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Published: February 15th 2008
31st January 2008 - 6th February 2008
Battambang - Phnom Penh
Another 4.30 am start, not that we were complaining! We don't wish to start the blog with a moan as people might think we have become serial whingers and not having any fun - we are having fun, honest!
We had a 3-8 hour journey (depending on who you believe) by river ahead of us leaving at 7am and we were the first to be picked up. There were several more pick ups until our minibus was full - twelve people and twelve backpacks crammed into ten seats. The driver was oblivious to our predicament in the back (actually we don't think he cared) and made us wait a good ten minutes while he appeared to be flirting with the woman at the office. The boat was slightly bigger than your average longtail and once we reached the narrow and shallow part of the river it became quite an effort for the crew to steer the boat around the corners, more than once hitting the bank. There was also quite a lot of traffic on the river and we cruised past several floating villages. There were lots
of children playing in the river and whenever our boat passed them they would shout hello and wave and have great big smiles on their faces. They also loved the big waves that followed our boat although not everyone was sharing their enjoyment as we witnessed several people's boats being rocked and nearly capsizing. We have never seen such happy children though, which is even more amazing when you consider that most of the families along the river literally don't have a pot to piss in! We can verify this as when we stopped for lunch we needed to use the toilet and it consisted of a hole in the floor with the river directly beneath. It was only later we thought that maybe it wasn't a good idea to have eaten there as not only do they fish, bathe, wash, do laundry - they probably clean the dishes in the river too as well as crapping in it! We convinced ourselves that they must wash them in boiled water - surely? With predictable engine trouble that held up our progress for about thirty minutes we arrived in
Battambang eight hours and thirty seven minutes after leaving Siem Reap. This
time doesn't include the forty five minute delay at Siem Reap before we even left the jetty! Once again we would like to clarify we are not moaning these are simply the facts!
There are two main places to stay in Battambang - Chhaya Hotel and the Royal Hotel and they agressively compete for your business at the jetty. We went with Chhaya and for $8 we got a pretty good room. We had a glorious sleep and didn't surface the next morning until almost the afternoon so we didn't do much that day. Lately every time we move it seems to take one day to travel and one day to get over it - just facts!
The only thing we did in Battambang of note was to visit the 'Killing Caves' about 20km out of town. There is a Buddhist temple sitting high on a hill which was used by the Khymer Rouge as a strategic military lookout. Some cannons still remain on the hill (I refrained from having my picture taken with them - that phase has passed now!) but more interesting is a cave which has a hole in the top of it where the
Khymer Rouge used to throw their victims down. This method was favoured as it saved on bullets but the fall would not always kill the victim immediately. There is a glass case in the temple full of skulls and bones found here - thousands were killed. Very sad and sickening!
For those that don't know much about the Khymer Rouge, as we didn't, here is a brief synopsis of what happened as they are going to be mentioned a lot in this blog. If you are not interested or a know it all just skip the next paragraph.
The Khymer Rouge forces took Phnom Penh in April 1975 and began a systematic process of transforming the country into an agrarian state. The population of Phnom Penh were forced into the countryside, the majority to work as peasants on the land. They were the lucky ones as Pol Pot, the Khymer Rouge leader, ordered the mass extermination of intellectuals, teachers, writers, educated people, even accountants and their families. Just wearing glasses was a sign of intelligence and punishable by death. The brutal regime lasted four years until the Vietnamese invaded by which time between 1-3 million Cambodians had been
killed (no one is too sure of the exact amount).
On the return journey our tuk tuk got a flat which was fixed in no time with a little help from a guy at a roadside stall (you are never far away from help in Asia - except maybe when in Malaysia!). While waiting I was taking photos of passing traffic. I took one of a guy on a heavily laden moped who saw me and smiled. About two seconds later he was nearly knocked down by a rogue cow! I would have felt so bad! The tuk tuk driver was genuinely nice (a pleasant change from our experiences in India and Sri Lanka which made us distrust all taxi drivers) and he had bought us a face mask each on the outward journey to stop all the dust getting into our faces with no expectation of being repaid. He also acted as our guide at the Killing Caves without boring us so we gave him a very generous tip (generous for us anyway) which should have more than covered his replacement tyre. We had a good shower when we got back as our hair was orange from all
the dust! Our last day in Battambang it rained and was quite chilly - we didn't mind, it was a nice change.
The 10am bus to
Phnom Penh left Battambang at 11.30am. We had bought some bananas for the journey but they turned out to have been boiled and tasted of potatos not cooked properly. Very weird - we didn't eat them. Phnom Penh is a very busy city but is easy to navigate around as the streets are all numbered rather than named - even we couldn't get lost!
The first thing we did, well after breakfast and then lunch (all places of interest close for lunch here) was go to the S21 museum. The musuem used to be a school but was used by the Khymer Rouge as a prison. It wasn't just a prison but was a place of torture. Some of the things they did to the prisoners were truly sickening and it wasn't just those they suspected of 'revolutionary' thinking that they'd capture - they would round up the entire family of that person including elderly, children and babies. None would be spared. Of the thousands that passed through here only seven lived
to tell the tale.
The next day we visited the 'Killing Fields' about 10km out of Phnom Penh. Our tuk tuk that took took us was pretty slow, we were overtaken by five other tuk tuks with tourists - one even had time to stop and buy some face masks and overtook took us again! Prisoners from S21 and other places were brought here by the truckload and executed and thrown into mass graves. A temple has been built which houses thousands of skulls that have been exhumed. For some reason, only 86 of the 129 graves have been dug up. It didn't explain why the remaining 43 have been left. The place was obviously very solemn and sad but tactfully done.
On our last day in Phnom Penh we got a tuk tuk to the Grand Palace (No.1 of things not to miss according to the Rough Guide to South East Asia - not just Cambodia!!). We got as far as the entrance and then thought - nahhhhhh! We really haven't the appetite for any more Buddhist temples and besides it looked practically the same as the one in Bangkok.
We have been pleasantly surprised by
Fully loaded motorbike!
Watch out for the cow!!!the standard of accommodation in Cambodia. We have had hot water almost everywhere and quite often a TV and fridge in our room too! We have also noticed that our tans have been fading fast since being here and we think it might be down to the hot water. You just can't clean yourself properly with cold!
It was about time therefore we were on a beach again so the next day we were to catch a bus to a place called Sihanoukville - Costa del Cambodia here we come!
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Jimmy
non-member comment
Horrific, if only people were more aware...Anyway keep on keeping on!