Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 24

Well they had us up at the ridiculous hour of 5am to catch our ferry to Battambang. For those of you that don't know Battambang is Cambodia's second largest city (Not that you would know by the look of it). An hour of collecting folks around the town and a brief bus journey brought us to our ferry. It was less a ferry and more a glammed up skiff with a roof to be fair. We were amongst the lucky ones who got the shaded seats downstairs, where as some people were on the roof in the sun. As it was dry season the journey took 9 hours and we were fairly glad to get off it in the end. It was however, amazing to see so many people living along and on the river. Every ... read more

The most practical way to reach Battambang from Siem Reap is by bus - the road is mostly tarmacked (unlike the notorious Poipet to Siem Reap road) so the journey isn't too arduous. But, if like us you want to do it the rewarding way, you have to go by boat. Admittedly it's a little more expensive at $12, which is certainly not the local price and you have to endure between 6 and 12 hours on a hard bench or plastic chair with nowhere to move (it's sardines). Or, as one of our shipmates suffered, have a 1 year old half-naked boy pee on your book and have your water stolen by his mother. You may even have to sit on the roof of the boat and get fried in the sun but you will ... read more

Are cycling days are now behind us. We arrived in Battambang this afternoon after cycling for the past three days. I know one little lady who is excited that the cycling is completed. ;-) She was complaining that 33c with 90% humidity is too much... The last couple of days have been our best from a cycling standpoint. We had the best roads today and yesterday with a wonderful tailwind - set up sail and ride. We were able to get to our destinations before 12:00 both days even though we had 100 km to cycle. I will miss all the "Hellos" from everyone, though. We really had some fun with that as we passed by the school kids cycling to and from school or the kids huddled underneath their homes waiting out the heat of ... read more

Well we have arrived in our second city in cambodia by boat. It is a huge difference from the first. The first city had so many beggars and was very tourist orientated. Battambang is the complete opposite. Because there are no tourists they are no beggars. When we arrived in the city we found 2 friendly moto drivers that could speak very good english. We hired them for the next 2 afternoons of exploring the city. We first went and explored all the surrounding villages and the country side. We went to see rice paper being made, oyster mushroom farm, fish paste factory and the killing fields of Batambang. The killing field were very sad. There was a bunch of carvings of stone that showed the different ways that the khmer rouge tortured the people. When ... read more

Battambang has a garlic - I mean Gallic - feel to it, as it is made up of French colonial buildings set along a riverside. Another temple strewn landscape, we decided to visit only one of them, and along with our drivers, we mounted our motos - our only real transport option here - with trepidation. We wore helmets, which was a rare sight in Camodia considering the lack of safety-consciousness regarding the roads. Along the way we saw children as young as eight or nine riding around on motorbikes, and they give India a run for its money, for the 'number of people that can be crammed onto a vehicle' award. Riding on the moto was easy, you just had to relax! (despite the rocky, dusty roadways and weaving motos). We arrived, windswept and dusty, ... read more