Long celebrated for its well-preserved French colonial-era architecture, Battambang now has two heritage walking trails for visitors to soak up the past.
French colonial-era architecture in Battambang
KA Architecture Tour (www.ka-tours.org) of Phnom Penh have come up with two heritage architecture tours of Battambang for visitors and Hanuman plans to make these part of the Battambang visitor experience from this high season onwards. Maps are available online, including a Walking Map Central (http://battambang-heritage.org/walking_map_central.pdf) and a Walking Map South (http://battambang-heritage.org/walking_map_south.pdf) and each tour takes about 90 minutes. They can be combined together for a half day experience from Psar Nat to the Governor’s Residence. For those with less time available, it is also possible to cycle either route or combine them together in a leisurely two hours with some stops along the way.
Hanuman is conducting another of its popular guide training programmes in September and this will include a practical workshop in Battambang to introduce these heritage walking trails to our leading tour guides. The Phnom Penh training workshop will be conducted on Friday 14 September before the guides travel to Battambang on Saturday 15 September and meet with their Siem Reap counterparts. Saturday afternoon will be spent following the heritage trails in the company of our experienced guide trainers. On Sunday morning, there will be a lifestyle trip to the beautiful countryside around Battambang before the guides head back to their respective bases. On Monday 17 September, the Siem Reap-Angkor guide training workshop will take place.
Hanuman will send out the walking tour module next week as part of our new Battambang Lifestyle programmes aiming to encourage visitors to stay a little longer in Cambodia’s second city. Look out for a similar Kratie Lifestyle programme coming soon, offering visitors an insight into traditional village life on the west bank of the Mekong.