Day 48 - Battambang to Siem Reap

  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Saturday, October 20, 2007

Yet again we were denied any sort of lie-in, so by 7am we were waiting outside our hotel for our bus to the boat landing.

When it arrived we sat down and waited. Fortunately they took ages getting ready, which gave us just enough time to realise that all our passports, tickets etc were still in the hotel safe ! Now THAT could have been interesting...

Eventually we got to the docks, and as usual we were all sitting on the top of the boat as the clock ticked twenty minutes past the departure time, and it was a bit chilly so most of us reached for the long sleeves.

The boat was bigger than the one we took in Laos (Nong Kiaow to Luang Prabang), and looked about 30 years older !

Unlike Laos, they let the tourists sit on the roof of the boat over here, where the view was much better and we hoped to catch some sun. So we chucked our big backpacks in the deck level and climbed onto the roof, there must have been about 15 of us up there.



Soon the boat pulled out, moved about 100 yards and then reversed because they'd left someone behind. It was like Carry On Up The River or something...

EVENTUALLY we left the sanctuary of the banks and chugged into the middle of the river, where the driver made an extremely sharp left turn.

Now I've never been much of a Physicist, but with 15 relatively heavy westerners on the top of a moving boat, and about 10 much lighter locals on the bottom level, added to a very sharp turn on the rudder....

Sure enough the very top-heavy boat started tipping... and kept tipping... and kept tipping... until we all started sliding down towards the left side of the railings, with VERY anxious looks on our faces !!

I can't speak for anyone else, but I very narrowly avoided requiring a change of underwear.

Somehow we all clambered in the opposite direction to where the boat had nearly tipped over, and seconds later the boat swung back the other way... and nearly tipped over the other side !!

If I hadn't been so scared it would have been funny, but I was definitely hanging on for dear life...

The boat managed to correct itself, but I swear that most of the next 10 minutes was a real white-knuckle ride, scarier than any roller-coaster that I've ever been on, put it that way.

I've never been great on boats, mainly because of my dodgy right ear. With a perforated eardrum (big hole in my eardrum), any water that gets inside causes very painful infections, so I don't like boats at all, I'm always worried that I'll fall in to the water, get submerged, and be in absolute agony as my eardrum explodes while I try not to drown !!! Nice.

So I was probably more nervous than most of the others, and I was HATING it.

Making matters worse, there were all these local fishermen laying nets in the middle of the river, so our captain was having to swerve left and right to avoid their nets ! How selfish, trying to earn a living ?! ;)

And then there were the low bridges... EVERYBODY DOWN !!



After about 20 minutes of near-death (I was sat there thinking "ok, I can swim, so can Katie, we'll be ok, but we'll lose all our clothes, all our cameras, all our photos, what the hell will we do ?!"), one of the crew came up the stairs and motioned for all of us to sit in the middle of the roof, to reduce the wobble factor.

I think anyone with half a brain had already worked this out (I was practically butt-surfing by this point), but thankfully everyone followed his request and we stabilised, relatively), so we were able to continue without giving me a heart attack, and I could even take a few photos...





It was a 6 hour boat ride, through one major river, then across a swamp (with a tiny and shallow channel, and some dude at the front CUTTING a way through the tree tops ahead !), and finally across a huge reservoir called Tunle Sap.



Allegedly speed boats used to make this journey in 3 hours, but believe me there is no way that I will ever be getting one of those !!

As the river narrowed someone came up to gesticulate that we should all move off the roof, and sit downstairs. I nearly kissed him.

It was pretty packed downstairs, but I definitely preferred it...



On the way we passed through some very varied countryside, past riverbank villages, through floating villages on the marshland, and through large fishing communities at the mouth of the reservoir.



Some of the scenery was very nice, but nowhere near as picturesque as our journey in Laos.



When we passed through the very narrow channels, the guy had to cut a path through the vegetation (it being the end of wet season with a lot of flooding taking us up and nearly over the trees), it was the only way through.

God KNOWS what they must do in dry season...



As we squeezed down these very small strips of water, we would often have tree branches being bent by the front of the boat and then whipping back vicously to whatever came towards it next, i.e. the 1st open window !

All the windows were open, there was no glass, so all we had to protect ourselves were these flimsy red curtains, which were surprisingly effective.

Most people (including Katie) refused to lower the curtains because it would spoil their view, but I think she changed her mind when a thick branch whiplashed an inch from her face ! Seconds later down came her curtains and everyone followed suit !



After getting through this latest brush with death, we came out onto a resevoir which was massive, and very peaceful, time to relax and enjoy the sunshine...



7 hours after leaving Battambang, we arrived at our final destination (after the usual rest stops), and the closer we got to the dock, the more people appeared, it was swarming with people trying to get onto our boat ! I'm amazed that no-one fell into the water, but we knew what was coming...

Sure enough, as soon as we even touched the harbour wall, literally 20 guys jumped through the open windows, and started thrusting hotel leaflets in our faces and screaming things like "I SEE YOU FIRST COME TO MY HOTEL VERY CHEAP" at the top of their lungs, or "YOU WANT TUK-TUK ONLY FIVE DOLLAR", or "HEY MISTER YOU WANT ROOM ?", it was - frankly - terrifying.

