Day 47 - Phnom Penh to Battambang
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2007
1
48
243
Trip End
May 01, 2008
Battambang,
Cambodia
Friday, October 19, 2007
This guy was much more helpful than the moron yesterday, and offered us the room next door to sleep in, and we could leave all our stuff in our old room to save any fuss. The room next door was a positive paradise of cool temperature (i.e. the air con actually WORKED!), and we were asleep minutes after hitting the pillow.
How I wish that I'd kicked off two days ago!
Sadly we couldn't enjoy it for long, with a 6am alarm call, to pack for our bus journey to Battambang.
The bus itself was surprisingly ok, decent air con, decent leg room, and a very boistrous driver, who was like a Cambodian John Prescott turned up to 11. He spent most of the journey shouting at someone or other, and despite my lack of sleep and having no clue what he was ranting about, I found him quite entertaining.
We arrived in Battambang an hour later than we were advised yesterday, but there appears to be absolutely bugger all here so that's not a disaster.
As usual we were mobbed by the 'hotel pimps' when we got off the bus, screaming and shouting and thrusting brochures in our faces, just what you need after a long bus journey...
We plumped for the grandly-named Royal Hotel, and after some UN-esque negotiating we agreed on an air-con double room with tv and en suite for US$ 10. This time we checked the air con before handing the money over, and all seems well.
After that we went for some "Smoking Pot" action (it's a restaurant parents, don't panic!), where the only people working there appeared to be a 5 year old girl who was cleaning the floor, and an 8 year old boy who was washing the tables. Hmmmm, we thought, child labour seems to be de riguer ici...
Eventually their Dad showed himself (presumably before Social Services closed them down), but he still entrusted the young lad to take our orders, while the cute little girl harrangued her Father to cough up for her hard work!
My beef green curry was very tasty, and Katie had the same dish as the other day (fish amok curry), but you would never have known it, it looked totally different... We washed them down with some LUSH fruit juices, and waddled back to the hotel to catch up on email/news.
There really is nothing much to see here, and despite Lonely Planet trying to convince us that it's a "charming sleepy colonial town", that would be a bit like describing Dudley as a "charming sleepy midlands town". It's EXTREMELY boring.
The most impressive building is an art-deco monstrosity which is used as the central market. Delightful.
Oh, and there's a dirty river.
The only reason we've come here is to take a scenic river boat tomorrow up to Siem Riep, the gateway to the magnificent 12th Century temples of Angkor Wat.
Katie read that this is supposed to be the nicest river journey in Cambodia, so we thought we'd give it a go. It's US$ 15 each, which is expensive for rural Cambodia, but good value elsewhere.
We'll have dinner on the river tonight, Katie has spied some poncey cocktail bar type affair in the guidebook, but as there seems to be nothing else here of interest then we'll give it a go.
Popped out to catch the sunset over that special market again (!), which is a rather sad endightment on the sights of Battabang!
It turned out that Katie's dinner choice was actually some distance away, so we jumped on the back of a couple of motorcycle taxis ("motos") and were there really quickly.
The food was basic but good and it was a nice place to chill out and prepare for tomorrow, even if there were loads of biters (mosquitos) buzzing around...
I guess that we'd better get used to early starts because we'll need to get up VERY early in Angkor Wat to beat the tourist invasion. Bloody tourists! ;)
Ok, will leave it there so enjoy your Fridays and have a great weekend!
Lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
