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Published: March 9th 2009
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We have managed to reluctantly drag ourselves away from Siem Reap and are now in Battambang!
Our last night in Siem Reap was spent having dinner at the Khmer Family Restaurant with Ara, our waitress from the Khmer Kitchen. The kids found it really hard to say goodbye to her and to the children from the street.
After dinner we walked back to catch a tuk tuk and from out of the shadows of the market came Paul, our tuk tuk driver from the temples and the lake, with a gift of a traditional scarf for each of the children, such a gorgeous gesture which made leaving even more difficult. This reluctant feeling did not ease with the bus trip, hotel organization or arrival in Battambang.
Booking bus tickets involved a bit of haggling, which Mitchy is getting quite good at now. He was told that the trip would be five hours on a road which was being repaired and that the bus had air conditioning but no toilet.
We had been recommended a hotel in Battembang by a gorgeous Canadian couple who we had met in Siem Reap, the Seng Hout Hotel. A brand new place with the
finishing touches still being done. Mitchy cancelled our booking at the Royal and rang the hotel. After speaking with two receptionists at the hotel he was passed on to a third (who it turns out is the owner) who spoke some English, although seemed to think that Mitchy was booking a room for ‘Mr Choo’.
So, the Choo family were officially heading to Battembang.
The next morning we waited outside the hotel for the pick up for the bus, a young bloke pulled up in a bus, came over and said ‘six people for Phnom Penh?’, ooops we thought, ‘no six people for Batttembang’, ‘ahhh, not Phnom Penh?’, “no Battemebang’ ‘hmmm, okay then lets go’. So on to the bus we went, dazed and confused thinking it was lucky we liked Phnom Penh even if it was in the opposite direction! I checked with the other passengers where the bus was going, ‘we are hoping to go to Phnom Penh‘, one bloke said, ‘but no one is really sure what is going on‘. As the bus pulled into the Siem Reap bus station we were told to change to the bus to Battambang, a lady asked us how long
it would take as she had been told 3 hours, 5 hours and 6 hours. Hmmm, it was going to be an interesting trip, I reassured her that it was 5 hours.
Apparently they call Cambodia the wild west of Asia. I am yet to understand this fully but the road from Siem Reap to Battmebang is fairly wild. Very flat and dry with cactus plants scattered along it. We passed ute loads of people and possessions along the way, sometimes up to thirty in the back and luggage on top of the cab. Space was obviously at a premium on the ute that had people, cases and a motorbike on it, with a guy straddling the bike on the back of the ute. The road was definitely ‘under construction‘, bumpy, dusty and with some ‘interesting’ minor detours.
We stopped at one roadside café for food and amenities, all that needs to be said is that the walk from the bus to the toilet was worse than the filthy squat at the end of the path.
The Cambodian bus driver and his female friend had obviously not read the part in the book that says that public
shows of affection are not acceptable in Cambodia as she caressed his face and shoulders throughout the trip. I was pleased when she alighted and he could concentrate on the task at hand.
Our children were restless for much of the trip but as there were two monks sitting across the aisle from me, I had to give the impression that I had a calm handle on the situation meanwhile wanting to rest a couple of the kids on the cactus plants we were passing along the way!
Just as we were settling down for the last hour and a half of the trip, with one last bump we pulled up at a service station, “welcome to Battambang’, one and a half hours early!
Our next challenge was to get the hotel to pick us up which was a concern as they had not heard of the company we were traveling with, anyway we gave them a call and as Mitchy fended off a bloke trying to get us to go on his ‘moto’ (motorbike) to the hotel, (all six of us plus luggage), our lift arrived!!
The hotel is lovely, brand new and very central.
The girls at reception
seemed to have a little trouble showing us where we were on the map which caused a few issues as we were all tired and ready for lunch. We decided just to head out and surely we would find a tuk tuk, an English speaker or a clean looking café. Hmmmm, this place wasn’t like any we had experienced so far, not a sign of any of them.
The only real landmarks we could pick out were the bridges, our Lonely Planet showed a recommended café close by one of the four bridges. The fact that the “Old Stone Bridge’ actually looks like a new stone bridge and the New Iron Bridge looks like it is about to fall into the river didn’t help really, and after the first major marital dispute of the trip in which the Lonely Planet Guidebook nearly found wings we made it to the Green House Café on the East Bank. I must say over lunch I wondered how we were going to survive a week in hot, dusty Battembang, this musing was not helped by the fact that the main attractions are the French architecture (great but possibly not
going to keep the kids entertained for a week), oranges (which are green), pomellos (what are these anyway) and rice.
Anyway, here we are now almost a week later contemplating extending our visas (although Mitchy likes the idea of being a fugitive) and staying longer (a conversation which started because we have run out of time to get our clothes washed!), eating every day at the Green House Café, watching amazing sun rises and sunsets, going on Cambodian family picnics, eating their famous oranges and rice and ‘making friendly’ with the locals.
I guess that is the thing about travel, some places you fall ‘in lust’ with straight away like Siem Reap with all the sensory excitement it provides and others you start to love in a slow, ‘creepin’ on in’ kind of way…
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Bridget Byrne
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Bus to Siem Reap from Battambang
I have just read your enjoyable report. I am taking a bus from BB to SR on 5th March 2010. Questions: Which bus to take - I am a solo 65-year old Irish lady travelling alone in Asia. I will arrive from Phnom Penh on 3rd March on another bus, which my hotel will book for me. As I only have 2 days in BB can you suggest what I should do during this time? Is there any other way of getting from BB to SR - quicker?? Thank you for your advice.