By Boat to Battambang

It feels like its been a while since I’ve written an update on our progress. Internet cafe’s are not the easiest to come by here, and when you do find them they tend to be dingy, but hot places where you tend to feel the ticking clock, so write quickly and then get out of there.

I think last time I wrote we were still in Siem Reap, and were exploring the temples. Well I can verify that they are a truly magnificent sight, so massive and grandious, and yet so beautifully crafted. It is easy to imagine them as bussling walled cities that must have felt like paradise in their day. Sadly, paradise is a commodity today, and dozens of busloads of package tourists mainly from China and Korea (and it’s easy to tell because the buses have chinese and korean writing all over them) arrive and promptly barge through and take over any temple they encounter. Shouting, laughing, taking photos with credit card size cameras on tripods that could launch the space shuttle they are not the greatest examples of people from this part of the world to encounter. As we ventured further and further through each day, we learnt how to avoid the bus-trains and began to really explore the ancient city. We took little excursions in the evening to lesser popular parts while the masses were at other sunset locations. These hours, in the still amber evening air, mist and dragon flies hovering, khmers enjoying a quite picnic under a tree tossing treats to monkeys, these are the moments that felt truly special. We had broken through the rat-race, the akward shoving and being shoved, and were able to relax and soak up the ambience.

I really like Siem Reap, it’s probably the most pleasant and practical town in Cambodia. It has pretty much anything you would want, from 5 star mansion hotels, to quiet family run guest houses. It has friendly occupants, who though always trying to sell you their varied services do so with a wink and a chuckle and don’t take it to heart if you refuse. It has a pleasant river running through town (most Cambodian settlements do), and nice parks with giant bats that roost in the trees and in late afternoon swarm like a cloud above the park before heading into the forest in search of dinner. Here more than anywhere, the locals “get” tourism, and how when properly managed it really can be a great benefit to them. I am a firm believer that tourism actually has a lot answers for Cambodia’s issues, and I hope other cities learn to encourage it for their own benefit.

On one of the first days exploring the temples, I grazed my arm. I came home, washed it and dressed it with iodine. A few days later, after seeming to have healed, and after a great, robust massage from Bayon Seeing Hands Massage - run by blind Cambodians I awoke the next day to a red, hot swollen elbow that throbbed and was sore to move. I was also coming down with a sore throat, either from all the dust inhaled whilst riding on these dirt roads (you dress like a bandit with scarf and glasses), or from the fact that I tend to push myself way beyond exhaustion and without proper food without noticing. Megan does notice, and she has become my pace-setter or canary in a cage, letting me know when she is feeling tired or weak. My body doesn’t really tell me much, it just hits a wall after a couple of days of abuse and starts to get sick.

We arrange to travel by boat SW down river to the northern shores of Tonle Sap lake, where we would head west and then zig-zag our way to Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest town (180,000). I have realised that any notion I have of SE Asia being particularly densly populated compared to NZ is not true. Cambodia has a 13 million people in land a little bigger than the South Island, Laos has only 6 million on land the same as New Zealand, Big brother Thailand has 65 million but on land over twice the size of NZ. Thailand feels the most populated though, because it has large cities, something with the other two are yet to really have to deal with, most of their population is dispersed in the countryside. My point is, that you never feel very crowded at all. On our river trip we sailed through floating villages, huts on bamboo pontoons, dozens of kids, naked and squealing hellos and waving their little white palms. Pigs, ducks, chickens, dogs and cats lazed on front porches seemingly unconcerned with the fact that for miles around is water. Some large crocodiles growing fat in sunny cages also occupied some of the villages. We spent some time on the roof of the boat, I got horribly sunburnt on the face, and my fever and dizzyness got worse. I tried to enjoy the experience as best I could.

We arrived on the banks of north Battambang to the most touts I have ever seen. We waited in the boat whilst the first travellers got accosted and then took a slightly different route up the bank to get a ute into town. Battambang is described in the Lonely Planet as “and elegant riverside town”, to be honest I thought it better described as a dirty, untidy, dusty town runnig alongside a muddy creek that acted as a public bathing area, open sewer, fishing water and main transport route (I was yet to discover its charm). I was feeling like shit, and annoyed that my elbow may become something that required me to leave Cambodia and return to BKK. Fortunately, SE Asia’s lax drug situation came to my rescue. Dotted all around the streets, are minimarts that sell pretty much any drug you wish over the counter (Viagra, morphine, antibiotics), this is pretty much a neccessity, when most people don’t have access to a doctor. The vendors at these places are suprisingly proffesional, and attempt a quiet consultation over the counter with a little discussion. I spoke to a lady and showed her my elbow, she thought I wanted some ointment, I used the guidebook to say “antibiotic” in Khmer, she understood and sold e one tray of Amoxillin tablets for a little under $1, I checked the country of manufacture (France) and the expiry date (2007) and discussed dosages as best I could. Her suggestion sounded a lot, but thanks to a quick check with Rodney proved to be exactly right (Rodney also confirmed that the specific antibiotic was just right). I am pleased to say that my elbow is doing nicely, almost completely healed now, though I will continue the antibiotics  till completed.

Stay tuned for part 2 when I talk a little more about Battambang, and first impressions of Phnom Penh.