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Published: June 19th 2007
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17th June
We made our way from Siem Reap to Battambang via boat. If you believed the photo on the ticket they gave us it looked more like a luxury ferry! It was more like a longboat with a tarpaulin stretched over the top. Not the most comfortable for what we were led to believe would be a 5, but in actual fact a 7 hour journey!
It was a really nice trip riding out of the river towards the lake. Along the way we passed a huge floating village, where we saw something resembling our ferry parked up, - at which point our "captain" jumped off (probably to give the cheeky bugga on the ferry some money) before joining us again!
The scenery was stunning, we saw lots of qwerky floating houses, - whole villages, - including a massive floating school, gym, mechanic, you name it there was probably something floating that sold it!
Once we crossed the vast lake, we went up the river leading to Battambang, - lots of houses on stilts to prevent flooding, and loads of very excited kids jumping up and down on the riverbanks when they saw us go past.
Some of them were going mad! - all sorts of crazy chicken dancing going on, massive waving going on, bouncing around, throwing themselves into the river (and each other!) - it was brilliant!
As the boat journey took most of the day up we just relaxed when we got there and booked a motorcyle tour the following day.
18th June
We set off at 9.00 with a rider each. Both spoke English which was great as we got to ask lots of questions!
Our first stop took us to the bottom of a steep hill that we started to walk up. Along the way our guide "gave us an education" about the Khmer Rouge. Probably the most intersting thing on this trip was this 2 hour long chat we had on the way up to the top. The only real learning we had done over the history of Cambodia had until be done through the History section of the Lonely Planet, and from the museum we visited. Wow! He pretty much dispelled much of what we thought we knew. Really interesting, but again very sad, he told us how one of his sisters and
one brother were both killed within a week. One for stealing food, one for not sharing a fish she caught. Shocking. He said everyone had a story to tell. He once met Brother Number 3 (Not Pol Pot) but very high up. Anyway it was interesting chatting to him!
At the top was a "prison" formerly a temple, and a cave were thousands were brutally killed. Tere were 2 massive cannons on the top of the hill that were used against the Khmer Rouge when they were finally ousted.
We went for lunch at the bottom of the hill before heading to Wat Banan, buit in the 11th century, that looked very similar to Angkor Wat but in miniature. We met a small group of monks on the way up that were really chatty and wanted to practice their English. It was also their first time to this temple.
We then head off to another temple famous for the trees filled with fruit bats. These things were huuuuge and there were thousands of them!
Our guides tried to hurry us along at this point as there were monster clouds heading towards us.
We set off
again through a maze of fields, mud and tracks until finally we ended up on the highlight of our trip: The Bamboo Train! - Though the only thing it has in common with a train is that it uses the same rails as the one from Phnom Penh, but thats pretty much it!
As you can see from the picture it's a bamboo floor set on 2 coasters with a generator to push the thing along!
We took this train all the way back to Battambang, - it was brilliant! Although a bit scary at times because not only was the rickety track really twisty and uneven, but there seemed to be a total lack of joining between some of the rails- nothing! Not a bolt! Anyway we bombed down this little railway, we came across another bamboo train coming the opposite direction. One has to move of the rail for the other and we won because we were heavier, so off they went, picked up their "train" and carried it off the tracks, whilst we carried on!
About half an hour later we arrived just outside of Battambang where they took us back to our hotel.
To see a video clip of us on the train copy this link into the web address (it might take a while to load up):
http://www.fliqz.com/FliqzWebPublic/Dynamic/proxy.aspx?IsInPlayer=true&VID=20159&ORIVID=20159&fliqzster=true&from=perma
19th June
We got the bus back to Phnom Penh and booked our bus ticked for tomorrow to Sihanoukville in the south and on the beach!
This is where we are writing from now.
Just having a relaxing time now after all the travelling madness. There's a hotel called Sokha hotel, - meant to be the 8th nicest in the world (maybe at one time), - it's amazing but we're not staying here. We did, however try and sneak in, which we managed to do and made it onto their meticulous whitesand beach (only one other couple on there and they were about 70 so possibly we looked a bit out of place!). After an hour we got caught and were told ever so politely that the loungers were for the guests only. Oops.
So we paid him 4 dollars each and he said we could use all the facilities. Needless to say we didn't get a receipt! - Unfortunately
half an hour later it started raining and didn't stop all afternoon. We hadn't counted on it raining that day, so their posh towells became "borrowed" goods for your journey home! I think we looked like E.T. riding back home with our towels wrapped around our heads!
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Niki
non-member comment
Boring train ride
Ok chaps it maybe bamboo and all that. But, bloosy hell, how boring. You could have jumped in front of the camera or something. Even said a few words. Next time TALK TO US !!!!!!!!!! Love ya Niki xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx