food, even at restaurants in town, it was expensive and bad, extremely ironic given Battambang has been honored by UNESCO for its culinary heritage. At the heroically priced (and Angelina Jolie patronized) Maison Wat Kor, the food is bland and inauthentic, catering to the insulting stereotype they maintain of a European palate. At the one American-owned restaurant in town, the windowless, fanless toilets face directly onto the dining room, and the staff leaves the doors wide open to air out the shits everyone hears everyone else take where we eat. In what tripadvisor rates the best restaurant in Battambang, supposedly social enterprise/french-khmer fusion/wine bar, there was a fucking longass manicured thumbnail in my food– you know the type, usually seen on taxi drivers who do drugs– clearly accidentally half chopped/half ripped off by a cook not wearing gloves, who then chose to leave it in my food. And when I complained and showed it to the waiter, they called over the manager, who not only did not apologize or comp a thing, but lied to my face in a totally absurd manner, telling me I was confused and it was just a piece of cooked garlic! The audacity!

I’ve learned through countless conversations over my year plus living here that Cambodians have an unfathomable, bizarre, totally fucked, cultural predilection for casual lies and gaslighting– they think it’s unclockable, socially/morally acceptable, or both; they all do it, and they always try it if they have even the slightest chance of gaining even the smallest thing by it. But even more maddeningly, they often do it when they have nothing to gain except the chance to smile smugly at their sabotage and feel for a moment they’ve gotten the best of someone; in fact, they seem to consider maintaining irrational fantasies of their own superiority and control the most valuable benefit. Out of hundreds, thousands? of these micro-aggressions, in every transaction and most stakeless interactions, this fingernail debacle is just the most succinctly illustrative example I’ve experienced to date. How shameless must one be to suggest to my face that I, an over 40 woman, have never seen or bitten either a piece of cooked garlic or a fingernail before, and can’t easily identify them independently or in comparison, and have somehow mixed them up? Even if he got the word wrong and meant ginger, or galangal, or some other root or spice stiffer than cooked garlic, the notion would be absurd. How insolent must one be to assume I, an over 40 woman, better than him by any standard that matters– wealth, class, intelligence, education, age, experience, morality, manners, self-awareness, fairness, generosity, pride in a job well done, overall success, positive impact on the lives of children, charity work, political activism, number and variety of languages spoken and cultures witnessed, hell, even knowledge of his own country’s geography, history, and heritage, and based on his behavior, though perhaps counterintuitively given this sentence, modesty, speaking of which, I bet I even fuck better– would or should back down when confronted, especially so directly, with bullshit that insults my intelligence? In New York only small children or personality disordered imbeciles attempt these sorts of lies; I understand the logic of ‘can’t knock ‘em for trying’, but can’t help but feel repulsed.

I often wonder how this became an acceptable norm. What proportion of Cambodians tell each other that foreigners are stupid, or women are stupid, or middle-aged people are stupid, or rich people are stupid, or it’s a combo, or it’s just something about my face, or just do a little test and see for sure if I’m stupid, or if they insult each other’s intelligence this way too. It seems like they are constantly taking my foreignness for foolishness, my kindness for weakness, my generosity for profligacy, my curiosity for naïveté, and my manners and standard American friendliness as a psychological need for their approval/validation/friendship. I know my contempt makes me sound racist, and to be honest, dealing with this so often from so man different Cambodians has made me reconsider nature/nurture. On one hand, I’m very aware and admiring of the Khmer who once wrote better Sanskrit than the Brahmins; on the other, I’ve repeatedly experienced exactly the combination of middling intelligence and moral turpitude that could have been predicted 40 years ago when they genocided a full third of their population, literally everyone with a heart, brain, or franc, and their whole families with them, as insurance against future generations with any of those things.

Anyway, to end this rant still talking about food . . . even at chains/franchises that are supposed to be relatively safe (like Domino’s pizza and Gloria Jean’s coffee) the food smelled strongly of mold– like they saw it, decided they cared more about making money than their customers’ health, brushed it off literally and figuratively, and sold it anyway. Just so fucking nasty in every way. I think in the whole town there was a single coffee shop I liked.

9. The weather sucked and the temples were all locked. Despite feeling ill and exhausted, I was getting up early and dragging myself around, as expensive as that got, trying to see the important temples. It rained every fucking day for over two weeks, and not a single temple of note was open. The only temple interior I saw the entire time was that of Wat Kor, which I stumbled into just because I happened to be walking down the street, on my way to that hotel restaurant that wasn’t worth eating at anyway. It was obviously only left unlocked because, unlike the others, they don’t usually get tourists. It’s all just so ironic and again, xenophobic and insulting; foreigners didn’t loot the temples of Cambodia singlehandedly, every single theft for the past century plus was by locals who made a living selling out their own material culture and artistic heritage. Designating some temples as tourist friendly then locking them, is crazy.

10. My macbook air screen cracked in Battambang, and I was charged $300 for a supposedly authentic apple replacement screen, and forced to extend my stay in this place I really didn’t like while the repair was made. This ended up just being the first in a series of costly tech failures: the doubtless counterfeit replacement screen failed within a month, costing me another $300 to replace back in Siem Reap; that second doubtless counterfeit replacement screen just failed again this week (thankfully this time I’m still in the same city and can utilize the shop’s 3 month warranty); for the cherry on top, my iphone screen also failed within 48 hours of my returning from Battambang, a known bug in iphone 13s.. Between apple’s planned obsolescence and the cambodian culture of fakes and scams, I’ll have spent between $2000 and $3000 I don’t really have to replace broken tech with even lower quality less reliable tech by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

11. The only nanoplated thin silver lining of all this is that now, as I edit pictures like these of Wat Phi Pit– bad uninteresting photos I went to great lengths and expense to take– my unhappiness at their poor quality has forced me into improving my editing skills a bit and investing (albeit money I don’t have) in a) backup tech, so I’m not out 2 weeks’ income next time a computer component fails and b) a better camera phone, when I can afford it– I can’t right now, and that’s why these blog posts are coming out in relatively quick (for me, anyway) succession– nothing to do for the next few months except hang around and edit photos of travels past.

