Day 7: Road Outrage

Today we are travelling from Battambang to Phnom Penh

We packed up at La Villa hotel and started the 200 mile drive from Battambang to Phnom Penh.  Rather than waste a day travelling, our itinerary gave us a few stops on the way, the first of which was a floating village at Kompong Luong.  As the minibus pulled up to our boat we could see an appealing scene of busy waterway life.  As we stepped outside the vehicle the unappealing smell of rotting fish knocked us off our feet.  Undeterred, we climbed aboard and the captain, who was all of 16, cast off.  All the comings and goings of what was clearly a thriving community were intriguing and captivating.  Not only were the house-boats attractively maintained as living quarters, but each had a dual role such as shops selling fresh vegetables, fish, fishing gear and a place to get your outboard motor fixed.  There was a pool hall, that also sold mobile phones, a town hall and a temple, complete with an on-going service attended by 30 people.   Over 10,000 people live here and because each dwelling requires between 1m and 4 m of water in order to float they have to relocate twice a year to accommodate the wet and dry season.  As usual, H&S was kept to a minimum and there was a lot of hopping between boats and dipping into the water (not by us, you understand).  At one point our captain actually became completely disconnected from our boat, which everyone thought was highly amusing (including us, when the crisis was averted).  

The local supermarket

One of the prettiest houseboats

Collecting the morning's catch of fish

 












The next stop was lunch at an open-air cafe adjacent to a petrol station, so I suppose it was the equivalent of our service station.  It had the most authentic menu so far, including stir fry with frog, snake's head soup and rice with black ants.  I have to own up that our choices were relatively conservative. 

Third stop was Oudong Mountain to see the royal tombs at the top of Fortune Hill.  500 steps, so the kids who became our tour guides happily informed us.  As they skipped alongside I wondered how many times they went up and down in one day, and whether I was actually going to make it at all. Gasp gasp, sweat sweat - I reached the top!  The view was good and the children very entertaining, telling us all about the tombs that we were looking at and how they love to practise their English and how they have never seen Angkor Wat even though they live just a few hours away.  Louise and I were pleased to hand out our sweets and presents again. 

After 7 days of rural backwaters, driving into the capital city was a culture shock.  Hot, dusty roads with traffic jams and pollution.  We just could not believe the vehicles that we were seeing. 

Top Ten Things we saw on a moped, in reverse order of incredulity:

• a door
• passenger side-saddle, dangling flip-flops and texting
• youngest driver approx 10 years old
• youngest standing passenger approx. 18 months old
• refuelling whilst in motion
• 5 people on one moped
• 3 dead pigs
• a lit barbecue
•  a passenger with a plasma drip (connected)
• AND COMING IN FIRST PLACE 13 MATTRESSES

You can see a whole heap of these marvellous photos in  Ian's Moped Madness blog

Unfortunately there was a mix up over our hotel reservation and we were bumped onto another hotel.  In itself not such a dreadful thing, but it took ages to sort out when we were hot and tired and it was well past wine o'clock.

MARKS OUTTA 10

Louise:  I enjoyed the boat trip and the views from Oudong Mountain.  I liked seeing the paddy field with water buffalo, a typical scene I've seen so often in photos.  The service at the lunchtime restaurant was not so good.  7/10

Rich: I enjoyed the boat and was pleasantly surprised with the hotel we ended up with, after all the shenanigans.  My ear was blocked up and I couldn't hear a bleedin' thing until they made me walk up 500 steps to see a stupid temple or something, but then my ears popped so something good came of it.  6/10

Ian:  6/10
Good Things:
1.  Not crapping myself in public
2.  The floating village people - the kids were lovely and nobody asked me for a dollar
3.  Kids at the royal shrine.

Not so good:
1.  Kerfuffle about our hotel reservation
2.  Having to PAY for the tuk tuks to transport us to our second hotel
3.  Fishy drain smell at Kompong Luong

Jackie: Floating village was great but today was just about getting from A to B for me.  6/10

Day 6: The Bamboo Train

Vidotours provided comfy cushions for our posh bums

We were allowed a bit of a lie-in this morning as today's tourist attraction is just a few miles from the hotel. Battambang's Bamboo Train is a very simple bamboo platform on 4 wheels, powered by a small motor. The system was set up by the locals to carry goods and passengers as there was no local transport but it also happens to provide good fun for us tourists! It was a 5 mile rickety ride, getting up to a speed of 25mph, and gave us a great view of the luscious landscape without hiking through the undergrowth. There were paddy fields, banana trees and jack fruit as big as rugby balls. As there is only one track, if two trains meet, the one with the lightest load has to be taken off the rails so the other can pass. We disembarked at the next 'station', to visit a delightful little village. We were escorted around by the children, who gave us presents they had made from blades of grass. One older man, complete with what looked like old bullet wounds and other torture marks, spoke a little English. He urged us to 'share our money with the good people of his village' by buying their wares. I'm not sure that advertising your competitors fits into any Havard business model, but it filled us with a warm feeling. Louise and I were pleased we had brought along our gifts of sweets and pens for the children. I gave an older girl a pack of lovehearts and she shared them out with all the ittle ones. Ahhhh.

