We arranged bus tickets to get us to Battambang (which was one of the highlights on the Lonely Planet guide) it said it was give us an insight into Cambodian country living and the bamboo train. We got picked up from the guest house and taken to the bus station and then got our bus to Battambang. It took about 4 hours (this is quite quick compared to other journeys we have had over the last 7 months). We arrived at what seemed to be the main area of town and were bombarded with people trying to get us to use their tuk tuk service. This time we decided to divide and conqour. Neil to get the bags and me to arrange a tuk tuk. I spoke to a guy who said he could take us to our guesthouse for 1 dollar. I didn't even haggle, no point I thought it was a fair deal. After a 5 minute drive we arrived at our guesthouse called The Bungalow.
We checked in and were given a small “bungalow” for ourselves. After unpacking and having a siesta we decided to check out the town. We walked around and found the place to be a nice town, not much to see or do. There were some temples but we were a bit fatigued from Siem Reap and thought just enjoying the quieter pace of life for a few days would do the trick. We found a small place to eat where the beer was cheap and they had the greatest fried noodles we had had on the trip so far. The next few days were spent walking around town, by the river, seeing all the towns people coming to the riverside for their aerobic and dance sessions, checking out the insect stalls (not for pets but for food!) and seeing the kids play. We were looking into doing the 'bamboo train' that the guide said was the highlight of the place, in mine and Neil's head we thought a cute small train made of bamboo, however once we got online we realised it was a plank of wood on wheels with a small engine. It cost 15 dollars each to do and we thought thanks but no thanks and arranged another bus ticket to our next stop, the capital Phnom Penh.
We aranged the bus ticket from The Bungalow and they sent someone to pick us up and take us there – we think it was meant to be part of the service but the driver asked for 2 dollars and we didn't complain. Sometimes you just feel bad arguing with a local about a few dollars, even if we are on a very tight budget we still have more money than them. The bus was another 4 or 5 hours – we're pretty used to it all by now – and we got into Phnom Penh by 2 or 3. The bus office was by a big central market, again we were surrounded by Tuk Tuk drivers. This time we were a bit pickier as they were quoting us silly prices. After we feigned walking away a couple of times, we got one down to 2 dollars. It was about 6-7 mins drive and I wasn't paying much attention but Bindya said, “Has he just taken us in a big circle?”. When I checked the map later it turned out that the hotel was literally around the corner from the market, less than 100m – never mind...
The hotel was nice and big. We got a room on the third floor, just above their cafe/restaurant so got good wifi. There were no external windows but a good shower, fridge and decent TV. After a bit of a rest we headed out to find an Indian restaurant. We walked down to the riverside, which turned out to be quite a mission, as the road traffic was insane.
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| insane traffuc... |
From advice we'd read and observation of the locals it seemed that the best way to cross a road was just to walk, very slowly, out into the road and keep going. This way all the moped drivers had plenty of time to avoid you. We had to combine this with watching out in every direction as there was little way of predicting what direction the next car/moped/tuk tuk might come from. We made it to the riverside which seemed to be the centre of the evening life – lots of people walking around, having a drink, eating, doing their evening aerobics, playing kickaround with sort of shuttlecock things. We had a quick Happy Hour cocktail in one of the bars and an enormous thali in the restaurant – not the best but still OK.
The next day (due to no sun light as there were no windows) we slept in but then managed to get ourselves out of bed and head out for a look aournd the shops, the quay and the museum.
This is where many of the original statues, plinths and plasterwork found in the temples of Siem Reap are kept. We had a look aorund without a guide as our knowledge of Angkor and the symbolism was better due to the few days we spent at Angkor. We were unable to take pictures inside but was allowed (at a price) to take pictures in the couryard. We secretly snapped at some of the statues from the outside and took many photos of Yama. This statue was originally placed at the Terrace of the Leper King. The courtyard was lovely and you really got to see the architecture of the museum.
After this we headed back to the room as it was getting very hot. It was mainly down to the fact that it was so humid that was the problem but just a small walk would leave you feeling sticky and smelly. The hotel aircon comfortably made up for that. We had lunch in the hotel as the restaurant was pretty good and reasonably priced.
The next few days were spent wandering around the town, checking out the restaurants and generally doing not much since we'd had such a hectic time in Angkor Wat. We kept planning to go and see S21, the school turned into 'political prisoner' prison during Khmer Rouge time and the Killing Fields, just outside of town but we downloaded and watched 'The Killing Fields' one night and couldn't bring ourselves to do it the next day – we'd do it when we passed back through on our way to Vietnam. We found a very helpful and friendly travel agents by the riverside who organised us our bus ticket to Sihanoukille – 5 dollars each and free pickup – so we sorted that for the next morning.