12. On the bus rides there and back from Siem Reap, I was tortured by stinky smokers. On the bus ride back, the smoker was also very obviously ill, constantly coughing, sneezing, and hacking (with mask worn under his chin rather than over his nose and mouth); of course he was not refused service, and of course I came down with whatever respiratory illness he had within 48 hours of arriving back in Siem Reap. 

If I had not been traveling with a fucking camper kit of supplies (antibiotics, exacto knife, mosquito bat, pillow, towel, masks, hoodie, socks, more than a few hundred bucks in the bank) I cannot even imagine how exponentially worse my misery would have been, everything already sucked so much. I still prefer a lifestyle of constant travel to any other lifestyle, but cities/weeks like this try my patience and make me deeply sad.

As for Wat Phi Pit, otherwise known as Piphetthearam Pagoda, I can’t find any info about it except that it dates to the 19th century and was built by the Siamese, which is visually evident. 

I did at least learn something new when looking up old pictures of it– many of the photos from EFEO labeled April or May 1964 are in fact reprints from old plates, and that’s why they have what I thought to be anachronistic, but is in fact original, hand lettering. These photos of Wat Phi Pit, for example, are actually from March 1924.

I suppose I also know that at some point their original Buddha was looted or destroyed, because while the current one (shown here in a google maps photo being regilded) is a close copy, the draping fabric details are not present in the original.

La Villa Hotel, Battambang | Cambodia

According to the hotel, La Villa was constructed in 1933 as the private residence of local ‘tradesman’ Eap Heo, and lived in by his descendants until the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975. When the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge and occupied Battambang in 1979, they made this their local headquarters. When the Vietnamese left in 1989, the building was alternately leased or squatted in until it was sold to the present owners, “a young expat couple”, in 2004, and following renovation opened as a hotel in 2005.

We all know young expat couples can’t actually purchase property in Cambodia, so who knows what the truth actually is– I’m guessing at least one member of said couple is the K visa kid of refugees in France, or maybe the Cambodian kid of a corrupt government bigwig who studied and married abroad. Over the decades since Pol Pot died, these types have scooped up anything nice, setting up as landlords and hoteliers, many continuing to live in Europe while collecting rents here.

I really like that the renovation was more like a restoration, with period-perfect details and decor. It really feels like stepping back into the late 1930s; everything but the pool is accurate enough to be a movie set. Well, I guess there’s one minor caveat– all the antiques etc. are Vietnamese, not Khmer. However, as I’ve written before, after the Khmer Rouge, there are few if any surviving Khmer antiques (not looted artifacts). Zero pretense has been made towards inauthentic generic “luxury” in the style of Raffles, and I really like that. On the other hand, housekeeping is really not up to snuff; the rooms were very visibly dusty, smelled vaguely of either stale cigarettes or mold, and the linens etc. have clearly never been refreshed. It reminded me a lot of Loire valley 2 or 3 stars I stayed in as a teenager in the ‘90s.

In terms of service . . . not good enough. There were assholes smoking in front of my bathroom window and the concierge refused to ask them to stop or move– he did the standard SEA act of pretending to ask them not to smoke, then coming back to me and denying they had. When I told him I saw it with my own eyes, smelled it with my own nose, and wanted them and the furniture they were sitting on moved away so it didn’t happen again, he again, according to what seems to be a standardized SEA playbook of bullshit for hoteliers, refused to confront them, instead offering to move me into another room, as if I was the problem. I had paid for their most expensive suite– and therefore shouldn’t be inconvenienced, and certainly not downgraded– but was forced to choose another lesser room because the head staffer refused to confront the offending guests.

Same thing with the restaurant– instead of seating smokers far away from other guests outside, they let them sit right next to the glass doors, and left the doors propped all the way open, not caring if people purposefully sat inside in order to not be disturbed by smokers. It’s not an issue of not getting it, it’s an issue of not caring. Any complaints are answered with feigned ignorance, lies, and malicious compliance, it’s so, SO gross. I’ve been in SEA long enough to expect this nastiness rather than be surprised by it, but it still disappoints and disgusts me every time.

The restaurant is overpriced but reliable. The cocktails are fine. My favorite thing about this place, other than its architectural integrity, is how few other guests were there most of the time. It’s the kind of place I’d like to buy and turn back into a private residence.

The Old Khmer Houses of Wat Kor, Battambang | Cambodia

Models of various traditional Khmer house types at Mrs. Bun Roeung’s House

Wat Kor village, 2km south of Battambang proper, was the neighborhood historically chosen by wealthy Khmers a century ago. Today, it is best known for its 20ish heritage houses showcasing local traditional architecture; 20 years ago, it was best known as the hometown of Brother Number 2, who was born in one such house in 1926 to wealthy Chinese immigrants.

The house is still there, but no one will tell you which one it is; there’s no photo identifying it online; in person and search results the laughable party line is “the house no longer belongs to Nuon Chea’s family; it was purchased by a local resident in the late 1980s from someone else.” Who else? In the 80s, when everyone was squatting and no one had any kind of ownership documents, or money to speak of? Battambang was held by the Khmer Rouge by turns until 1996.

