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Published: April 13th 2008
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Simple...well the 6am train to the border was relatively simple once I found a seat in one of the very full but spotlessly clean 3rd class carriages. Who needs to pay extra for air con when you can simply have the windows pulled down? Plus, I had already splashed out 80 pence for my 5 1/2 hour journey. My breakfast, a croissant, was half that price. Monks sat listening to their ipods, men sat around drinking beer and chatting, students played on their laptop and families of four somehow sat comfortably on seats meant for two whilst I, much to everyone's amusement, took pictures of the Thai countryside passing us by and showed them to the little boy opposite who was amazed by the technology. Sellers past through the train with cold drinks, fruit and home cooked food. I tried what I can only describe as dumplings in a plastic bag with some sweet Thai sauce. A rather strange texture but once smothered in the sauce tasty enough. Before getting off the train the little boy turned towards me and with the palm of his hands together bowed to me with a beaming smile. I did the same back.
Once
at Aranya Prathet the tuk tuk journey was easy. He wanted 80 baht, I offered 50 baht, he 70 and we agreed on 60. Perfect. The border was the tricky part. As I walked to the border I smiled and said no thank you to the hundreds of requests of help for obtaining my visa knowing that they wanted me to pay over the odds for their own benefit. A policeman asked to look at our passports and to come with him. I was pleased to deal with someone official at last and not someone looking for a healthy commission. How wrong was I! He wanted 1000 baht (16 pounds) for a 20 US$ (10 pounds) visa! Pointing at the official 20US$ sign he just told us it was old. The two Dutch guys next to me said there was no point arguing and to just pay but there was a principle here! I tried another official, he said the same price. An Irish chap received a visa so I asked how much he had paid. 20US$ and 1US$ for the guy. I tried the same but he wanted 25US$. I refused and offered my 21US$. Negotiating with Austrian hoteliers
is one thing, with Cambodian officials it is something else! I took off my bags and waited, trying not to wilt in the incredible heat. With the biggest smile I could muster I offered again 21US$ ten minutes later. He laughed and came down to 20US$ and 100 baht. One pound more than I wanted to pay but 3 pounds 50 less than what he wanted. I agreed. I paid. I bribed an official! Since then I have met people who paid the requested amount or even sums up to 40 and 50US$ so the persistence and waiting was definitely worthwhile.
Next challenge, once across the border, was to find a share taxi to Battambang, the second largest city in Cambodia. A Cambodian guy said he had a Canadian couple waiting for a taxi at his office. Knowing most people were heading straight for the temples in Siem Reap I had to trust him. On the back of a "moto", a motorbike, with my big backpack on, a small bag between me and the driver and my small backpack between his legs we headed off rather quickly on the most unbelievably bumpy road. I wondered to myself whether my
expensive travel insurance covered me at this point; most likely not. Then the negotiating began again as the Canadian couple had already paid for the taxi so why should we pay more for one more person? The gas is the same. Eventually we agreed on 10US$. The road from the border was dreadful with huge potholes forcing the driver to drive on the wrong side of the road. Trucks crammed with bags of rice and people perched on top past by causing a storm of red dust making it impossible to see the road. It was going to be a long journey. Once in Battambang I found a room with a double bed, fan, TV, phone and free bottled water. At 3US$ I was pleased there was no need for once to negotiate.
Being off the normal tourist route, Battambang locals are not used to having tourists wandering around their streets. Little children ran up to me asking me how I am, where I am from and generally enjoyed practicing their school learnt English. Not a single request for "one dollar" as in other places. Adults stopped their motos (scooters) in the middle of the road to come over
and ask how I heard about Cambodia and why I wanted to visit, where have I been and do I like it. It was refreshingly friendly. Having read the hotel rules on the back of my door I went to bed safe in the knowledge that guns, knives, bombs and drugs were not allowed in the hotel.
The cookery class started with a trip to the chaotic and colourful market to buy the produce for us to cook with and our teacher told us the names of all the weird and wonderful fruit and vegetables and deliciously smelling spices. A fish was picked out, beheaded and descaled. It still wriggled once in the plastic bag. Meat was chosen along with wonderfully fresh vegetables. First we made the Cambodian national dish, fish amok. Thin slices of lemongrass, ginza, tumeric, garlic, dried chillies, kaffir lime leaves and salt were ground to a paste. Coconut wrapped in cloth was squeezed in water which was added to a hot wok with the paste and shrimp paste for about 20 seconds before adding the fish, chopped onions, mushrooms and aubergine. It was divine. Next was another popular local dish, beef lok lak. The beef
was cut into strips and cubed and marinated in sugar, oyster sauce, oil, Thai Chilli sauce, garlic, soya sauce and crushed black pepper. Cooked over a high heat and served with salad it was also delicious. Next was a chicken soup full of flavour with chillies and lemongrass. Cooking it all was fun but eating it all was even better!
Whizzing along dusty country roads on the back of Cobra's moto passing small villages with small bamboo houses high on stilts to protect them from flooding during the wet season and to shield the families from the heavy sun in the dry season was great fun. Bare footed and bare bottomed, little kids ran after us smiling and waving. In between the villages were fields of chillies, pineapples and corn along with banana and coconut trees. Rice had just been harvested so the numerous rice fields were bare and as dry as concrete, not the lush green I was ignorantly expecting. Stacks of rice hay stood high outside the houses, the bigger the stack the better the harvest, the better off the family. Skinny cows munched the hay whilst huge, fat pigs sat by the side of the road
in the shade. Apparently farmers feed them marijuana so they get lazy and just eat and eat. A huge, colourful marquee was set up for a wedding and Cobra told me that it was currently wedding season as the families now have money in their pockets after the rice harvest. A truck past by with a sound system for the party which lasts two days and normally costs 1000US$, a huge amount when you consider teachers are paid only 20US$ a month. After climbing 365 stone steps I enjoyed my first visit to a small Wat, a temple, in the late afternoon sunlight accompanied by only two little girls who smiled sweetly, fanning me in the heat, helping me up and down the steps and putting flowers in my hair, all in the hope of a little money. As the sun was setting Cobra, his moto and I braved the bamboo "train". Made with recycled military tank wheels, a bamboo platform and a small, honda engine the "train" is used by locals to carry goods along the one track from Battambang to Phomn Penh. Yes, that's right one track which is shared by numerous other bamboo trains going in each
direction, oh and by normal trains too! We clickety-clacked our way through the countryside along the incredibly wonky train tracks at a ridiculously fast speed only slowing down when another bamboo train was approaching. The other bamboo train was dismantled in seconds to allow us to pass and continue along our bumpy way. So highly illegal but oh such great fun.
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