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Published: September 7th 2006
Battambang
The Battambang sky as the sun sets, and the giant statue of the founder of the city watches over the trafficWe have arrived safely this afternoon to wonderful ol' Battambang (sounds sort of Aboriginal if you say it fast enough) in an effort to escape the terrors of Siem Reap (albeit exciting as they were) we used the excuse that Mont needed to see the "real" country side of Cambodia.
Cristopher had headed off the day earlier and we traced his footsteps in boarding the 6 hour boat trip (felt a lot more like a hundred) that passed through a number of floating villages and the infamous floating forest. The whole scene was set on a wide lake, gradually turning into a slow moving river with tiny chanels between the corriders of forest that would whip your face as you chugged through. There were a few moments where boats would come head to head and it was basically a case of who was bigger, or who was more in a position to back up till you found a slightly wider section.
The journey wasn't too bad, despite the pole position being pipped by a local woman, and the mother that was de-licing her daughter next to us, the only real complaint we had was that once again we had
Battambang
Floating village been woken early, and Mont and my wounds were hurting somewhat. Whoas me.
Arriving in Battambang, we were accosted by the usual hordes of people trying to get you to stay at their guesthouse, or ride in their tuk tuk. Luckily Christopher had booked ahead for us, and we were even greeted with a sign "Michelle and Micko" Maybe that's Marks' other brother.
Place is good, cheap and clean with 60 channels of cable (and some of these are even in English! Jackpot!) After we check in, grab the necessary cold shower, we grab a bite to eat and start chatting to Jake one of the hotel's motorbike riders.
After amusing us greatly by congratulating Andrew on how good his English was, this was in response to Andrew's same compliment to him, we were convinced that we should go out with him and 2 other riders to ride the Bamboo train. This crazy contraption runs on the old railway lines that the French laid while in power, but now is only used for the 3 times a week, 16 hour ride to Phenom Penh for those who are truely crazy or just love old slow moving trains.
Battambang
Our exhaust as we chug along. We all jump on the back of a motor bike (yes, even the boys) and head out to the back streets of the town and are soon surrounded by rice paddy fields, a beautiful sunset and small villages with the usual smiling waving kids that all call out "Hello, Bye Bye" and wave their arms furiously at you.
I rode behind Jack, who turned out to be a wonderful guide and was a great conversationalist explaining diferent things as we went. We cross the tracks once, continue onwards under a rainbow and turn left after the brick making factory. The bikes pull up at the railway tracks where you notice a number of bamboo platforms lying around and what looks like giant dumb bells. Some of the locals begin to put the pieces together and literally BUILD the 'train' in front of us.
"Lets Rock and Roll!" one guide exclaims.
"Lets hit the frog and toad" replies Mont
"Ah, the frog and toad and chicken" pipes Jake
..... ah, yes. ?
The three motorbikes get piled on with the drivers, ourselves and a handful of kids as they start the engine (looks suspiciously like an outboard
Battambang
Mont and Nunny loving the ride motor) and we' head back towards Battambang, greadually increasing in speed and whizzing over the bumps.
Being late in the day we had the luxury of making it the whole way without having to take our train off the tracks for any on-coming traffic, and could enjoy the view while pretending to be train drivers. Richards "Chang Changed" the whole way 😊
Content with the journey, we reach our drop off point and jump back on the bikes to return to the hotel.
What a pleasant afternoon indeed. We arive to find Christopher who has returned form his day's excursion and the 4 of us head to dinner.
Tomorrow the 3 aussies will head out to a couple of local temples, then meet up wih Prince Christoph and head to the capital.
"Capital City!!!"
No, just Phenom Penh.
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swampy
non-member comment
chang-ing
hahahahaha! still loving the read, and the photos keep getting better and better! Richards chang-ing takes the cake