The Khmer Rouge leadership in 1986: Khieu Sampan, Nuon Chea, Pol Pot

No matter, I was there for the architecture. And that architecture may have been at least partially preserved because Batttambang– and Wat Kor village specifically– were occupied BY KR top brass.

In photos of well-to-do villages dating from the 3rd quarter of the 19th century, the houses tend to have walls of woven grass and thatched roofs, but the bones of the regional architecture are the same: stilt houses with square layouts and gabled roofs.

The wealthier houses featured front or wraparound porches covered by a second lower roof, and a connected outhouse for cooking. These photos were taken by Émile Gsell between 1877 and 1879.

In photos taken 30 to 40 years later, so around the same time the heritage houses of Wat Kor village were constructed, anyone who could afford to was building out of wood rather than woven grass– having even a small wood house became preferable to a large grass one.

But the layout remained the same, squarish with gabled roofs. You’ll also notice that at first, thatched roofs on wooden houses was the norm. These photos were taken by Léon Busy between 1926 and 1931.

A classic simple wooden house in Wat Kor village.

By the first quarter of the 20th century, anyone who could afford to was building with or renovating to tiled roofs. This is a great example of a house that was built with a wooden roof initially intended for thatch, but had tile laid over top.

As the local Thai colonial architecture became more formal and sophisticated, the gables shrunk, while the perimeter roofs, originally meant to cover just the porch, were made to cover more of the central house, for a more tiered Siamese look.

By the turn of the century, new houses were constructed to showcase beautiful tiered Siam style tiled roofs with cement finials. Decorative aprons became popular in the 1910s.

Another option when putting on a new tiled roof was a French style mansard roof. Enclosing the stilted area below the house also became the norm in the French colonial era.

Later houses feature a flattened rectangular layout better suited to showcase the tiers of the Siamese style tile roofs, and emphasize the central finial–usually a flame, but occasionally something else– I’ve seen some with the year inscribed.

The final iteration: extensively renovated with each decades’ favored modern “upgrades”– most noticeably the picture window and metal sunroof– this house is actually rather old. Yet, it is the template for most ‘Khmer style’ houses constructed today; the only dead giveaway here is the rather steep outdoor wooden staircase coupled with the enclosed ground floor– in a modern house, it would be one or the other, but not both.

Khor Sang House is one of the two in the village that operates as a museum. It was built in 1907 by the present owner’s grandfather, then a young secretary to a colonial Thai official. I wonder if, like the governor’s mansion, construction was begun here before the surprise handover to the French, or if it was built with the proceeds of a severance package. The proportions of the house are inconspicuous, but the owner standing in this photo gives enough of a sense of scale to appreciate how large the place really is.

Compared to pictures on google maps from 2018ish, there’s less furniture in the house than there used to be, so it looks a bit empty. The layout is the traditionally Khmer open square with some walled off bedrooms.

The high ceilings and oversized windows really give a feel of rustic grandeur.

The walls are wattle and daub– in Cambodia, that means layers of latticed bamboo and plaster.

The owner doesn’t speak English– only mile a minute strongly accented French. My French is poor, so it was hard for me to keep up! In his father and grandfather’s generations, most colonial administrators, lawyers, successful merchants, etc. were polyglots, speaking the Chinese dialect of their ancestors (usually Cantonese), Khmer, Thai, and French.

This made me laugh– must have been the money room!

Inside one of the bedrooms.

There’s a collection of bills from all over the world, cash donations tourists have made.

Around the house are some old household tools.

I found it interesting that a good half of the old furniture was locally made, rough hewn versions of European styles.

The walla aren’t decorated but for calendars, portraits and graduation photos. It is cheering to see a family who have valued education so highly over multiple generations.

I have no idea what this cabinet of curiosities is about, but it did make me smile.

The owner’s diploma from 1966. I always want to ask how someone like him survived the Khmer Rouge, but fear the answer, and don’t want to re-traumatize or offend either.

The original builders of the house, I believe.

The second heritage home open to tourists is Mrs. Bun Roeung’s house. She is also a third generation inhabitant of the house.

She speaks English, so I was able to pick up a lot more about the house’s construction and history. It was built by her grandparents in 1920; her grandfather was an Okhna and retired general, working as a lawyer when the house was built.

One thing that was emphasized to me, and is also visible in Yi Sarit’s house, is the mix of valuable hardwoods used in construction. The 36 structural pillars and roof frame are Phcheuk, the indoor floorboards are Beng and the outdoor floorboards are Korkoh. The design of the house is called “Pet”– with a wraparound verandah.

Right next door, visible through the window, is the smaller modern house the family currently resides in.

The walls are wattle and daub.

All the furniture is old. Some of it is not original to the house, but similar to what was once there and replaced by the owner. She said the original pieces are the biggest and heaviest; the Khmer Rouge stole everything that wasn’t too heavy to carry.

The original owners of the house.

According to the Battambang government website:

“The said ancient house is divided into three parts:
1st part: this part consists of the front and side verandahs.
2st part: this part is the middle part of the house, which consists of a huge living room. At the rear left side of the living room, there is a door leading to two bedrooms.
3rd part: in front of the two bedrooms, there is another door leading to a side verandah and the wooden staircase. At the left side about 5 meters from the door, there is a kitchen.”