Our tuk tuk came on time to pick us up and take us to the bus. It was nice enough and we had the usual Cambodian bus journey. They always play a few films and music on the bus. This time was some strange comedy that everyone else – at least those who could speak Khmer – found hilarious. It seemed to be mainly men with funny moustaches shouting at people and occasionally assaulting women in slightly disturbing circumstances. The music choice was the usual Karaoke videos. We both realised that we started to recognise one or two of the songs now. We got to Sihanoukville and again I got the bags while Bindya organised the tuk tuk. The bloke agreed on 1 dollar so we were happy and he directed us to another bloke who had the tuk tuk. We thought this was a bit odd but climbed in. It was quite a long ride – about 10 mins – but we got there and I gave the driver his dollar. He was not happy and started shouting, “4 dollars – not 1 dollar!” etc. We politely insisted that his friend had said 1 dollar and that is what we had agreed on so that is what we were going to pay. He kept shouting at us. He phoned his friend who Bindya spoke to on the phone. Whoever it was told us the same, obviously. After a bit we decided to take it up to the hotel desk where thay might have been able to help us. He kept shouting in Khmer to the lady who explained what we knew already. He got back on his phone and I asked her what sort of price would have been normal. She explained that they generally could charge anything and half the time would not even stop for her as she was not a tourist, so wouldn't pay the stupidly inflated tourist prices. I offered him 2 dollars as a compromise, even though I was perfectly happy to just ignore him and get on with our day. He continued to argue, saying that he was going to make us get back in his tuk tuk and take us back to the bus station. By this point I was starting to get a bit, 'Come on then! Try it!', which I think Bindya noticed so we finally gave him 3 dollars and he gave up on that. After he left, the woman behind the desk (who I later found out was the European owner's wife) apologised to us and said something quite rude about tuk tuk drivers that we can't repeat here and were very surprised to hear coming from her mouth.
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| Bindya in the pool |
Our room was lovely. The door opened up 3 metres away from the edge of the pool. We got changed and jumped in. The weather was hot and humid but also quite cloudy and they had obviously had some rain recently. After our swim and a rest we headed out for a wander. It was starting to get dark but we found our way to the beach which was covered in tables and chairs from all the beach shacks. They were literally one after another and had very little difference between them so we sat down at one, fairly randomly, relaxed into the comfy chairs by the waterside and looked at the menu. Then it started to rain. It was just a few drops but they obiously knew it wasn't going to pass as everybody started getting in the candles and seat cushions from the beach. We moved inside and ordered some food.
There were loads of beach kids and hawkers walking up and down selling food, friendship bands, fireworks as well as massages, manicures and the like. We had been told not to encourage this as these kids would do this instead of school and we got very good at turning them away with a firm 'no'. I reckon it was our teacher backgrounds that helped here as I saw other tourists swamped with children around them, hassling them to buy stuff. We could turn them away with a 'teacher glare'. The only exception was a young lad of about 13/14 who took a particular liking to Bindya. He might not have known it yet but his future as a ladyboy was firmly set. He came up to Bindya and was utterly fascinated by her, asking questions, just standing and staring. He kept saying, 'I like you!' and offered his friendship bands for sale. As we didn't want to buy them he decided to make one for her anyway, choosing the colours that she was wearing, and gave it to her for free. The people next to us paid him to make some for them so he was happy.
Rest of the time was spent chiling at the beach, eating, swimming in the pool etc. One of the main reasons we were here was to get our Vietnam visa so we got a tuk tuk up to the consulate, cost about 3 dollars, went in, paid our money and were out in 10 mins.
We got our hotel to book our bus tickets back to PP and we were to get picked up at 8 in the morning. They came to our room to get us but by the time we went out, the bus had gone to another hotel. We waited with our bags for a bit until a bloke on a motorbike came and said he was going to give us a lift to the bus. I wasn't sure how this was going to work with our big backpacks but it turned out that he was only giving us a lift to the end of the road as the bus couldn't turn around on our road. We went one at a time and got on the bus that then took us to the bus stand for the PP bus. Usual stuff – not bad bus, Bindya slept while I watched some film about a young couple from the villages, the boy had a father and the girl a mother who were amazing kung-fu experts but also had lots of (hilarious) arguments leading to insane fight sequences. The two kids went to the big city and got into a series of amusing scrapes involving lots of fighting and stuff. I didn't really understand most of what happened but it kept me occupied for a couple of hours, Back in PP, we walked the short distance to the Circuit Hotel (learned our lesson from last time) and got a room there. Unfortunately it was on the top floor so didn't have the good wifi or a fridge. I went to reception and explained that we would like to move room if possible, citing the lack of fridge as the main reason. They brought a fridge up to our room. I tried again to change room because of the wifi but they said that we had wifi there (we did, it was just not as good as the cafes) so I gave up.
