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Published: March 16th 2010
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Confusion
Yes, I´m afraid that its true. The old story of checking and double checking again every fact in Asia caught us at last. In the last Blog I mentioned that minibuses to the Cambodia border left 3 times a day from just up the road from the Guesthouse we were in. We went up and checked again there and also with other members of the guesthouse staff and the consensus was that there was indeed one at 0830 or 0900, the other 2 times were perhaps unreliable.
We arrived at 0815 to be sure of getting a seat, but this was not necessary as nobody else arrived until nearer 0900 and then just to get us into Cambodia mode the driver of the first van to arrive opened all his doors and cranked up the stereo to broadcast breakfast radio to everyone within 3 city blocks.
Around 0915 the driver of the 2nd van indicated that we should load our bags in the back of his van - which we duly did and then climbed in ourselves. After a wait of about another 20 mins we set off ........
....... for a slow trawl around town
to try and find more passengers. Eventually we managed to fill all the seats and set off for the border. Was a good trip but I was getting more and more perplexed by the presence of mountains to the South of us. My recollection was that we would travel towards the mountains and then veer South to the coast and on to the border at Koh Kong. The bus then started climbing some foothills and realisation dawned that I hadn´t actually asked which border post we were heading to!!!
This was not good news as the borders in this area are notorious for causing problems for Westerners that need to be resolved by the judicious application of US dollars. Fortunately we struck them on a good day and we sailed through both borders (near Pailin) with no problems where we were set upon by drivers wanting to take us to Battambang. Cost $20 to hire a car to take us there but first they had to repair it. Jump start the engine, borrow some cable from a friend to hotwire the headlights for the duststorms and then we were off......
.....to pick up the girlfriend, kick the
tyres, pump up the tyres, calculate and buy the minimum amount of petrol required for the trip and so we were off, and of course so was the A/C ¨is broke¨
Cooking
We alternated between cooking with the windows up (temp was in the high 30s and
possibly hitting 40) and choking on the dust with the windows down but eventually got to Battambang around 90 km away after only 2 stops - one to drop the girlfriend off and one for us to buy some drinking water. We got the driver to take us to the bus station in the hope that we could get a bus through to Pnom Penh and we got there with 45 mins to spare.
Carrying
Was only local bus but is 1st class A/C sir. Jill wasn´t feeling well this day so we just got a bunch of bananas for lunch and some more water. Well versed by now in Cambodia time we were not surprised to find that the bus left 30 mins late and then cruised the town for another 30mins. But we still had one more surprise in store for us. What should you take on a trip
through rural Cambodia? Of course!! A spare engine, just to be on the safe side.
Collectiveness
Any thoughts we had of a quick trip to PP were destroyed when the bus stopped at every hamlet along the way and one was particularly memorable as there was no seats left for a woman. So she planted herself in front of the bus and refused to move - big argument then broke out between her and the bus staff and eventually involved nearly everyone in the bus having their say (except for us two bemused Kiwis) before she was finally removed. Hard to describe journeys on local buses in SEAsia except to compare them to a bustrip with work colleagues and families on an annual outing, that started with a liberal amount of free drinks beforehand. Babies cry and mothers sing, people yell randomly up and down the aisle, push and shove, fight, share food and drink, etc.
Congestion
It was dark by the time we got to PP and boy did we notice a change here. As best we can remember it was 8 years ago we were last here - street lighting was confined to main streets as
was footpaths and tarmac. Whenever it rained the town would flood with a mixture of sewerage and rain. It is now a large urban centre, with a lot of the signs of modern living but still mixed with a lot of older infrastructure. We stayed at the Capitol Guesthouse and was fine for a night or so
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Ally
non-member comment
That sounds like a slow start, butit must of got fun as you startes driving. And it seems like you guys had to wait for a while. Well it's nice that you guys also got A/C