I told all of them to "please get out of my face", and that I would not look at anything or talk to anyone until we got off the boat, and miraculously this seemed to work like a treat. UNTIL we got off the boat, and then it was even worse !

I looked at Katie who appeared to be drowning in a mass of crazed young male Cambodians, and I was getting increasingly irritated by these mass of small hands grabbing my arms, legs, bags, shorts, anything they could to try and gain some emotional ownership over my decision-making !

We ended up going with the first guy who approached me on the boat, because he looked like a good kid, and he had done exactly what I'd asked, he'd got out my face and waited until we got off the boat, so fair play...

In the bidding frenzy we soon realised that the going rate for a tuk-tuk into town was $1, so we confirmed this with him, and showed him our prefered hotel address. He was good as gold, until he stopped the bike on the main road and ran into the bushes for a call of nature while we sat there stunned.

It was quite a way into the town of Siem Reap, so we were delighted with the bargain fare, and agreed to give him a small tip for his troubles.

Our first choice hotel was full, so we paid the guy and wandered off on foot to look at the other recommended hotels & guest houses in the area.

As was horribly predictable I guess, the driver was not happy with his $1.50 (I thought a 50% tip was pretty generous ?!) so he started to plead for more money. Not demand, or shout, but plead, with big puppy dog eyes.

We were both annoyed at the memory of our bad experience in Phnom Penh, and of being ripped-off in general wherever we went, so were quite blunt with him: if you don't want a dollar, don't TELL us it's a dollar. That's the price we agreed, we've given you a good tip compared to your price, so please understand our position, etc etc...

He kept begging, so eventually we had to walk on (we didn't have any dollar bills anyway and there was no way we were giving him 5 times the agreed fare !), which again left a sour taste.

We eventually settled on the 3rd guest house/hotel that we viewed, each time walking up to the 3rd or 4th floor with all our heavy bags (Cambodia doesn't seem to "do" lifts/elevators), and each time praying this would be 'the one' !

We went for a room with a/c, en suite, satellite tv, double bed, fridge, hot water and a fan, for $13. After a bit of haggling of course...

The lady here was really nice, and when I told her how important the tv was (to watch the Liverpool v Everton derby & England play in the Rugby World Cup final), she even got one of her staff to swap the small tv in our room for a nice big one. Result !

By this time we were starving, so we went for some homemade-style Khmer food near the market, which was very nice, and politely declined all the various offers from the local children to buy assorted tourist tack on the way (books, bracelets, postcards etc).

These little suckers really don't take "no thank you" for an answer, they keep bugging you like a child-sized mosquito until all you want to do is pick them up and throw them across the street ! Thankfully we were able to refrain from physical violence.

We then went back to the hotel for a nap, after organising a tuk-tuk and guide for our trip to Angkor Watt tomorrow, and after Katie bought a nice canvas day bag and scarf from the market.

I watched the Mighty Reds fluke past Everton, after seeing us go into half-time 1-0 down and seriously considering avoiding all live Liverpool & England games until we get back home ! (The last 2 games I saw were a TERRIBLE performance against Marseille, and England's capitulation against Russia)

Thankfully the ref really helped us out with some terrible decisions, allowing our striker to stay on the field after a Jackie Chan-eque two footed flying tackle, then letting Stevie G convince him that he should sent off a defender rather than booking him, then turning down 2 stonewall penalties comitted by our terrified defense. It was painful to watch, but we eventually came from behind to win 2-1 with a penalty in the last minute. (The second from the striker who should have been sent off !)

All in all we were bloody lucky, we were very poor, Everton shaded it but left with nothing. As usual we had loads of chances in free play, but our finishing was diabolical. To be fair so was their's, they needed an own goal from big Sami to put them ahead.

(Marko - if you remind me of my kind comments here when we return, I'll insist that Katie typed this blog entry !)

The result gave me great heart for the rugby, and I needed it after finding out that kick-off was 2am Cambodian time !!

Our guide was booked to collect us at 7am (to avoid the tourists), so I had to set my alarm to get up at 2am, watch the game, fall asleep again, and wake up about 3 hours later ! Shocker...

We popped out for a meal after dark at a place called The Red Piano, and I must say that the restaurants and bars here are fantastic, loads of choice and most look really nice...



Marko - think you'll apprecaite my choice of outfit tonight ?! ;)



After a very nice meal it was back to the hotel for a couple of hours sleep before getting up for the rugby.

As you all know by now, South Africa beat us, and became World Champions, and fair play to them, they were probably the stronger side and definitely the best side of the tournament. 

We made some costly mistakes, and we did have what appeared to be a fair try disallowed, but I think they deserved it overall.

I certainly didn't think that at about 3am though, when I woke Katie up with some very colourful language when the video referee said "NO TRY"... The only word I would repeat here would be erm... "cheating" !

I'm pretty sure that I must have challenged the world record for 'most consecutive swear words in a sentence'...

I was gutted to watch the minutes drift past, as SA edged closer to victory, and I edged closer into my second brief period of sleep for the night.

Congratulations South Africa, thank you Liverpool (and Mark Clattenburg), and bad luck England and a no-doubt furious Everton...

YNWA ;)


Al & Katie xx