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Published: August 21st 2006
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Boat ride to Battambang
They tried to pack as many people on the boat as possible Took a boat from Siem Reap to Battambang, the second largest city in Cambodia. The 7 hours boat ride took us passed many interesting floating villages, picking and alighting passengers at the villages on the way. With many photo opportunities along the scenic ride, 7 hours on the boat was still bearable.
Upon arrival, met with many touts to solicit for customers to stay in the hotel they work for, with stiffest competition from Chaya and Royal Hotel. We chose Chaya Hotel and was led by the tout to board the mini-van to bring us to the hotel. Guess many others chose Chaya too, cos the van was pretty packed. When we were about to get up, we were stopped by 2 French ladies, yakking that the van is full, full and their big-size hubbies, who are stuffing their tonnes of luggage up the roof of the van, need lotsa space. Their kids (even toddlers) each took a seat comfortably while the other backpackers attempted to move in to make space for us. The touts were asking them if their children could squeeze a bit to make space for us but those 2 French ladies just refused to co-operate. They
managed to make space enough for just one of us, so one of the tout who also happen to be moto driver asked if I'm agreeable to take a moto with him to the hotel. Not wanting to make things difficult for them, I agreed, anyway, it's only a few hundred metres away (but to my surprise, it actually took around 15mins, passing by many kampongs before arriving at the hotel at the town centre). Later that afternoon at the hotel lobby, met a Dutch lady who had kindly tried to make space for us in the van earlier greeted me, happy to see that I had arrived safely. She was quite pissed off with the ungracious behaviour of those French people and kept scolding and criticising them. It was quite funny to see her being more uptight with it than I am and I really appreciate her concern. On the next day, the moto driver who sent me to the hotel, Vat, brought up this matter again. It was not the first time he had bad encounters with aloof French people and he openly declared that he dislike them. This incident reminded me that we better behave well in
foreign land, if not we'll leave a bad impression on them, casting a bad reputation of our countrymen.
Though Battambang is the second largest city, but it is still rather unspoilt by tourism, still a very local town. There are not many restaurants or cafes targeted at tourists, that is also why I ate all 3 meals at White Rose cafe for the 2 days in Battambang. Engaged 2 moto drivers, Vat and Sunny to bring us to the padi fields and temples out in the countryside. Enjoyed the one day outing to the countryside. Rode past many padi fields with farmers planting rice, saw orange orchards, pineapple plantations and many other agriculture. Visited Wat Phnom Sampeau, the Killing caves and Wat Bana. The Killing caves were our first encounter with one of the most brutal incident in history, the Khmer Rouge. Vat showed us the caves where victims were tortured to death and the corpses were pushed down the caves. Now, there are remains of skulls and bones where people can pay respect to. It was quite eerie in the caves especially when you imagine how the caves were stacked with corpses at that time.
The highlight
of the outing was to take a ride on the bamboo train. It is a removable motorised cart, tied together by a few bamboo, that runs on the existing railway track that is meant for real trains. The bamboo train could be put together easily onto the track in a few minutes. You may just meet another oncoming bamboo train and one party will have to stop, get out of the train, remove their wheels and cart to make way for the train on the opposite side. It was like taking a roller coaster ride, fast, loud, bumpy and lotsa fun.
Guess the most fruiful experience of the trip is to gain a lot more insight to the life of a typical Cambodian after chatting with my driver, Vat, who could speak pretty good English. I had a better understanding of their political situation, about their lifestyle and how they feel about their government and their future. Though he received education till high school, but it is not easy for them to get a proper job. Being a moto driver, his income is very unstable, very much dependent on whether he manage to receive any tourist for the day.
He is learning English on his own as he did not have money to go to a private school and he makes the effort to study for a few hours at night after a long day at work. I felt so touched to see how grateful he was when I gave him some pens which I brought from Singapore. Pens never meant so much to us. The saddest thing was to hear their real life story about losing their family members during the Khmer Rouge. I really felt sorry for them but at the same time, I'm also very happy to see how hard they work in order to provide a better life for their family. This only make us appreciate and be contented with what we have now.
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