Seriously sweet little girls with their grass-hopper presents

Wow, that's a big pair!   Jack fruit

Louise spreading some of her hard-earned cash

Richard looking very pleased with his purchase

The kids were clearly thrilled with our presents

Here's a youtube 3 minute video from The Asian Development Bank, who are investing in Cambodia's railway showing how Bamboo Trains Make Way for Modern Railway (published in 2010) and a 2 minute touristy clip of the train ride showing just how far we flouted Health & Safety in the name of having fun. And talking of fun, here's a game to build a train track.  Nothing to do with Cambodia.  For the competitive among you, it took me 3 games to get the train in the station.

Swimming and relaxing by the pool

On the way back to the hotel we made a short stop at a local NGO that provides schooling for street kids and then enjoyed a very welcome afternoon at leisure, which was spent at our pretty, colonial-looking hotel. In the evening we went walkabout to soak up the atmosphere of Battambang.  As recommended by the guidebooks, we headed for the market, which was lively even at 6pm with people picking up groceries on the way home from work.  This town definitely isn't as touristy as Siem Reap, but we did find one road that had a few shops that we could browse and a street cafe for a drink.  There was a stall with ladies selling Khmer handcrafted eggs and jewelry, part of an AIDS project supporting communities suffering from HIV and poverty.  They seemed genuinely excited that I wanted to buy their goods, which I thought were very attractive ( I hope Carole & Danielle did too).  None of the three optional restaurants that Louise had selected from the guidebook worked out (one was closed up, one sold just drinks and snacks and the other we couldn't find), so we ended up back at our hotel for dinner again.  This wasn't such a bad option as the food was good and the staff extremely friendly and in any case, Ian and I were pleased to be near the facilities - if you know what I mean.

MARKS OUTTA 10

Rich:  The train was the best. Nothing bad today.  7/10
Ian:  The train was great.  Unfortunately I am still getting too hot and not feeling well.  7/10
Louise:  I liked the train ride and also the village.  Not finding one eating place in Battambang was disappointing.  7/10
Jackie:  The train was good and I feel like I've met some real Cambodians today (as opposed to tour guides and waiters).  I am still a bit too wobbly to enjoy our evening stroll.  7/10      

Day 5: Down in Battambang

Today we travelled from Siem Reap to Battambang

I would like to go home and cosy up in my own bed.  The inevitable has happened and I have the gyppy tummy.  For breakfast I had Alka Seltzer, Ibuprofen and peppermint tea. I just couldn't manage a last taste of the excellent artisan bread and jam made from all kinds of exotic local fruit.  I was sad to say goodbye to The River Garden hotel.

Traditional Cambodian blue house on stilts to avoid flooding

Typical family transport

The journey from Siem Reap to Battambang took about 3 hours on a fairly decent road and we got to see rural Cambodia.  There was a lot of general poverty but we also saw happy people getting on with their simple lives.  Houses varied from shacks to modest wooden constructions on stilts, plus some extravaganzas.  Everyone has a scooter and it's not unusual to see the whole family on it together.  The landscape is very lush and green.  Our local guide, although heavily accented, has been most conscientious in looking after us and explaining in great detail about all the places we visited.  She took the opportunity on the long drive to get more personal and tell us a bit about her life under the Khmer Rouge.  She was a young teenager at the time and lost 4 family members - her father, brother, sister and uncle.  It was heartbreaking to hear her enthuse over her two lucky breaks.  The first was when she wandered into the woods because she was feeling unwell and when she returned she found that her group had been rounded up and taken away for extermination.  She walked many miles back home to her mother, after which she hid in her own house.  Her mother would sneak extra food back home to feed her but was eventually apprehended by a soldier who fortunately turned a blind eye.  Her second stroke of luck was at the end of the war when a neighbour got her a job in which she learnt to speak English, and that has resulted in her current 'privileged' position as a tour guide she explained.  Her sad description of the dark day they took her father away choked us all.   It's horrifying to read about how many were killed during the Pol Pot era, but her personal account tugged at my heart strings all the more.

