The road to Battambang...

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  Battambang, Cambodia
Monday, June 30, 2008

An early start (5am) and pack in Bangkok and short ride to the train station got us there with time to spare for breakfast...waffles. We had stocked up on water and some food before the journey not knowing what to expect of a 6h train ride in 3rd class with no air con or windows. The train itself was fixed wooden benches in an open carridge and pretty comfortable - much to kims delight there was a pretty clean toilet right next door - no need for the she-wee  and bottle after all. The city began to roll by and we began to get a feel for how large this place was as it took almost an hour to get to open countryide! The outer parts of the citys are filled with slums of cardboard and corrugated steel with hundred of people living like this with their livestock eveyday in the baking heat. The difference between rich and poor being striking once again. From there there were exotic birds and butterflies fliting over paddy fields with primitive irrigation methods. A sight i had only ever seen on TV.

The train journey was pleasant as the views were fascinating and the breeze cool enough. Vendors on and off various stops would supply food and water and instant coffee whcih was very welcome at 6am. The hours ticked away when abruptly we had arrived at the border. Before i even had a chance to sit upright there were tuktuk drivers on the train offering to take us to the consulate for visas and on to the border. We had organised e-visas online and went straight there in the process got talking to a cab driver firm which promised delivery to anywhere in cambodia we wished to go. Paying slightly over the odds at US$37 we had a cab and friendly guide to Poipet (border town on the cambodian side - imagine a las vegas after a world war). Getting through border control was a doddle if not a little hot (38oC) in the midday sun losing much of the 2 litres i had drunk that morning in about 15 mins. On the other side we arranged payment on arrival in battambang rather than up front as we had heard of many scams and did not want to be driven around for 15h as other had done in the past.

The crossing into cambodia resulted in my first real culture shcok, it wasn't anything specific more everthing all at once. The cambodian people at the border were not like the friendly thai people and appeared mildly agressive in their attitude which instantly put me on edge. The fact the jet lag had caught up with us the previous night resulting in no sleep whatsoever probably hadnt helped my state of mind. We got into the cab with a guy who couldn't speak any english and what appeared to be his long suffering girlfriend in the passenger seat - the only saving grace that it was airconditioned and took the temp to under 30oC. 100yrds into the journey which was already on the worst road i had ever seen in real life and on TV, he stops at the side of the road and starts chatting rather aggressively with passing locals. This included dragging some old guy over to his girlfriend to make what looked like a forced apolgy for something. At this point i wasn't just worried i was scared. In a foreign country with no people speaking english with aggressive locals in a proper third world village with local police watching and laughing at the proceedings having not slept in 32 hours. After much talking and underhand exchanging of cash and documents with people who would just ride up on a bike and then take off again Kim finally told him to get going which he did - after pointedly ignoring her and deciding to 10 mins later. 3 stops later and more shouting at locals at various stalls we appeared to be on our way. My heart rate calmed to around 130bpm and i watched the potholed (you could fit a small car in some of them) road for the next three hours, our heads bouncing off the roof of the car.

Battambang is described in the bible as the second largest city in cambodia which in english terms equated to about the size of Hitchin, the market village we had left in england a short time ago. The roads were covered in dust and a million mopeds with up to four people on them at any one time. I was frazzled by this point and after we orgnised a room with aircon and a bed we locked to door to the outside world. I can genuinely say i would have got on a plane at that point and gone anywhere else - not a happy boy. However, after pulling myself together i remembered that this was the whole point. I wanted to be pushed outside of my comfort zone and have different experiences and this had done just that and then some. A shower and a hug from a very understanding Kim calmed my nerves enough to go out to go get food. Consulting the bible once again we decided on the White Rose restaurant which came highly recommended. The food was traditional cambodian fare and very good but ordered way too much and it all cost around US$4. We got chatting to two girls who sat down next to us, Amy from Oz and Matilda from England. They had arrived on the boat from Siam Reap, the same boat we had intended to get the following day. Turned out that they had enroled in a cambodian cookery class the following morning and invited us to join them. We signed up and went to bed at 7pm - the first sleep we had had in days...

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