Cambodia, from Phnom Penh to Battambang

Hello and happy new year to all! We would like to apologize for not giving much news but this last week has been pretty hectic, and internet is harder to find in Cambodia than in Vietnam or China.
For this is where we are... Cambodia ! We have swapped our newly learned “sin jow” (hello in Vietnamese) for “soo s’dei” and our millions of Vietnamese dongs for Riels (or rather US dollar, as it is the most widely used currency here) Life has taken a wilder turn, with less vehicles, less people, and less creature comforts. Roads are in fact mostly dirt tracks, the traffic in Phnom Penh is very reasonable and made up of only motorbikes (and “tuk-tuks”, motorbike taxis with a small covered trailer at the back for two or three passengers), and the hotels are very cheap at 3 to 5 dollars for a double room, no hot water but who cares in this heat anyway! Poverty is much more obvious here, there are a great number of kids who sell cold drinks, books or postcards from small wicker baskets for a few dollars. The cows have got there ribs sticking out and most people live in bamboo homes on stilts, with no electricity or running water. They bathe in the river and cook on small barbecues in front of their house.
As a result, the pace of life is much calmer, every time you want to go somewhere it takes you all day but it doesn’t matter as there are so many wonderful things to see on the way : giant lotus-filled ponds, buffalos lazing about in the mud, stunning temples in each village, and the Cambodian life taking place under our eyes. Everywhere the kids wave frantically to us and shout “hello” (except one who just pulled a mooney!)
From Saigon we took a bus. crossed the border quite easily and ended in Phnom Penh, where we had a nice evening on the floating terrace of our hotel on stilts. The next day we took another bus at 6 am heading for the Ratanak Kiri province, in the North East. The journey started fine, on a lovely sealed road, but it then became a bumpy dirt track with narrow and flimsy looking bridges dotted around. More than once we had to close our eyes and keep our fingers crossed! It was alright in the end as it only took 11 hours to get there instead of the 15 we had anticipated.
Ratanak Kiri is a stunning portion of jungle, with waterfalls and a lake formed in a crater, which is now a perfect outdoor swimming pool surrounded by lush vegetation.
The next day we took the bus back down (another 6 am start, lie-in is clearly not a Cambodian word), across those wafer thin bridges, and stopped off in Kratie to admire the rare freshwater dolphins in the Mekong (as well as sample the delicious Amok fish –a baked fish curry with coconut wrapped in banana leaf).
The next day our bus left really late (7 am!!) for Siem reap, North West, the town around which are dotted the many Angkor temples. We spent two very full days there, cycling around the site. You can find temples to suit all tastes there : small ones, big ones, big moats or tiny pools, intricate bas reliefs or massive sculptures, in several different states of preservation. But the splendor and magnificence of these buildings are only equal to the amount of destruction they have been inflicted, from looters and the Khmers Rouges (more on this subject in another post). We spent New year’s Eve in Siem Reap, where we splashed out on a veritable feast for 4 pounds a head, and Pete even managed to get his Guinness!
Then this morning we got picked at 6 am in a “remorque-moto” (a motorbike with a long trailer featuring two benches facing each other, where humans and packs pile up as tightly as possible) and got dropped off at the harbour from where we hopped on a boat to Battambang, further South. It was an interesting journey but one I would advise anyone against (well, at this time of year at least, the dry season). Indeed, even though it started quite smoothly on a lake, then a large river, we ended up in the mangrove, with the bottom of the boat catching on the riverbed every metre or so, branches sticking in the cabin from each side, the engine roaring and smoking, and then stopping, under the bemused eyes of the local fishermen… We did end up going again after our driver tested his mechanic skills, and then zigzagged through seaweed patches and half immersed trees to battambang, that we reached in 11 hours instead of the 5 advertised! But anyway it was a fine trip through floating villages with floating shops, floating churches and floating schools and many colourful water birds.
Just one last comment about local transport. In Vietnam as in Cambodia, the ultimate challenge seems to be to pack as much as possible onto any vehicle. This is how you come across crowded buses where they get out the plastic garden chairs for people to sit in the aisle when there are no seats left, minibuses where the extra luggage and passengers end up on the roof, lorries with about a hundred people standing up in the trailer, squeezed tightly against each other, and motorbikes which carry (multiple choice of answers) a) a family of five, or a driver plus b) about fifty aluminium fold up chair tied around him, c) 10 clusters of green coconuts, d) 4 piglets, e) two chests of drawers or f) a wooden double bed (all examples used are authentic!)
So that’s it, we wish you much happiness for 2008 and we will be back soon with more stories from Cambodia!