30.11 - Day 320 - Bat Cave, KHM

Saturday 30th November - Bat Cave (Day 320)

Woken early by the sounds of the countryside, we fall in at the breakfast table with a French family. Baptiste, Estelle, Noe (9) and Simon (7) are three months into their year of travelling, having visited so far Greece, Turkey, Thailand and now Cambodia, also like us schooling all the way. 

Same as us then, except they’re doing it on bikes, cycling up to 30 kms a day carrying everything including a tent. Noe and Simon each with their own bike. We cannot imagine that conversation with Sienna and Seb. 

Noe and SImon speak as much English as Sienna and Seb speak French, but Lego building is an international language. Saro’s kids also emerge with more Lego so everyone is content. 

When Team France say they’re going to walk up the hill I visited yesterday, we use it as motivation to take our clan along. So the 8 of us walked the route that I was driven yesterday yet it does not feel too hot traipsing up the road. 

I do my best to regurgitate what was told to me 18 hours earlier, with Baptiste and Estelle then translating my patchy stories to Now and Simon. Though I have to wait until the kids are out of earshot before revealing the shocking elements. 

As we exit the cave the resident monkeys start emerging, their appeal increasing right until they start to get too close. The shops at the top of the mountain all have large lion and tiger teddy bears, which apparently scares the monkeys (perhaps just the younger ones). 

We view the temples up top before taking a more direct route down uneven stone stairs to find lunch at the bottom. 

Back at the Family Batcave Homestay, the four kids watch a little iPad TV before heading back to Lego and football playing. We walk back to the BatCave and sure enough, to the minute, the millions of bats begin their nightly hunt. 

Around the dinner table there is sharing of travellers tales, and still more questions about the prospect of a 7 & 9 year old cycling through SouthEast Asia. The kids all eat on a separate table with Saro’s children until a birthday cake for Estelle brings them scuttling over. 

An unsuccessful short walk to find fireflies with Saro (we saw a couple, but usually more), does not undo a successful day.