She explained that in a typical eat-the-rich move, the Khmer Rouge turned this house, arguably the fanciest in the neighborhood, into the communal kitchen/place for storing heavy equipment and threshing rice. She says having big vats of water and porridge leaking onto this part of the verandah for years was what damaged the wood, and any lesser wood would have rotted completely.

The running water for the garden as it is today.

I’d love a pet turtle but alas, can’t have any pets at present.

Downstairs are some old tools for threshing rice, weaving fabric etc.

The cement stairwell is original; at the time, it was considered modern and stylish.

Colonial Architecture in Battambang | Cambodia

Honestly . . . underwhelming. Yes, there are many colonial buildings– over 800 according to conservation area records– but they’re 1. of the simplest sort 2. ill maintained and often extensively renovated in all the wrong ways. I visited thinking perhaps I’d find a cute house to rent . . . definitely not. It’s everything I don’t like about Siem Reap– dusty streets and falling apart buildings; constant traffic noise and fumes; trashy peasant neighbors chainsmoking, playing awful music until the wee hours, and burning their rubbish, in both the city proper and the surrounding villages; litter absolutely everywhere– but a fifth the size, with extremely limited dining and shopping.

The neighborhoods at the time of the handover from Siam to France in 1907. Though the bridge locations are indicated on this map, there actually weren’t any permanent bridges at this time; the first was built in 1916. I’ll cover the neighborhoods from left to right.

The Khmer district. I’ll be covering the antique Khmer houses around Battambang more thoroughly in a separate blog post (click here); I’ve just chosen this photo as an aesthetic/representative example. This photo of the family of a local administrator outside their house/office was taken by Léon Busy between 1914 and 1921, likely closer to 1921.

Khmer houses from the first quarter of the 20th century are still around, a couple with the descendants of colonial administrators still living in them.

The Khmer neighborhood market in 1931, attributed to Léon Busy (but probably taken by a staff photographer).

The Governor’s Residence in August 1948, less than a year before Cambodia was granted limited autonomy as a member state of the French Union amidst multiple independence movements.

The grounds of the Governor’s Residence dominate the 1907 map, and while it is in what people perceive as French colonial style, it is of course Thai, commissioned from an Italian favored by Thai King Chulalongkorn for his ‘European’ buildings. So are several other administrative buildings in this neighborhood; it’s a mix of Thai-European-style and actually French. For a post solely about this house, click here.

The carved wooden window grilles on this building are quite delicately done.

A recently renovated colonial building, with typical weird bastardized details like these windows.

Most of the big old colonial mansions/onetime offices are in disuse/disrepair, apparently owned by local grandees who think they’ll sell them to an international corporation one fine day for millions.

Many have been partially renovated, then abandoned, and are now in ruins.

A never or rarely used official residence is somewhere beyond this gate.

The royal seal of Cambodia.

Not sure what this is– I think the office of an NGO– but this is my dream house in Cambodia. Rip up the concrete, put in a pool and gardens, perfect.

I think? this is a modern building built in the old style to blend in. This is common in Cambodia.

The definitely actually old building next door.

On the grounds of the Governor’s Residence; the backsides show clearly the colonial building vs. the colonial style building.

The post office in August 1948

The post office, 2025

I found this little map showing Battambang’s historical buildings on urbandatabse.khmerstudies.org. It only covers the old Chinese quarter, which was almost completely removed by the French and replaced with simple shophouses, which were then reinhabited by the same people. I’d say it’s bordered at one end by the museum, and on the other by the neighborhood just beyond the 1931 ‘new’ market. I wish the map covered more of the old city.

it would look so fab if it was just clean– not even renovated, just clean.

Thai era building. I always wonder how much it costs to get these things really nice again.

My understanding is this was a bank at some point. Private villa? Government? Still a bank? A couple years ago it was in the news that it was going to be an economics museum. Unclear, but the renovation was literally just finishing as I photographed it in October 2025. Clearly a Thai buidling.

French era shophouses

Thai era shophouses

The new indoor market,1931

The new outdoor market, 1931

The indoor and outdoor market in 2025

One of the oldest hotels in town, the very simple Art Deco 30s/40s Seng Hout.

Cantonese school/guild in August 1948.

As it stands today, converted into shophouses.

Some shophouses have been combined into larger residences.

I do enjoy a Frankenbuilding! This one just beyond the market is really extra– it looks like a classic Vietnamese style block through shophouse with a front and back house, built before the street pictured here was paved– it looks like a house on the corner was knocked down for this street to be paved, and new retail storefronts were built to face the new street– but at different times, the short green building to the left probably 1920s, and the taller building to the right likely 40s or even later. The very modern yellow balcony out the back with Indian/Malay vibes completes the charm.

I felt my stay here was worth its own post (click here) but I’m placing this here to show what I suppose is an exception to the rule? Located in the ‘Sino-Khmer’ neighborhood and built by a wealthy local businessman, the La Villa hotel is entirely ‘European style’.

Just as there’s nothing particularly ‘Sino-Khmer’, there’s little to nothing visibly ‘Siamese’ left in the then-Siamese district. Instead, there are Thai era European styled colonial buildings sprinkled throughout. This one’s a good example: probably Thai, possibly French.

It’s very possible, particularly based on Émile Gsell’s photographs, that the vast majority of the houses, be they Sino-Khmer, Siamese, or European, were wooden and therefore didn’t survive and/or were disassembled, moved, or reused.

Likewise, there are very few European buildings left in the once European district; they may have been destroyed, rotted, or just renovated beyond all recognition.

Built in 1929, the local Roman Catholic Cathedral was blown up by the Khmer Rouge in 1975.

The French colonial outbuildings remain, and it’s still fully functional as a church, school, community center, etc.

