Battambang caves 6 - Banan area 2008

This area is reached by turning left immediately out of Battambang when heading for Sampeu. The road follows the river. The Banan hills are southeast of Sampeu and are quite an extensive range running almost due east-west.

First day we went to Kampong Seyma and then to an area with a wat that was being built. We met the local school teacher and his class -

2 boys took us up to Laang Seisa.
Then we went to Phnom Banan and turned in at the wat to the tourist caves.

I went to one of these caves in 2004 and found a man lying on the floor (not sure if he was dead or alive).

young guide

Alocassia

looking up

Laang Bartoek

caving monks checking the survey!

The next day we returned to the same valley and did one small cave with some snails.

When I was at this valley in 2004 it had not be completely demined and only one path was accessible, now the area is planted with papayas.

From here we drove to the other side of the hill and visited some caves. There was a traffic jam by the local shop -

 Walking to the cave -

 Walking to the entrance

 struggling for survival -

 cave tree -

 wet stalagmite -

 pile of calcite

 We also climbed one hill but the locals couldn't find any cave. We were so hot and sweaty.

 can't find the cave

back down again -


The following day we returned to this area. We got a guide and a dog joined us.

 guide's house

The first cave was a very large chamber.

The second cave had lots of bats and lots of roots hanging outside

The third cave was quite extensive (almost 400 m long) and there were signs of offerings in many places.

view from 3rd cave

Next day we went back to the wat with the school teacher, and some boys took us to a cave on the left (facing the hill).

The cave was 354m long and again the locals use it for offerings.

Khmer graffiti

On the final day in this area, the teacher took us to an area to the right of the main hill. 3 men and a dog joined us and we visited 5 caves, and the dog came in every cave.

 graffiti artist

There are 6 more albums on the Battambang caves and 1 on cave fauna
Caves 1 phnom sampeu and Caves 2 Sdao area and Caves 3 crocodile hill area , and Caves 4 kampong poi area and Caves 5 phnom kdaong and caves 7 kpg poi lake area and also Cambodia cave fauna.

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission