Battambang to Bangkok

---

My next destination after leaving Siam Reap was a small city called Battanbang, I was a little sad I was leaving all my friends that I had been traveling with for the past few weeks and now heading of on my own again. The journey to Battanbang was like every other journey in Cambodia, very bumpy dusty and extremely hot (about 38 degrees). The bus had no air conditioning so all the windows were open so that meant that every time a bus came the other way everyone inside of our bus was covered in dust which happens to stick very well to your skin when you can’t stop sweating! Also on the 6 hour journey the bus broke down twice and the drive had to jump out and repair it on the side of the road right there and then while we all cowered in the shade.
I finally arrived in the afternoon and headed straight to a hotel for a much needed shower before setting out exploring the city- well they call it a city but in actual fact it was smaller than Chippenham!
As I walked around the town I ended up chatting to this young Cambodian who was learning English at the local college, we chatted for a while on the side of the road and he mentioned that he wanted to practice his English with me. He mentioned about a festival that was being held out of town and wondered if I would be interested. So before I knew it I was heading 18 kms out of town on the back of a moped to some unknown destination in the middle of know where. Now most people that know me that I’m not one to worry but at this point it did cross my mind that no one knew where I was or where I was heading too and that anything could happen to me as I had all my variables in my backpack and that I could be taken to get mugged at any point. But as it turned out I had a great surprise, after heading for half an hour down yet another dusty bumpy road we arrived at the base of this hill with a temple all lit up. Here there must have been around 3000-4000 people at this festival and I was the only foreigner it was such an experience. There was everything you would expect to see at a festival, live music, acts, loads of food and all these strange games to play to win prizes but the most notable thing the lack of any beer tent and alcohol!!
I had a great night and was so glad that I witnessed something like that, it really was a true backpacker experience that I was looking for, though by the time I had got back I was so covered in dust that it looked like that I had been dragged behind the bike instead of being on the back of it.

The following morning I had decided to enroll in a cooking class to learn to cook some traditional Khmer food. I learnt to cook 3 dishes - a fish amok, a spicy beef and basil dish and a chicken and lemon grass soup all of which tasted great but not quite as good as Thai food which is still the best food in Asia in my opinion.
The cooking class took up most of the morning so in the afternoon I got another Cambodian friend of mine called Thean who was moto driver to take me to a few of the sights around this area. The first place we visited was this mountain very near the place I had been the previous night and yet again there was a really beautiful temple at the top of a mountain although this mountain was a whole lot higher than the one last night. Within 5 mins of starting to walk up there I was dripping wet with sweat and already tired, for the past few days the temperature had been getting hotter and hotter and by now it was really starting to take its toll. Half way up there were some caves to check out that had been used by the Khmer rouge to murder many Cambodians in the same way there did at the killing fields in Phnom pehn.
I carried on up the mountain seeing more and more Buddha’s on the way up with the occasional break to look out over the view. I also asked myself many times why the hell I had decided to walk up this hill in the middle of the day in this heat, no one else was stupid enough to do it, but my the top it was all worth it and the views were great. As I was catching my breath I started to chatting to this monk and he showed me down some stairs to this really magical area that look like a bowl slightly covered by the mountain that looked the same size as a small stadium, it looked like something you would see in Indiana Jones film! With in this area there were many caves, monkeys and scared spots of worship which gave the place a real amazing feeling.
By the time I got back to meet Thean I had been about 3 hours, most people take 2 hours to walk it but when I tried to explain where the monk had taken me, he had never heard of anyone seeing that area before which made it even more special.

The next place we headed to was the Bamboo railway which was basically a small bamboo platform attached to a couple of wheel and a small engine and that was it. It used the same train line as the main trains did so when ever you seen the real train in the distance you would have o jump of our bamboo train and lift it off the tracks until the train pasted by and the you could then lift it back on to the railway again and carry of with your journey. It was quite an experience slowly traveling through the outskirts of the city seeing all the poor suburbs and the people leaving near the train tracks.

I had a quite evening with my 2 new Cambodia friends having a few games of pool and riding around the city. I have been so impressed by how friendly the Cambodian people are, I know I have mentioned that before but there are the friendliest bunch of people I have ever met, there just make you feel so welcome.

The following day I traveled to the border my bus, but this time they had over booked the bus and I had to sit in the aisle on a kiddie’s plastic chair, so every time the bus sped up or slowed down my chair kept sliding back and forth down the centre of the bus!
I got to the border with out the bus breaking down and crossed to border into Thailand and immediately seen the contrast between the two countries, it was like seeing the developed world again. I had to wait around for a few hours at the border before I could get a bus to take me to Pattaya where Mark my step Dad’s house is. This part of the journey was so comfortable compared to what I was used too as the bus was air-conditioned and the roads were super smooth.

For the next few days I spent my time at Marks house, telling them about my travels and relaxing in his pool and Jacuzzi etc. It turned out to be a really nice couple of relaxing days and I even got to drive around in Marks 4x4 as I had been missing driving so much.
Pattaya was definitely a sight to behold due to the shear amount of neon lights and bars. I had a good couple of nights out here but was glad that marks house was out on the outskirts of the city and the centre was so full on.

I then headed for my last few days in Asia in Bangkok before my flight leaves for Hong Kong. The funny thing about the Khoa san road in Bangkok is that you always meet someone you know and as I had traveling there on my own and my the end of the day in the space of about 2 hours I had bumped into all my friends from Cambodia and Vietnam which I was so excited about. So the next few days were spent going over what we had been up to and where we were all heading, I couldn’t believe I had bumped into all of them again

I had planned to do some more sight seeing in and around Bangkok but I was to preoccupied my other things and mainly I have decided that I have enjoyed S.E.Asia so much that I will be back here very shortly so anything that I have missed now I will see some other time. I always knew I would like Asia but never did I expect to enjoy myself this much, I am so sad that this part of my journey has ended but it not all bad I now have Hong Kong and Australia to look forward too- such a hard life!!!!

---

Photos

Ummm!! Local delicacy
These spiders are deep fried then eaten!! needless to say that is not me holding it

The main road to the border!!
The majority of the roads in Cambodia do not get any better than this!!

The bus driver fixing our broken bus
We all hid in the shade away from the dust and the heat.

The local shop
There are no supermarket here, if you need anything this is the kind of place you go

The hill I decided to climb
I know it doesn't look much, but it is alot steeper and higher when you start to climb it when it is 38 degrees

Just a few of the stairs i had to climb up
All worth it for the view over the local area

Me in my Buddah impression in the temple at the top
Yes- i do have a slight sheen to me

The bamboo train
This is how some of the stuff is transported in and out of the city including people and mopeds!

Comments

[Matt]

I dont even get a mentioned about ur trip back to bangok? bollacks. lets get some updates about OZ.....u've been there long enough....i want to know what u have been up to the last month

[Libby]

Brilliant AGAIN!!
What a superb blog! and the spelling and grammar have improved too. Your descriptions are so graphic that reading it makes you feel like you know exactly what its like there. Fantastic to had seen such special little out of the way places that no one else has seen! I wanna go there too!!!

[Martyn*>>]

FOA - Charlie - known by himeslf as god (known by me as gayboy)
Lets have some Oz pictures please you slacker !! you have been there ages now......so fill us in - P.S - look you can publish this one - no swearing!!!