A few doors down from the church was this old French colonial house, now split into two. The owner told me she’d been here since 1981? 1985? something like that. After the rural dislocation and genocide, Cambodia was littered with empty houses, and people squatted on a first come first served basis. There are still two classes of property deed, soft and hard titles: hard titles are official; soft titles are been-there-forever squatters’ rights, or 10-50 year leases. The soft title holder here told me that once in the ‘90s a Frenchman visited and told her he grew up in this house, but didn’t ask for anything but to see inside again. Pre-Khmer Rouge property rights have never been restored or respected for Cambodian survivors or foreign returnees.

The typical sloppy division of a once fine house into 2 or 3 “connected houses”, each for 1-2 multigenerational families, none of whom have any qualms about disrespecting the architecture with absurd, cheap, ugly, damaging, or irreversible changes.

The Muslim neighborhood is still Muslim today, and apparently handmade fishing nets have been one of their dedicated handicrafts all this time.

The Governor's Mansion that Never Was . . . Battambang | Cambodia

Occasionally I visit a place that’s simply not worth the entrance fee, and this is one.

Lord Chhum Aphaiwongse

Commissioned by Lord Chhum Aphaiwongse in 1905 from Mario Tamagno (best known for the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall at Dusit Palace), this is as close to a simple template of a French colonial style mansion as could be conceived, the SEA base model McMansion of a hundred years ago. It’s an almost eery feeling; I’ve walked through this exact house, all over SEA, smaller or larger, with only slight differences.

Lord Chhum must not have seen the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 coming. In 1904, Siam gave France Trat in exchange for Chantaburi. In 1905, Lord Chhum commissioned the house. In 1907, just as it was completed, Siam got Trat back by trading in the Buphaphon, the area including Siem Reap and Battambang that the Aphaiwongses had hereditarily governed since 1795.

The Aphaiwongses, originally local warlords in far southern Treang, rose to nobility and wealth with Siamese backing in the latter half of the 18th century. When local Cambodian chiefs went to war for Cambodian puppet kings supported by either Siam or Annam, the Aphaiwongses supported, and were supported by, Siam. When the Nguyens became distracted by the Tay Son rebellion, Siam got the upper hand in Cambodia, culminating in the first Aphaiwongse Okhna, Chau Baen, serving as regent over the Cambodian child puppet King Ang Eng.

1773 map by Thomas Kitchin

Over time the court in Oudong divided into those who wished to continue with the current line of puppet kings, and those who preferred to just give Chau Baen Aphaiwongse the throne in his own name. To prevent civil war in Cambodia, and/or the rise of a formidable rival, Siamese King Rama I recalled Chau Baen from Oudong, but raised him to the nobility and awarded him the hereditary governorship of Battambang, Siem Reap, and Sisophon, to defend and administer as annexed Siamese territories.

Thai King Rama I

After the 1907 treaty, the French offered Lord Chhum, the sixth generation ruler of Bupaphon, to stay on as their governor in Battambang. However, like his ancestors, Lord Chhum again chose loyalty to Siam, moving his family to the Bangkok court of Rama V (Chulalongkorn) after the handover. Briefly installed as the governor of Prachin Buri, he had the Tamagno house built for him again there, hoping to entertain Chulalongkorn in style. Other than the window shapes and plaster appliqués, everything was exactly the same. Unfortunately Rama V died before the house was finished.

The Prachin Buri twin house

When Lord Chhum’s granddaughter eventually married Rama VI, becoming the Princess Consort of Thailand, Lord Chhum gave them the Prachin Buri house as a wedding gift. Unfortunately Rama VI died before Princess Suvadhana could have a son, so the throne passed to his younger brother . . . and the Prachin Buri house remained unoccupied. At the outbreak of WW2, Suvadhana and her daughter fled to England, remaining there until 1957.

Princess Suvadhana

Because Thailand allied with Japan in WW2, Suvadhana’s father Lueam officially became the last Abhayavongsa governor of Buphaphon during the period Japan occupied Cambodia, from 1941 through 1945– though he still never lived in the Battambang house, which was used as Japanese army offices.

Khuang Aphaiwongse in the 1930s

Meanwhile, her older brother Khuang served as Prime Minister of Thailand three times between 1944 and 1948. After the war, he remained the leader of Thailand’s Democratic party until his death in 1968. Suvadhana had a royal funeral in 1985, and the family is still considered noble/royal in Thailand.

The most impressive thing about the place is the grounds. Large grassy lawns with manicured trees are rare things in Cambodia, it’s typically either city living or a waterlogged mess.

Another colonial era building on the grounds.

There are several government office buildings in one corner of the grounds.

I like the chevron brickwork.

Inside is both inauthentically renovated (lol at that layered drop ceiling) and as dull as possible.

The ground floor is occupied by what they think passes as a museum. It’s the most pointless, random assortment of mostly vintage objects.

A jumble of bad, mostly recent furniture.

Horrid door that has clearly had things ripped off at some point.

Are they trolling?

Built in features have mostly been ripped out, but there were 2 bookcases like this.

I wonder if it was never quite finished because the family knew they’d never move in, or if things were ripped out at some point.

Hard to tell if these are original tiles or not. I think mostly, but there is a huge jumble in this building. The pretentious polyester curtains really bring out the depression of it all.

I don’t even know why I took this picture. Despair? Wanting to remember the dimensions should I ever install shutters?

The performative shrine of course.

I guess some people will pay to rent traditional clothes and do a little photo shoot here?

I took lots of pictures of the tile border combos for inspiration

Weird assortment of farm equipment and housewares.