Upon arrival in Battambang we checked into hotel La Villa, in the centre of town opposite the Sankei River.  Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia (after Phnom Penh) and has an air of commerce and burgeoning modernisation about it.  There is an excellent article in the Telegraph called Cambodia: beyond the Killing Fields, in which Christopher Hudson compares modern day Cambodia with the one that existed when he wrote the famous book. He also stayed at La Villa  and says 'Our hotel, renovated in Thirties style, is understandably described as “one of Cambodia’s most romantic and evocative boutique hotels”. But when we arrive, it is to find that La Villa is now dwarfed by two massive hotels, one of them under construction just feet away. Good food, in a shady courtyard, restores our spirits.' He was there just one month before us and his tour is remarkably similar to ours, except we paid half the price.  Thanks Silk Steps!  The comfortable bed in a cool room was too much to pass up and I skipped lunch and the afternoon's activity to sleep off my stomach problems.  I was disappointed to miss out on Phnom Banon (a mountain with a temple on top), Phnom Sampeu (caves) and a vineyard.     

Big Buddha

Reclining Buddha

Caved Buddha

MARKS OUTTA 10
 

Louise:  The views from Phnom Banon were impressive and the little girls who showed us the caves with their torches were sweet, but I'm bored with Buddha now.  4/10

Ian:  If I say that the spag bol for lunch at the hotel was the best bit, you'll get my drift.  I did enjoy seeing the countryside on the drive here, but the rest of the day involved long journeys to see nothing much.  4/10

Richard: Arriving at the hotel and having lunch was a high point, as was the top of Phnom Banon (ha!).  The vineyard was disappointing.  3/10

Jackie:  The best thing about today was having a nice hotel room to be ill in.  2/10    

Day 4: Poshmoto and the Nightshift

It was so laid-back and welcoming at the River Garden hotel that after a full day sightseeing it was an effort to step outside our comfort zone.  However, as we were moving on the next day we thought we ought to shift our bottoms to go see the nightlife in Siem Reap.  The hotel arranged a lift downtown in a swanky 4-seater motorbike taxi with purple velvet cushions and a gold tasselled canopy no less. These are called tuk tuks, or motos (as in motorbike taxis).  We enjoyed a heady, breezy ride into town driven by Mr Brown (as the sign told us).  At night the Old Market area is alive with music, neon lights and lots of shiny, happy people in bars like Angkor What? (love that name!).  The cuisine was varied, from local street food to Thai, Indian, Asian and French. We chose Le Grand Cafe, which as the website explains, 'is situated not far away from Pub-Street zone, only 100 m away (but it is at the corner of Pub-Street too)'.  We sat upstairs by the beautiful open-air arches that you can see if you follow the link, and did some people watching.  The scene was larger than life - shame the food wasn't as good as the setting.  Everywhere you looked there were motos, many of which were customised.  Our favourites were Mr Brown and his Poshmoto, a Batmoto and a Rolls Royce moto.

The Batmoto

The Rolls Royce Moto

We could see pubs advertising English beer, big screens showing European football, open-air massage parlours, the night market, boutiques and piranha pedicures.  Being without our guide and driver for the evening, we were left to our own devices.  Would we get stung by Mr Brown? Would we get fleeced in the night market? Would we make it back to the River Garden? Take The Cambodia Tourist Quiz to see how you would cope! 

Group Massage

Fish Pedicure

Street Food Stall

The sign says it all...

Louise's ATM and on-hand shrine for a quick
prayerwhilst the cash is dispensing

After our meal we strolled along Pub Street taking in the ambiance.  Louise was overjoyed to see an ANZ cashpoint (the bank she works for) and wanted evidence that 'she woz here' to claim it was all a business trip.  The night market is an Aladdin's cave for tourists, full of wonderful things for souvenirs and gifts.  I bought a pair of earrings and Louise saw some bracelets she thought Alex would like.




Louise:     'How much are these bracelets please?
Stall Girl:   '$2 each madam'
Louise:      'How much if I buy three?'
Stall Girl:    'Then they will be $1.50 each'
Louise:      'Hmmm.  How about $5 for all three?'
Stall Girl:   'OK. $5 for all three.  Madam, you are very good.'

No Louise, you don't haggle up, you numpty!  Here's a You Tube of someone in the same market having a bit more success negotiating the best price.

We wandered back to the corner of Pub Street where Mr Brown greeted us like long, lost friends - I guess two trips from us would be a whole night's wages for him.  We were pleased to see him too, as he knew the way back to our hotel and we knew the price he would charge.  We settled back into Poshmoto feeling very self-satisfied after another perfect day in Cambodia.