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Published: April 30th 2015
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Road trip- Siem Reap, Sisophon, Battambang
Most travellers in Cambodia stick to the popular tourist towns and only travel via organised buses. We thought it would be fun to get our own bike and plan our own road trip starting in Siem Reap, going West to Sisophon and then South to Battambang. Having spent 4 nights in Siem Reap it was nice to be on the road, away from the swarms of tourists and seeing more of the real Cambodia.
The bike gives you so much freedom, and the opportunity to immerse yourself in new situations. Riding towards Sisophon we saw: live pigs crammed into small carts, chickens hanging upside from the back of motorbikes, bikes crammed with families, tractors, and many extremely overloaded vehicles transporting goods. The roads have only been built in the past few years and are therefore still in good driving condition, although a lot busier and not as scenic as I was expecting. Rules are pretty much non existent, so you have to be bold and confident to prevent getting crushed in the multitude of vehicles. After long distances in the heat, the bike was becoming uncomfortable and kept breaking down but we
were lucky to be able to stop on the road side at one of the many small cafés. Petrol stations are only located in the main towns so many of the houses along the roadside sell petrol stored in old drink bottles, a very practical but also backwards concept. At one of the cafés we stopped at there was a random business meeting taking place for what looked like fabric cleaner. It was surreal to be in the middle of nowhere, in a dingy roadside café observing a business meeting, whilst trying to cool ourselves down with the complimentary ice to the face! We stopped at various points where many people asked which place we had come from and couldn't believe the distance we had travelled on the bike. The impression I got was that the Khmer people don't choose to travel too far on their bikes and many of the strange looks and attention we got were due to the fact not many Western people ride along those roads.
Sisophon Sisophon is located 100km West of Siem Reap and not on the main tourist travel route. Consequently we only saw a couple of Western cyclists on
the road and none in the main town. Although our guesthouse wasn't particularly good it was cheap and the family were pleasant. I got a small burn from the bike that the ladies at the hostel were very eager to use their traditional remedies on. They were frantically rubbing an undisclosed orange liquid, followed by toothpaste and then the sap from a cut up plant on the driveway onto the wound, which did create a cooling effect. To say thankyou and Happy New Year we bought some biscuits in a nearby shop to give them. The New Year celebrations continued, with lots of cars driving around with their boots open, crammed full of people and squirting water pistols at innocent passers-by. Others stood eagerly at the side of the road, taking every opportunity to throw buckets of cold water on people driving past, including us! I found the food stranger here, probably because the few restaurants available had not been adapted for tourists, and didn't have a menu written in English. At the one place we found to eat, Will accidentally ordered a milky fruit pudding thinking it was a pineapple curry and I had a french baguette, with what
looked like tuna but likely to have been something far stranger. The only other thing we could decipher from the menu was a chicken foetus egg, so we opted for a safer option of BBQ Pringles and toffee popcorn which we ate in the confines of our hostel room.
Battambong Battambang, our next stop, was one of the main colonial French towns and a popular destination for other travellers to visit. The road system in Cambodia is still very sparse so to get to Battambang from Siem Reap you have to go via Sisophon which is 100km in the wrong direction. There isn't many specific tourist attractions in Battambang which is why it was useful that we had the bike to explore on. We enjoyed spending time driving around soaking in the atmosphere, riding along the river and around the local market. Whilst on the road Will had met a group of 17 Australians who were on an organised bike tour. We met them for a drink in the evening and shared our thoughts and experiences of Cambodia. It was a really funny evening and both myself and Will were in hysterics at their stories, even crying at
one point! Brad, one of the guys kindly bought us breakfast the next day and then we parted with an offer of a place to stay when we eventually make it to Australia! We spent the rest of the morning enjoying a coconut water in a small café called Coconut Water. They are a welfare foundation working locally to improve the quality of life for women and children using the profits from the café. It was a relaxed atmosphere and the young boy was friendly and keen to practice his English with us. He randomly started singing Ronan Keating a cappella, which turned out to be surprisingly good. We were really impressed and played him some more English artists that we thought he could also learn from.
We got up early to ride the 178km back to Siem Reap before the midday sun came out. Luckily the bike didn't break down and we were able to make it back by midday. As a treat we booked ourselves into a nice hotel (with aircon!) which also included a very awkward massage in the room, complimentary breakfast and a luxurious swimming pool. That evening we went to the Siem Reap night market and among the Ankor Wat and I love Cambodia T-shirts we managed to come away with a few bits after some heavy haggling. Whilst Will took the bike back the following day I took full advantage of the pool in the 40 degree heat, whilst catching up with my diary and reading my book- The Girl who played with fire.
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