Hard to say because nothing was translated, but I think these were the personal hobby instruments of famous people?

Likewise, hobby shooting items?

There are a bunch of old photos.

This view is not much different today.

Are these cowbells? Are these cowbells in a display cabinet or am I losing my mind?

Not particularly fond of this style but it’s growing on me.

Why are these things in a museum?!

It’s always struck me as strange how local museums in Asia have “antiques” so much worse than literally anything in my grandparents’ very middle class homes in New York.

It’s a custom for court women in Thailand and Cambodia to wear a specific color every day of the week.

Wat Damrey Sar, Battambang | Cambodia

Wat Damrey Sar, or the White Elephant Temple, was officially founded as a monastery in 1793, by a rich noblewoman who promised the Black Buddha at Wat Kandal to build it if she recovered from an illness. In 1895 this small old pagoda was renovated, but it was decided something new and grand was required; construction of the present-day Wat began in 1904 and finished in 1907. The old pagoda has been expanded and altered almost beyond recognition as such, into an office building with a seemingly too small roof.

The old pagoda in the background of this 1907 photo of famille Marchal

The old pagoda as of 2013, via google maps. It looked the same as of October 2025.

The new (1907) pagoda.

The new and old pagodas were constructed contemporaneously with the beginning and end of Battambang’s most recent 300 years as part of Siam (present day Thailand). The 1907 pagoda is a unique blend of Thai and Khmer architectural styles achieved during a golden age of temple construction.

It’s quite jarring how a once beautiful large garden, and I think, a pond with bridge? has been completely filled in, paved over, and cluttered with graves and additional buildings.

I have yet to find a temple in SEA that hasn’t been cheapened and uglified by its custodians. Why have a large meditative garden when you can have a parking lot?

Sappho Marchal posing for her parents in 1907

Why let children like Sappho sit on the banister with the chimeras and lions when you can fence the magical protective animals in with an ugly iron rail ineffective for any purpose except scaring playful children? Speaking of the banister, how many times do you think it’s been washed since 1907? I hope they don’t intend to paint even more of the place blood red to continue avoiding cleaning.

I also find these oversized statues of various Buddhist stories completely inelegant, although I suppose they would help engage young children who are taught here.

The namesake white elephant.

Originally these animals were painted somewhat intricately, but they’ve long since been given up on.

One of the most ornate stupas onsite.

The quatrefoil columns are really elegant and unique. I also like the simple black and white checkerboard tile.

The wire mesh over the paintings is ridiculous . . . people are not defacing the paintings, and the mesh wouldn’t stop them from doing so. The paintings are disintegrating from neglect.

Amidst the decadence, this snoozing kid made me chuckle at least! I love how he got really comfortable, took off his pants, put his feet up and everything.

All of the details have been lost over decades of overpainting.

1964, possibly a reprint from 1924.

Above the doorway, the royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Siam used between 1873 and 1910, the independent rule of Chulalongkorn (King Rama V). Propping it up with European style cherubs was a fun choice that was perhaps symbolic as well as aesthetic; Chulalongkorn was the first king to send royal princes to Europe for their education, and the king responsible for concluding wars with the English and French, conceding territory (including Battambang) in order to keep Siam uncolonized.

Explanation from wikipedia: Shield depicting the three-headed elephant (Erawan) of Siam, the White Elephant (Lan Xang) of Laos and the Krises of Malaya. Crowned by the Great Crown of Victory (rays of light from behind), Behind the shield are the crossed Sword of Victory (left), Royal Staff (right), Royal Fan (right) and Flywisk (left). The shield is surrounded on two sides by two seven-tiered Royal Umbrellas. On the compartments are two Royal Slippers. All, composing the six Royal Regalia of Siam. the Mantle is the cloak (with pink ribbons) of the Order of the Chula Chom Klao, the order around the shield is the Order of the Nine Gems with Chula Chomklao chain and pendant (with a portrait of King Rama V on it). Motto on green and red ribbon reads: "สพฺเพสํ สงฺฆภูตานํ สามคฺคี วุฑฺฒิ สาธิกา" (Pali written in Thai alphabet) ("Sabbesam Sanghabhutānam Sāmaggī Vuḍḍhi Sādhiga") or "Unity brings happiness". Supported by a Kojasiha; a lion with elephant trunk (dexter), and a Rajasiha; a lion (sinister), representing Kalahom and Mahathai, respectively

The ruling monarchs of 1908, including a young Chulalongkorn.

A glimpse inside, showing what appears to be a rather recent Buddha.

All of the current interior images I have were taken from google maps reviews! The pagoda was yet another that was locked when I showed up. Perhaps because the interior is typically not visible, much misinformation is on the internet about “European painted ceilings”. Obviously, these are not!

Further, this image (probably from spring 1924, reprinted by EFEO in May 1964) shows unpainted ceilings and walls. While I suppose it’s possible that original painting were whitewashed away, I highly doubt it. Also notice the original window grilles and crystal chandeliers.

The highly carved plinth appears to be the same as the original.

The tiles and carved wooden columns are also original.

“You can’t buy wood like that anymore” is a common refrain in Cambodia. These old growth ironwood columns are certainly proof of that!

It’s hard to see in these photos what condition the inside of the wooden shutters are currently in relative to a century ago.

In my usual matching game, I was looking for this piece (this image is dated by EFEO as April 1964, not sure if it’s an original or reprint, but guessing it’s original as the reprints mostly show Buddhas in situ) in current photos of the interior, and didn’t see it.