The first thing we did was to go to the travel agents we went to last time and get our ticket for Vietnam – it was $12 for a 'luxury VIP' bus. It was only three seats in width so that's what made it luxury.
The next day we went to the Royal Palace area to see the temples there, especially the 'Silver Pagoda' which has a floor entirely made from solid silver tiles. All a bit of a dissappointment if I'm honest. Apart from a small bit, the floor was covered in carpet. The bit that was exposed was dirty, tarnished and had bits of carpet tape sticking to it. There was a particularly impressive buddha statue made from gold and hundreds of diamonds and other expensive stuff but that was about it.
Our final day we found a tuk tuk driver and arranged a price to take us to S21, then the killing fields and back. S21 was a school before the Khmer Rouge took power when it became the main prison for political prisoners and general enemies of the ruling power. This was were people were kept and tortured for confessions before being taken out to the field to be killed. At it's height of operation a couple of hundred people passed through every day. Towards the end of the Khmer Rouge's time in control it was mainly Khmer Rouge themselves who were being taken here – this had me confused for quite a while but it seemed like the party was so full of infighting and backstabbing by the end they were just killing themselves. It was quite strange at first walking through what was clearly a schoolyard with the buildings around.
The first block was for important prisoners so each room only had one metal bed in the middle but there would be a photo on the wall showing what the Vietnamese army found when they marched into Phnom Penh and liberated the city. Mainly it would be someone either dead or horribly mutilated and chained to the bed. The second block was full of photographs. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge took excellent records of all the people they killed so there was just wall after wall of photographs of the people they had brought into the place. After two rooms of this, I had to go outside as I had started crying. The main problem I had was that I hadn't realised that so many of the people they had tortured and killed had been children. There were pictures there of kids who couldn't have been older than 2 or 3. After this were the main prison blocks where they had converted the classrooms into tiny cells, either by building very shoddy breeze block walls or by putting in wooden dividing walls. These cells could just about have fitted one person lying on the ground. It was weird as you could still tell that the bigger rooms had been classrooms as there would still be things written on the wall such as French verbs or the name of a form class etc. Each building was three stories tall so had barbed wire along the front to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide. In another building were paintings by a Dutch artist based on photographs from the prison. In another were boards about which senior members of the party were presently on trial. Again we learned a lot about the whole thing. I had no idea that, even after the Vietnamese army had come into Phnom Penh and stopped the 4 year rule of the KR, the UN continued to recognise the KR as the rightful government of Cambodia right up until 1991. That Pol Pot was still suppored by the American governemt as the leader of the country for decades afterwards. If anything has surprised us more than the senseless brutality of the KR rule there, it has been the response of the rest of the world (or Western governments in particular) to it all. Anyway, we headed out of the place after about an hour and a half to go to the Kiling Fields. On the way out we bumped into the bloke who was out tuk tuk driver in Siem Reap. We stopped and had a quick chat – he said he was working in PP now. The fields are quite a distance out of town so it took us a good 45 minutes or so to get there. There's not much to see, to be honest, it is literally just the fields left, with lots of shallow indentations where they have excavated the mass graves.
There is also a large stupa built in the middle, as a monument, containing hundreds of skulls from the site, a small museum and little signs about the place explaining what would have been there and how it operated. There was a small sign next to a tree explaining that it was the tree that the soldiers would use to bash the heads of babies on. Another sign had a tree where the soldiers would play music to mask the sound of the people screaming. The museum had simple things in it such as the farming tools used to finish people off etc. It was starting to get dark by the time we left and we had a quiet journey back to our hotel.
That evening we did a bit of shopping for souvenirs and presents. We spent some time trying to get stuff at the night market but it wasn't really as good as we were expecting. We did find a nice silk shop that had Bindya entranced for a while – she got to treat herself to a posh silk bag but we could have spent considerably more money there if we had it.
The next morning we got picked up by a minibus to take us to our bus for Vietnam and our time in Cambodia was over.
Beach
Battambang
PP
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