Battambang caves 7 - Banan area pt 2

This is the 2nd part on the Banan area, see part 1.

We returned to the Banan area for the 3rd day. At Phnom Banan we got 2 guides and set off with a black dog. We walked uphill to Laang Trao on Phnom Banan.

The cave entrance leads to one large chamber, with a broken ladder at the top. The dog got bored and went home.

From here we went back down to the main track, then along a mostly flat path to a cave that was full of bats. At first it looked like a cavity in a rift but a passage lead into the main cave.

there were lots of roots hanging down

Cave entrance

We went to a 3rd cave which was the biggest of the day. A large entrance chamber,

main way on is to the left, a series of rift passages. Nice cave, lots of incense sticks everywhere and in one place a flat area had dozens of little mounds of

sand topped by an incense stick, made as an offering to the gods especially at Khmer New Year, something to do with the fact that the grains of sand can’t be counted. People use homemade kerosene bottle lamps, as well as burning attap roof sheets.
There were some impressive tree roots in the cave

and a nice calcite flow

The next day we went back to the school teacher’s place.

We discussed caves, then 3 kids and a dog took us to a foothill cave on the left side of the hill.

Steps led down to a rift, there was some ‘cave cancer’

and lots of incense sticks and offerings.

Nice cave. Huge whip spiders, few crickets and bats. Nice formations, a large upper chamber.

That was all for that day, we would return the next.

© Liz Price
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