A reverse google image search brought me to this post from Andy Brouwer, who is apparently quite active in posting about the restitution of Khmer art, though I don’t know his exact involvement. The post is almost 4 years old and I know the Musée Guimet has made some amends since then, so I wonder if this piece is one thing that has either been returned or kept on a loan basis with official ownership switching back to the National Museum of Cambodia.

It was included in the April - September 2025 exhibition of Khmer royal bronzes at the Guimet. Supposedly the Guimet collections are available on Joconde via pop, but I can’t manage to find them there, or elsewhere. I also saw some news that the Guimet had returned several pieces connected to Douglas Latchford . . . was this one of them? Or do they think the donors, famille Vérité, are totally clean? I’ll definitely explore this further in my post on looted Khmer antiquities, and I’ll update this post if I hear back regarding this piece or figure it out.

I really liked the applied and painted column bases, not particularly the content but the concept and structure.

In my previous post about Kbal Spean, I covered the Kraithong folktale, brought to the region by Thai immigrants.

According to the internet, this Buddha backs onto Angkorian era remains. Is that true or just an AI hiccup? I didn’t see any when I was there.

In 1907, Marchal took this picture of “modern pilasters”. They seem to be closeups of this gate.

KC Heritage Gallery, Battambang | Cambodia

As with any SEA ‘Pub Street’, there are grimy backpacker hostels, bars, and western restaurants along a couple blocks in Battambang. Despising that whole scene, I was already holding my nose– figuratively speaking– to visit KC Gallery. I was not expecting to be holding my nose literally as well, but something in this building smells absolutely hideous. It’s an unmistakable sort of animal filth smell– I noticed uncleaned bird cages and a murky aquarium, but the odor was so strong and permeated the back of house and stairwell as well, so who even knows what’s happening.

The entrance is via the downstairs burger restaurant. I initially didn’t quite realize it was a restaurant; not just because of the animals, but because there were no customers, and 2 tables and the bar/counter were covered with the owner’s dusty random shit (motorcycle helmet, cigarette packs, piles of papers, etc.) I only learned today when checking the address for this post (and going down the obligatory google maps reviews rabbithole) that the owner is considered a minor celebrity in Cambodia, a Frenchman who has totally gone native and has 3.2 million tiktok followers making Khmer language shorts. Perhaps this house is his home base when he’s not traveling, and the restaurant is more of a why not than a serious endeavor?

Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t walk out, because his collection is outstanding. I’m a longtime lover and buyer of vintage and antiques, and love to pick up a couple things wherever I travel, and I have never been to a country with such slim pickings as Cambodia. In one of his replies to a positive review of the museum, the owner said it took him years to gather these things, and I believe it! I also really appreciate that though the collection is small, there’s nothing redundant or reproduction (except of course a few printed photos/maps).

Given its state today, it’s a bit difficult to believe that in its heyday Battambang was the second most populated Cambodian city, and the most modern. Whatever of that time and status that can be recovered is represented by this collection.

Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Huoy Meas, and other ‘Golden Age’ 1960s/70s Khmer pop records

Interesting map of the ethnic neighborhoods of Battambang town circa 1907

Comparing the Thai central market and its 1936 French successor, which is still used today

1940s

circa 1860s engraving by French botanist Henry Mouhot

June 2nd, 1906

THE DANCERS OF THE KING OF CAMBODIA.

A ballet figure: "Royal Idyll".

“. . great difficulties, real dramas, often poignant: abductions of princesses, substitutions of royal children, court intrigues, and single combats.

The costumes of the Cambodian dancers are among the most sumptuous. Their first garment, of fine silk, is sewn onto their bodies—a fleeting undergarment over which they wear leggings and tunics of cloth of gold, studded with precious stones. Excessively long and curved gold nails adorn their fingers. The diadems, the heavy bracelets, the rings, the pendants that fall from their headdresses, their belt buckles—everything sparkles with the thousand lights of precious gems and pearls

In the privacy of Norodom's palace where I saw them for the first time, the audience (and the word is truly appropriate here) consisted of hundreds of princes and princesses who crowded together, without pomp, squatting half-naked on mats, mingled with guards, servants, and even slaves

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An old princess, whom one might, indeed, have mistaken for a poor beggar, was reading the poem from the traditional palm-leaf album. The Cambodian orchestra played with gusto at certain passages; but at others, a reverent silence reigned, allowing the reader to elaborate on her stanzas.

The reading and performance of the poem lasted, without interruption, five days and five nights, during which dancers, extras, the reader, and spectators... took turns.

This gives an idea of ​​the length and importance of these epic tales, which will certainly be shortened here, oh how much so!... and from whose performance one essential thing will be missing: the atmosphere, the atmosphere of there, with its languid charm, the scents of a whole complicit nature that so well prepares actors and spectators.”

GERVAIS-COURTELLEMONT

“Sappho Marchal-Brébion (1904-2000) was a French artist and author. She was the daughter of the French archaeologist Henri Marchal. Sappho Marchal became famous for being the first researcher to study, document, and count the numerous female stone figures at Angkor Wat. She grew up in Siem Reap and at the archaeological sites where her father oversaw excavations. She illustrated many scholarly articles published by Henri Marchal. She also cataloged 1,737 female sculptures and engravings at Angkor, based on her drawings and observations, in her book "Costumes et Parures khmèrs d'après les Devata d'Angkor-Vat" (Khmer Costumes and Adornments After the Devata of Angkor Wat), published in 1926.”

Love new additions to my reading list!

And another book to read!

