# 14: “ Set your goals high and don't stop until you get there..”

Now it's not just the formatting of photos that's a problem, something weird is happening with the text...HELP Jassie girl!!!

 So Tara sends me a msg asking if I'd like to do a bit of a bike ride out to see

Phnom Sampeau... Sure says I, full of confidence  in  my  riding stamina after

a month of riding 5 - 10kms a day around good ole, FLAT ole Battambang for a

month... 

 THEN I looked it up on Wiki and Trip Adviser - the phrase: " look BEFORE you 

leap came to mind at this point.."

Only about 25kms there and back: OK, a challenge perhaps, but not a problem

thinks I... and then you reach Phnom Sampeau.

Now 'Phnom' means mountain. That should have been a clue right there...

 It's a beautiful place, famous for the nightly flight of millions of bats from thei

cave - and that should have been the 2nd clue; cave=rocks=MOUNTAIN...

The flight begins..

This is a truly staggering spectacle. The bats start leaving their cave just as the

sun  begins to set. They undulate across the sky in a silent, orchestrated  and

seemingly endless wave for an  hour or more, which did make us wonder what

the floor of that cave must look, and smell, like...

 Along  the  entire route up this solitary, limestone lump-in-the-otherwise-flat-

countryside, there are grottoes, temples, shrines, golden statues of monks,

as well as the obligatory temple monkeys, and a large Reclining Buddha. 

Nat, Claire, Phil & Louise - the people, not the monks,
although the monk in the middle looks like a Phil..

 There are  2  rusty old artillery emplacements that the Khmae & their erstwhile

allies the Vietnamese, used in their long fight against the guerrilla forces of the

Khmer Rouge through the 1970s & '80s. One of them has markings in Russian,

the other in  German, and there's clue #3 right there; artillery emplacements

generally require a comprehensive view of the enemy=HIGH PLACE...)

Russian artillery emplacement on Phnom Sampeau

 Armed  with  all this information, it apparently STILL didn't occur to the logical

and, as it turns out masochistic, part of my brain, that this might be just a tad

difficult...

 As it turned out, Nat, Phil, Louise and  Claire had already been on a  day-long

cycle to another Wat and were pretty shagged, so Tara suggested we all drive out

there instead of riding. A decision, I'm not ashamed to say, that I could have

kissed her for after we reached the summit.

There are two choices for the climb. Either braving the very long, very steep &

very uneven flights of steps or taking the 'easier' (by which I mean slightly  less

grueling), wide, paved road which winds round and round the mountain. 

So, puffing like Thomas the Tank  Engine, with sweat pouring from my entire body

like my own, personal waterfall & eliciting concerned looks from Nat & Claire who

are  both nurses, I  was  thinking about every one  of  those  occasions I'd chosen

to drive somewhere instead  of  walking and every cigarette I'd ever had by the

time we were halfway to the top! What on  earth possessed me to think this totally

unfit old body could scale a mountain - yes mountain! Believe me, it may as well

have been Everest, except for the steaming temperature...

Nat- Medical Coordinator Extraordinaire

But I did make it, and it was well worth
the effort, even if walking was just a
wee bit painful today...
What a spectacular view of the land
around Battambang.

Tara, Claire & Nat at the Top

We rested at the top for a while, just

admiring the view, before heading back

down in time to catch the great Bat Show

from the road far, far below...

Sadly, as in so many places throughout

the Khmae countryside, it also houses

yet another monument to the countless

victims of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge who

were brought here to be slaughtered - 

The Killing Caves... A tragic history for

such a beautiful place.

Monument in The Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau

The Khmae people have suffered so

much and they have such a long way to 

go to rebuild their amazing and ancient 

culture, it's a privilege to have even a

small role to play.