Where you say? A firey furnace for one
Trip Start
Mar 03, 2005
1
6
80
Trip End
Apr 08, 2006
Battambang,
Khétt Bătdâmbâng,
Cambodia
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Well, from the title, you can see that I'm currently in the city of Battambang in Cambodia. How did I get here? Well, yesterday I booked a bus ticket for as far as the Cambodian border at Poipet. After that I had no idea what to do, or where I would go. All I knew was that I had to be in Phnom Penh by friday. So, I get to bed early at 10pm for the 6am wakeup, and to save a pretty penny I get a bed in a dorm. Mistake number 1. At 1am two American girls get back from a few drinks and chat like there's no tomorrow. So I'm lying there, now wide awake, listening to this stupid girl crap on about shit for the best part of an hour and a half. Then I fall asleep. Then I wake again at 3.45am because some dude just rocked up from the airport and showed no dormitory etiquette whatsoever. Lights on bang bang bang make as much noise as I possibly can even if I wouldn't make this much in broad daylight. Back to sleep at 5. Up at 6.
Mistake number 2. Stupidly thinking that booking a ticket on the tourist bus, rather than catching a local bus (as I did to and from Kachanaburi) would get me to the border quicker. 9am, and we still hadn't left Bangkok. We sat at Khao San Rd for a good half an hour before visiting every tourist office in the capital to pick up just a handful of people. Finally on the road, and after a bit of much needed sleep, I realise we're almost at the border. So it's time to figure out what I'm going to do, seeing as though I haven't got a ticket for the connecting bus to Siem Reap (near Angkor Wat in Cambodia). I look at my map of Cambodia, and see an alternate route leading to Phnom Penh, not via Siem Reap, so I decide, purely because I've had enough of the Bangkok backpacker, that I'm going to get to (Will puts finger on random city on this alternate route) Battambang by nightfall.
Mistake number 3. I get to the border and a very helpful dude asks me if I want a ticket to Siem Reap. No no! I'm going to Battambang. So he sells me one seat in a taxi for 350baht, direct to Battambang. That's cool. $12 for no hassles. So I get through immigration with no questions asked about my visa, and mr helpful flags a moto to take me to the taxi station at the end of the border crossing (which is unlike any border crossing I've ever seen). One seat to Battambang. Cab driver points in the back seat and says 'your seat'. I look at the two adult and three cambodian children sitting there and basically say that there's no seat there! Even if I was a kid I couldn't squeeze in. So what does he do? Points at the empty front seat and says '2 seats. Another 350baht'. Ok. I get it now!!! Offer the unsuspecting backpacker what looks like a good price on a taxi ride, then rip him off another $12 and split it with mr helpful back at the border. By now it was 2.30pm (With Battambang some 100km away), and absolutely roasting (38 degrees?), and a little army of child beggars and money changers had congregated to see what all the commotion was. So I give in and pay another $12. You can't beat them all, and these guys got me pretty good.
Before long, we're cruising around the biggest potholes in the world, and I'm actually quite taken back by my first glimpse of Cambodia. It was just the polar opposite of Thailand. So poor and undeveloped. Some time around 3pm we turn off the main strip to head to Battambang (still 68km away on the sign), and the car starts having a few problems. Now I'm no expert, but basically what happened was every time the driver put his foot on the gas, the car would jump. As we got closer to Battambang this got worse and worse. To the point where we were crawling along at 30km/hr and I'm trying to figure out what to do if the car dies. But, with all the trouble and cursing from the driver, we stagger into Battambang just before 5pm.
So right now, I'm at a small internet joint not far from my hotel. This city has absolutely blown my mind. In one day, I've gone from a place where I'm just one of a million arrogant backpackers, to a place where people swimming in a river 50m away shout out "HELLO HELLO!" to you! I was used to blending in, and now everyone stares. What about the other backpackers? I've seen 4 in three hours. The city is dirty and falling apart, however there is some very interesting French architecture and some incredible Buddhist temples. I took some cool photos and will upload them as soon as I get a chance. Earlier I was checking out one of these temples, and a young student comes up to me and starts speaking to me in English. He was 20 years old, and studied english when he was at school, but now he can't afford it. He was really friendly, and asked if I could stay and teach him English. This poor guy really wanted to learn. I spent about half an hour wandering through the city with him before he left and thanked me for being his friend! First day in Cambodia and already I can see that the people here want to learn English! Then I started heading back to my hotel. I haven't made it there yet. I stopped for some dinner and actually just had the BEST lemon shake I've ever had in my entire life. I am not kidding. It was better than those ice-creams in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. I'm getting another three for breakfast tomorrow!
Long enough?! Well, that's day one of the two day epic to Phnom Penh. I leave on the midday bus tomorrow, which gives me a little more time to explore this amazing city.
