The ferry port was between 8 to 14km away from Siem Reap depending on the time of year, i.e. how high the water is. Mmm...OK. The boat also leaves at 7am and takes 6 hours - lunch in Battambang then. So, not wanting to miss it, we got up at 5am, loaded the bikes and cycled down the only road to the port, bleary eyed in the faint dawn light. Admitedly we were rewarded with an overwhelmingly stunning sunrise with bright and clear pinks, oranges and yellows along the way. We arrived at the port at half 6. Plenty of time to load up. The boat had rows of benchs on the deck and then a roof overhead where all the luggage and our bikes went. There were only 4 of us there on the boat ready to go at 7am. Great, we can relax and spread out. Come 7.30 we still hadn't left and a few more people drifted on. Then all of a sudden, a mass of people arrived and all piled on to the boat. There were no seats left on deck so half the people had to sit on the roof (with no shelter from the blazing sun, this must have been horrific). Our luggage was now right at the bottom of a six storey high pile of backpacks and we were a little concerned for our bikes getting squished too. Eventually we left the port and were on our way by 8.15am for the most horrific boat journey I have ever experienced.
It started off well and James being nature boy was spotting all sorts of birds I had never seen before. The floating village was interesting as literally everything you imagine to be in a village, was here and floating, with everyone getting around by canoes. People had dogs though, which puzzled us slightly, do they get walked? But we saw a floating Police station, a school, a chemist and a doctors along with shops and plenty of homes. Then the pump stopped working and the boat started to fill up with water which was discovered when the guys pulled up the wooden floor boards on deck. As a result of the bottom filling up, it meant the slightest turn of the wheel and the whole boat leant over to one side because the water was sloshing about in the bottom and increased the leanage. How, with all the weight on the roof, the boat did not capsize I do not know. It leant over so badly at one point, everyone actually screamed, and people's stuff went rolling around the deck all over the place. Eventually we arrived at 3.30pm and I couldn't wait to get off!
There is not really much to see in Battambang itself and considering it is meant to be a city, it seemed more like a lazy quiet town to us. On our first day, we ventured out on the bikes, pannier and trailer free to find a Pepsi bottling plant that was abandoned in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge who forced it shut. It hasn't been touched since, and thousands of bottles still errily stand on top of one another. From there we went on to a crocdile farm. Not my idea, but J wanted to have a look!
Our second day saw us taking a tuk-tuk out to the country to a single rail line. Cambodia only has single train tracks from French times and the Khmer Rouge did away with the train services and they haven't quite been able to recover. After the Khmer Rouge, local people built what they could to go on the train tracks and they came up with the Norri train. It is a 2 x 3m platform made from bamboo. It sits on metal wheels and has a small petrol engine. You simply load up the flat surface area and bomb along the delapidated tracks at about 20 mph. As the Norri train idea caught on, more and more were made and as a result of the single track, the bizarre thing about the train was what would happen when two trains met along the same track. The lighter load of the two trains would have to remove itself from the track to let the heavier load pass by. The train drivers would then reload the train back on to the track and continue on its way. This would also happen if the train reached the end of the line and needed to return to its departure point! This has now turned in to a tourist attraction and one that intrigued us! Even though our bums have sat on more comfortable, smoother rides, it was fun to whizz along through the countryside. In December, the Norri train will no longer exist as Austraila have been successful in their bid to upgrade and run new railway services, which I imagine will change Cambodia quite significantly.
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| Turning the Norri around to go back to our start point |
After being shaken by the rickety tracks, we headed out of Battambang to Phnom Sampeau, the highest point for miles, with temples and shrines built on top of it. Half way up, we also visiting the Killing Caves, which was where 10,000 people died here by the Khmer Rouge. After climbing the hill, which felt more like a mountain, we sat looking out at the view of miles of flat land, snacking on crisps. The rustling of the crisp bag was clearly a magic noise to a family of monkeys who suddlenly appeared. Now, I don't mind monkeys, but seeing what these red-arsed viscious animals can do from living in India, I am not going to put my rabies jab to test, so when one of them advanced towards me, I jumped out the way and he stole my bag of crisps. Damn, I wanted those! He took them up the tree, being careful not to tip them out and sat there munching away on the much needed salt I could have done with after sweating up the hill.
From Battambang we were two days cycling from the Thai border and five days from Bangkok. We spent a considerable amount of time researching the route and possible places to stay, along with mastering the Thai language and hotel availability as much as the internet could help us. We then set off to the Poipet/Aranyaprathet border.
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