Cambodia Part 3: Battambang

Now, to explain the next part of my journey, you are all going to have to use your imaginations a little bit.

And if you think you can manage to imagine exactly what my journey to Battambang was like, then times the feeling by about 100 and you should be getting close....!

I bought my boat ticket from the Siem Reap hostel for $15, 2 days before I left. Prior to leaving melbourne I had done a little bit of reasearch about the Siem Reap to Battambang trip, as it is meant to be quite a pretty journey through lots of small villages on the river banks, as well as some floating villages aswell. However, in my research, I had discovered that not all the boats were making it all the way to Battambang, as the water levels were too low. Just before I left however, they were saying on the forums that the boats were making it all the way, it just about 9 hours instead of 7. So when I bought the ticket, I asked the seller if the boat would make it all the way to which he replied "Yes yes!" and then I asked how long does it take and he replied with "5 hours miss, very nice journey!".

Lesson one about transport in Cambodia: Never believe anyone when they tell you something only takes 5 hours!

I get in a minibus on the day of departure at 6.30am, which they pack in with about 5 people too many. We then head down that same horrible road to the boat dock, which seems alot worse in a bus than it did in a tuk tuk!

We arrive 15 minutes late, and I am expecting the boat to have left. I am looking down my ticket at a picture of the boat and trying to see one similar....there is none. As I begin to wonder how on earth I am going to get out of here to Battambang, I see the other people from the bus heading towards the water. Heading towards a boat with other western tourists on it. I look back down at my ticket with picture of the boat, and then look up at the boat than stands before us. The boat in the picture looks simlar to the one from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, this boat looks like something out of a water safety comercial with a big sign under saying "DO NOT BOARD AN UNSAFE BOAT". The wood is rotting away in different points, and its already completely overcrowded. The captain of the boat has lined up plastic chairs down the middle to accomodate those of us who don't have a seat. I manage to find a seat at the front next to the driver, and off we went.

The boat trip was actually quite pleasent, and the books don't lie. Going through the floating villages and having the kids yelling hello to you was awesome. Although just when I was starting to think how nice and polite the cambodian children are, one promptly picks up two peices of mud and starts hurling them at the boat, apprently hitting one lady....!

We stop for a quick break in a little village about 5 hours out of Siem Reap. I decide to move myself up onto the roof for the remaining part of the journey. I estimated in my mind that we would probably have another 2 hours to go.

Within an hour of setting back off again the boat starts to have a bit of trouble. I could see from the roof of the boat that it wasn't very deep, as there were children standing up in it and the water only reached their shoulders. For the next half an hour, the boat guys with two massive sticks proceeded to almost paddle us for the next couple of K's as we kept getting jammed in the mud.

Then we stopped.

The boat guys jumped off the boat and pushed it towards the bank, where we all grabbed our bags and jumped off. At this point, it must have been around 38 - 40 degrees C aswell.

We then walked for about 10 minutes, with our bags, where there were two beaten up Toyota Hilux Utes waiting. Only the boat guys couldn't find the keys, and spent the next 20 minutes crawling through the bush trying to find them....!

Keys in hand we started loading up the Utes.

Now would be a good time for me to point out that there were around 53 people on the boat, plus 5 boat guys, plus big backpack, plus small back packs. They loaded all our big bags in the ute, and put 5 people plus the driver inside the front of the car. Then 18 of us jumped in the tray, sitting on sides, in the middle, or standing up. I opted for the sides because I thought that would be more comfertable. It was here I met Leanne from the UK, who was sitting next to me.

We then started driving down the worst road in the world. I thought the Siem Reap boat dock road was bad? That was heaven in comparison to this! With us all sitting on top of each other, being belted by branches every 5 minutes (thanks to Leanne, I didn't end up with a concussion due to the tree's being overgrown!), the truck travelling at about 60k's an hour, and hitting pot holes the size of skateboarding halfpipes - there were actual moments where I thought "This could quite possibly be the last thing I ever do"!!

The worst part of the journey took about an hour and a half. After that we hit the village roads which were more dusty than dangerous, so I could breathe again once we hit them...

We were meant to arrive in Battambang at around 2pm. We arrived at 4.30pm, sunburnt, covered in dust and absolutely exhausted. I also arrived in hysterics, because the was quite possibly the funniest yet most dangerous thing I have done on this trip! I just couldn't stop laughing about it for days afterward....

I went out for dinner and a well deserved beer with Hana (i'm sorry I know I have spelt your name wrong!), Leanne & Mary Liz, who I met from the truck journey. We worked out that Leanne and Mary Liz were heading in the same direction as me after Battambang, so we decided to all go together.

The next day me and Hana hired two moto drivers who drove us around the countryside of Battambang for the day. They took us to a world vision school, The Killing Caves (yet another Khmer Rouge playground in the 70's), a temple and to Wat Banan where I paid a little boy $1 to fan me all the way up the giant steps to the top.

After that we headed to the Bamboo Train, which is a method of transport that the locals use on the Battambang to Phnom Penh train line. The best way to describe it is as a bamboo raft with an axle and motorcycle motor on the back. We loaded me and Hana, the two moto drivers and there motos and rode down the track for about 15 minutes. Everytime we came across someone coming in the other direction (its a one way track) they would have to get off, unassemble there train, let us go past then reassemble and be on there way. Its was the strangest contraption I have ever been on. But fun fun fun!!!

The whole day took around 6 hours, and was quite possibly the best 6 hours of my trip. It was amazing to go through all these tiny villages, where the kids line up and give you a high 5 as you go past and the families wave at you enthusastically.

That one day in Battambang showed me the way the real Cambodian's live. I am so glad to have been fortunate enough to have seen it.