By bus, by (bamboo) train, by boat

February 9-11

I am absolutely taken with the country of Cambodia. I was in Phnom Penh, but more because of what we did while we were there and seeing the life and vibrancy of the people amidst the tragic history of the country. However, I can now say that the people we’ve interacted with on a one-on-one basis and getting to see a bit more of the countryside has only upheld my first impressions.

We ended up staying in Phnom Penh one extra day as Heather recouperated from a pretty bad bout of food poisoning. Oddly enough, we had the exact same dinner at a set-menu Bangladeshi/Indian/Halal restaurant except she got meat, I got veg…ridiculously unfortunate. Hopefully Bangladesh will, um, treat me a little kinder in the future. She slept the day away in our run down ‘floating island’ guesthouse while I spent the day walking around Phnom Penh and catching up on reading.

Even though Heather wasn’t 100% better she was a trooper and we woke up at the crack of dawn on February 10th to catch a bus to Battambang, the 2nd largest city in Cambodia after Phnom Penh, but with an entirely different feel. The bus ride itself wasn’t that bad, except for a bit of confusion when we arrived in Battambang as to whether or not we were actually there, and were immediately approached by a young man named Vat. He set us up with motorbike drivers to take us to a hotel in town to check out, we settled in, and then he was kind enough to offer us ‘a deal’ for an afternoon tour.

Worked out great, because then we were right back on track with getting 4 nights in Siem Reap.

So we hoped on his motorbike, all three of us (this is totally normal --- we’ve seen entire families of 5 or 6 on one motorbike throughout all of SEAsia..not necessarily the safest, but we put our trust in Vat. And it was cheaper, obviously).

Our first stop was Phnom Sampeau – We had a bit of a hike once we got there to reach the first temple on “Selling Boat” Mountain, but luckily, more than enough time for Vat to fill us in as to why the mountain was named “Selling Boat”. The older temple stands today in memory of those held inside and killed during the Khmer Rouge era. We weren’t to step inside the temple because the smell of human bodies still lingers.

Next to the temple was a path leading to a small cave complex – another place that was used to torture and execute prisoners. There is an opening at the top of the cave that people would be dropped from, apparently. As at the Killing Fields of Choung Ek, there is a memorial that holds bones and skulls of the found bodies. It is much smaller, but holds the same level of respect.

At this point, Vat began telling us about memories he has of being a small child and hiding from Khmer Rouge soldiers in the woods. As far as we could figure, he was born towards the end of the genocide period, but still would have been scarred growing up in the years to immediately follow. He didn’t say much, but what he did say was powerful with emotion. No surprise – but much of society is still dealing with post-traumatic stress disorders and similar symptoms as a result.

At the top of Selling Boat Mountain there is a temple as well as one huge gold stupa, and two stupas that are still being constructed (apparently they’ve been works in progress for years). ALSO, interestingly enough, the first thing Vat pointed out to us was a massive old German gun used by the Vietnamese during the war. It stands today as a reminder of the fighting, as is a great selling point for tourists.

It was at Phnom Sampeau that we also learned a little something about Battambang – a nice little tidbit (and yes, I’ve prepared myself fully for the inevitable making fun that is to follow this comment…). APPARENTLY Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox, her first child, Cambodian, from Battambang. Crazy. Her organization, the Maddox-Jolie-Pitt Foundation is located within the city. We found this out because Vat wants to apply for a position with them…he’d already unfortunately missed the due date to apply, but I’m sure more positions will open over time.

We then continued onto Wat Banan, termed a “personal pocket-sized Angkor Wat”, which happened to be located at the top of 359 stairs. On the way back down, I counted. They weren’t lying. It was a gorgeous ruin site and we got an amazing view of the surrounding countryside.
Which, for me, is why I love touring around on motorbikes – you get to see the little villages and outposts where people actually live their lives, not necessarily based on tourism or development.

On the way back we hoped on the ever-popular Bamboo Train…literally platforms (with small bars keeping you inside), that are powered by a motor, driven by a local, on the train tracks from the outskirts of the city into Battambang. Cambodia has a bit of a rail system, and we’d looked into taking it from Phnom Penh to Battambang (the bus was far cheaper, and far quicker, when all was said and done so we opted not to). Apparently though, most tourists only get to see a small bit of the rail system – by Bamboo Train.

Vat timed it perfectly and we were onboard just as the sun was setting. High Five to him (he’s a tourism/economics university student. Apparently doing well in classes).

We returned to our guesthouse to find a note from Kim – our friend from Luang Prabang (first met her while mountain biking) and Moung Ngoi. She was staying in the same guesthouse and gave us the name of the restaurant she was having dinner at with another couple, Allyson and Chris.

Things happen for a reason, I’m a firm believer, and we spent the night having great conversation and getting great advice not only for Siem Reap (Kim is probably the reason I loved the city so much in the end), but for Southern Thailand too.

Monday we, again, woke up at the crack of dawn to get on a boat bound for Siem Reap. It was a bit more expensive way to travel (versus bus), but Vat had insisted that you’ll get to see ‘real Cambodia’ by taking the boat, and that the road from Battambang to Siem Reap was dusty and full of holes. Weird that we opted for a 3-8 hour boat ride along ‘arguably one of the most scenic water routes in Cambodia’.

And it truly was a great way to see the country – a different style of life than we’d seen thus far. From reading about Cambodia’s history, watching movies and visiting tourist destinations in Phnom Penh and Battambang, I’d gotten the feeling that most of the population of the country were farmers. A large percentage, however, make a living by fishing and along the waterways that drain into the Tonle Sap Lake. We began the trip on one boat, a bit cramped, and passed many riverside farms where people had probably been at work for hours already (we left at 7am, ps). As we meandered further and further down the river, nearing the lake, we passed massive fishing net contraptions, individual fisherman and floating villages. At one point we pulled up to a dock and switched boats for the remainder of our ride, to a larger boat with a huge deck on top for laying out. Heather and I spent a good few hours, getting rather sunburnt in the end, napping and reading (and taking just a few pictures…), finally heading below deck as we approached the lake.

Arriving at the Phnom Krom dock was an experience in itself…when they say dock, apparently they mean lines of boats attached to each other --- and when you disembark yours, you end up climbing on/through others. When we finally reached land, there was a tuktuk driver with our name on a sign, but the scam is that they agree to ferry you the ~15km into town, as long as you hire them to be your driver to Angkor. This didn’t sit well with me or Heather, so in the end we paid the guy and told him we’d find our own tuktuk driver whenever we decided to go to Angkor…we held back from a lecture on the weight of a smile or kind word, or two, when speaking to tourists. The driver was overtly rude and upset we weren’t going to hire him. C’est la vie.

So within 36 hours we’d taken a bus, (bamboo) train and boat. Not too shabby, Cambodia, not too shabby.