Beneath, an article highlighting the work of Suzanne Karpèles. According to Dhammawiki:

“After graduating in oriental studies from the University of Paris she was posted to the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient in Hanoi in 1923 where she collated Sri Lankan Pali manuscripts with Khmer ones. Two years later she moved to Cambodia . . . With the help of King Sisowath Karpeles she established the Royal Library in Phnom Penh, now the National Library, and supervised the collecting, cataloging, preserving and later the disseminating of Cambodia’s ancient literature.

She published the country’s first Buddhist periodical, started a mobile library project and arranged for the distribution of the Tipitaka in Khmer script in all the country’s monasteries. She also arranged for regular programs on Buddhism to be broadcast on state radio. With her urging and encouragement the Cambodian Buddhist Institute was founded in 1930 which was to publish and distribute dozens of works on Pāli Buddhist philosophy and traditional Cambodian culture. This helped the educated class to distinguish the Dhamma from Cambodian animistic and folk beliefs and to diminish Thai influence, allowing the Cambodian Sangha to emerge as a distinct and independent body. The Institute also became a meeting place for Cambodian writers, poets and intellectuals, several of who became leaders of the independence movement.

In 1940 Suzanne Karpeles was one of 15 Jews living in Cambodia dismissed from their posts by the pro-Nazi Vichy-French government. After the war she divided her time between her homeland and Cambodia and continued to make important contributions to Buddhism. Amongst her later works were French translations of the Dhammapada published in 1960 and Nyanatiloka’s Buddhist Dictionary, published in 1961.”

Well, I can easily predict my future: multiple hundreds of dollars will be spent at Abe books.

And on top, Truth! by Charles Bellan, subtitle: Lies, Torture, Killing . . . impunity in Indochina (the Baudoin affair etc.)

A quick search turns up nothing for ‘Baudoin affair’, though a Paul Baudoin has a French wikipedia page– apparently midway through a career as the head of the Bank of Indochina, he joined the wartime French government in May 1940 and quickly became the foreign minister in June, only to capitulate to the Nazis immediately, sign the armistice with Germany on June 25th, help set up the Vichy government, and perfunctorily resign on January 2nd 1941. Of course in March 1947 he was sentenced to 5 years hard labor for collaborating . . . but in 1948 published a book defending himself titled Nine Months in Government, which must have been somewhat reasonable as his sentence was commuted in 1949 . . . and he went straight back to the bank, where by this time he had been promoted all the way up to Chairman.

Of course, Vérité! was published in 1924, so too early for Paul. I can’t find anything about the Baudoin concerned, but am guessing Paul Baudoin was raised in French Indochina, and his father was a colonial administrator or perhaps a prominent businessman, and had some terrible scandal of his own. The whole thing is juicy and I’m particularly curious because I can’t turn up anything in cursory internet searches. At least unlike the others, Vérité! is widely available for free online at Gallica etc.

Does wikipedia have King Sisowath’s birth year wrong, did he have it wrong back then, or did they celebrate a year early? Anyway, this was his second to last year on the throne.

A fantastic collection of photos published in 1894 by a Corsican civil engineer working for the French colonial government. Thankfully, this is available online for free.

Wat Kandal, Battambang | Cambodia

I spent quite a bit of time here because it was near my hotel. Apparently there’s been a wat here since the 1700s, but what initially drew me in were the many Art Deco French colonial outbuildings. Like everything in Battambang, it’s in rough shape, but lots of interesting architectural detail I might apply to my own rented house eventually.

One morbidly interesting thing about this place is that it’s the highest status cremation/burial site in town. So, there are hundreds of graves, some Khmer, also many Chinese. The largest among them has a giant sarcophagus within a large multipillared Angkor style stupa, encircled by a moat, and manned 24/7 by some monk in a hammock.

Students learning traditional Khmer instruments take classes and practice here, so if you’re lucky enough to show up when they’re playing, it’s rather more lovely.

Wat Samrong Knong, Battambang | Cambodia

Battambang, as one of the historically wealthiest regions of Cambodia, has over 300 functional pagodas, not to mention the many ruins. Among them, Samrong Knong was, prior to the Khmer Rouge regime, the most powerful local monastery, with large grounds and many buildings and stupas, new and old. It was originally constructed in wood in 1707, and there is apparently (though I failed to identify it) at least one extant building dating from the first decade of the 19th century here. There are various stupas dating to the last quarter of the 19th century. The “new” pagoda was commissioned in 1887 and completely in 1890; the “old” pagoda was reconstructed in brick and plaster simultaneously, and last renovated quite recently.

During the Khmer Rouge regime, Samrong Knong became a notorious interrogation/torture center and killing field. All these buildings are clearly mapped for visitors.

Far better photos are available, even on google maps reviews– these are all I managed to get because:

1. I kept going at the wrong times. Everything was always locked up: not just the temples themselves, which is regrettably commonplace, but even the museum and library that were supposed to be open. This happens in Cambodia; if no one is there they just shut up shop, not realizing/caring that it’s ludicrous to expect a constant flow of visitors at their ordered pair coordinate of location/awareness. I think Samrong Knong opens up to big tour groups, so perhaps join one if you really care to go inside.

2. The weather was dreary and I wasn’t feeling well. I caught some sort of dreadful up all night wondering if I should go to hospital type stomach bug in Battambang (I think it might have been fried rice syndrome), and showing up here only to miss the sites– not once, but twice– convinced me it just wasn’t meant to be. Wandering past a pond, an info plaque attested that this was the pond in which the human waste of Khmer Rouge prisoners was dumped in one half, while the well-behaved among them were permitted to bathe once a month in the other. Nauseating. I left.