Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 23

What to do what to do in Battembang?? A walk around the place was just like any other place in cambodia really apart from alot more french buildings than id seen before.Busy roads,Noisy as hell,jam packed markets.There wasnt really alot to do.The night before id met some people from the boat trip and we paid for some homeless kids to sit and eat with us which the people in the cafe were not to happy abut which was a bit suprising.You think theyd want their own people to eat.We ended up leaving and taking them to another cafe,soon wed be surrounded by a huge gang of dirty children with pjamas worn for maybe 3 weeks asking for "yim yam" (food) but we couldnt pay for all,But the resteraunt owners attitude had left me with a ... read more

Pa smo v slovitem Battanbangu. Kambodza je se zmeraj cudovita. Spet sva ustali skupaj s petelini ali pa jih celo prehiteli. Nekaj po 6. uri sva ze sedeli na "taksiju"- v pickupu do pomola. Na poti do tja smo nalozili se cel kup drugih popotnikov, vecinoma postaranih zahodnjakov, ki so se nad sedenjem na zadnjih gumah, na svezem jutranjem zraku, kar malo pritozevali. Not pa smo se na zadnjih zicih stiskale 4 punce. Imenitno. Voznja do pomola je bila fenomenalna. Imeli smo razgled na rizeva polja, nad katerimi je vzhajalo rdece, gorece, popolnoma okroglo sonce. Takega sonca se nisem videla, tu pa se (ce ga dobis ob vzhodu ali zahodu) ponavlja vsak dan. Do pomola je vodila razmeroma neasvaltirana cesta. Kambodza je res razbita drzava, ampak do tega se pridemo. Na pomolu pa spet najprej petminutna ... read more

Die letzte Station in Kambodscha ist Battambang, zwar nach Einwohnern die zweitgroesste Stadt des Landes, aber im Gegensatz zu Phnom Penh oder Siem Reap eben noch kein Touriort, sondern ein ganz normales Provinzstaedtchen. Aber erst mal der Weg dahin: der geht naemlich (statt langweilig den Bus zu nehmen) mit dem Boot ueber den See Tonle Sap und dann, sich einen Fluss entlang schlaengelnd, nach Battambang. See und vor allem Fluss haben jetzt in der Trockenzeit einen aeusserst niedrigen Wasserstand und dementsprechend gestaltet sich die Fahrt: das Boot muss schon auf dem See einen merkwuerdigen Zickzackkurs fahren, sowohl eben um allzu flachen Stellen auszuweichen, aber auch weil die Fischer sich hier kilometerlanger "Zaeune" aus Fischernetzen bedienen, in denen nur an wenigen Stellen eine Luecke ist, durch die unser Boot gerade mal so eben hindurchpasst. Gut zielen sollte ... read more

Battambang didn't come across to us as beautiful as we thought it would when we arrived, but we soon changed our minds. We spent two days there with a couple of great local guys who survived the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Even though they both lost many members of their families and are qualified to do much more important jobs, they were still so happy to show us their country. As well as visiting killing caves where the Khmer Rouge executed prisoners- maybe some of our guides families- they also showed us how the locals work and farm the countryside. They also made us sample rice wine, fish paste, red ants and sticky rice. They knew what we really wanted to see- the real side of Cambodia. ... read more

Cambodia Here We Come! Our next destination was Cambodia and we decided to make the border crossing a two day affair. Day one we caught the train from Bangkok to the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet and spent the night there. In the morning we crossed the border with no line-ups and just a few delays. To get our visas, the official closed the glass window in our face until we paid an extra fee above the normal visa cost of $20US, which we negotiated down to 150BHT ($4) for both of us. From there we tried to get transportation from Poipet to Battambang via a share jeep. But Poipet is a town where the police are trying to get every dime out of each tourist and we stood by the side of the road ... read more