About
When the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia in 1975, part of their aim was to isolate the country from all foreign influence.
Home of the most ubiquitous foreign products, the Pepsi bottling plant in Battambang had to go. The workers were forced to evacuate the building to work in the rice fields, and the factory, dating from around the 1960s, was abandoned 15 years after it had opened, to decay where it stood.
Allegedly the factory was re-opened for a short time in the 1990s to use in the production of ice blocks and water.
Though visitors cannot enter the factory, there are plenty of holes in the walls to peek through, and around the sides of the building, alleyways to explore. Dusty, cobwebby old bottles in crates are still scattered around, though most of the machinery has been taken away. One lone, crumbling conveyor belt remains as a relic of a once bustling hive of soda manufacture.
UPDATE: Unfortunately this building is no longer standing.
Know Before You Go
1.2km N of Battambang Ferry landing
Published
January 1, 2013
