Adventure to Siem Reap-off

It was an early start this morning for our journey from Battambang to Siem Reap. We decided to take a boat instead of the bus. More expensive, but supposedly more comfortable. We were picked up at our hotel by a minibus, and the driver explained that since the river level is a bit low, we had a short drive to the boat. Okay, great. We did have a short drive, but it was only to be dropped off at a pick-up truck (4WD ute), not a boat. Apparently the drive was a little longer than previously described. There were already 4 whities in the truck, plus the driver, so we hopped in the back of the truck with the other 2 remaining whities. All of our luggage was piled onto the truck's lowered tailgate and precariously tied down with some rope. Two locals hopped into the back with us just before we drove off, making it extremely cosy. We all started off sitting on the sides of the bed of the truck, but quickly learned that this was definitely NOT the way to be doing it. The road was so bumpy that we were nearly tossed right out more than a few times. Ohhh, so THAT'S why we changed from the minibus to the truck! After about 20 minutes on the 'road' (if it can be called that), we turned off into farmland so the driver could test out the full capabilities of our vehicle. Actually, perhaps part of the road was washed out or something, but it was hard to imagine that it would have been worse than the route we took through the farmland. We traversed through dry creek beds with 2-4 foot deep ruts, up and down steep embankments (requiring us to get out of the vehicle so it would make it up the hill), dense jungle where we were whipped and slashed by foliage, and along single tracks designed for dirtbikes. It was a neverending trampoline ride in the back, except that the trampoline part happened to be steel. Nige doesn't quite know what everyone was on about as he was quite comfortable sitting on his backpack on the floor of the bed. The first 30 minutes of this found us all laughing and making jokes, but after about 40 minutes it got a bit tiring to say the least. We were happy when we finally arrived at the 'dock' and cheered when we saw the boat. Kel thinks her body is still in shock from it all, but it was great fun.

The boat was docked in the middle of nowhere at the home of a family along the river. The toilet was the bushes, and there were not a lot of bushes for Kel to hide behind. We got our bags out of the truck. Well, at least we think they were our bags, as we couldn't tell who's bag belonged to whom as they all had a 1-inch thick layer of dust and mud caked onto them...except for Nigel's as his was safely tucked under his bum the whole ride. HE, however, had the 1-inch thick layer of dirt and mud on him, as did all of those lucky enough to have the airy seats in the back of the truck. The first boat trip was noisy and a bit slow, but quite enjoyable. There were only us 9 whities, the 2 locals, and 2 drivers, so there was plenty of room aboard. We cruised for about 2 hours or so. Along the banks there is farmland, fishermen, bamboo-hut homes, and small villages. These people are extremely poor, their homes being little more than a wooden platform with some palm branch walls and roof. But most of the children we passed waved excitedly to us, shouting 'Hello!!' over and over until we were out of sight. That was the best part of it all.

The boat stopped at a floating store/restaurant and the locals and drivers got off the boat. Us whities sat and waited, for what we did not know. Nige thinks it's so that we would sit and sweat on the boat so we were forced to get off and buy their expensive beer (which we did). After about 15 minutes, we heard the karaoke start up, and we realized the Cambodians were all having lunch. We continued drinking our beer, and another, larger boat pulled up about 40 minutes later. It started to make sense to us now: we were waiting for this boat to take us to Siem Reap, and the people from the larger boat would take our boat to Battambang. Sure enough, that is what happened. So we all swapped backpacks and luggage and switched boats. The 9 of us had this huge boat to ourselves, and the 25+ others crammed onto our small boat. They looked really hot, tired, and squashed in the boat, and we weren't sure if we should spoil the surprise and tell them about the truck ride that awaited them. In the end I think someone mentioned it. We cruised for another 2 hours or so and arrived in Siem Reap around 4:30 pm.

We got off the boat and had to catch a moto into town. We were supposed to get a free ride from a hotel picking us up, so when we saw our names, we piled into the moto. Just before we started off, the driver said that the hotel he was supposed to take us to was full, but he'd gladly take us elsewhere for $4. We laughed at this and quickly got out of his moto. We got a motorbike each for $1 and were dropped off at the markets in town (the drivers did not speak English, but they understood markets). Hot, dirty and tired, we proceeded to find a place for the night. Well, Kel did. Nige sat at the pub drinking beer. About 30 minutes later, we still did not have a place for the night. The cheaper places were full and the other places were pretty expensive. Nige went and checked a few more places with no luck. We finally found a place in an alley we were cutting through. We couldn't afford the air-conditioned room, so we took a room with a fan (by this time it was at least 6:00 and it didn't feel too hot). Big mistake.

We dropped our stuff and had some dinner at the Easy Speaking Pub, or something like that. We quickly realized that Siem Reap is expensive. After a few well-deserved beers and a good meal, we headed back to our room as we had an early start the next morning. Well, 'room' would have been a luxury. This was more of a sauna/hot box. The room was within a building, no windows, and no airflow. It got hotter and hotter, the mossie net (much needed!) not helping anything. And it kept falling down because we had to tape it to the ceiling as there was nothing to tie it to. At one point Nige did ask if we could move to another room, but the sleeping security guard just grunted and went back to sleep. Desperate, Nige woke him again, only to be told that there were no more rooms. So, we suffered through a hot night. First thing in the morning, we packed up and moved to a different hotel, with real windows and air-conditioning. It was cooler outside than it had been in our room.