Apologies for not posting sooner...we will add a few more posts over the next few days to bring you all up to speed on our whirlwind tour so far! It's a long one so hope you can survive reading it - best done with a cup of tea or red bull...whatever keeps you awake.
It all started on Good Friday with a mid morning drive to the airport with Grandma and Grandpa - thank you for driving the car back! Then off to Qantas Club but not before a big chat with the Immigration Officer who just happened to be a Town Planner in a past life and at Wollongong as well...so we played the "do you know this person?"game, as well as shooting the breeze about stuff in the Growth Centres and then Jeff asking him to swap jobs since he's always wanted to be on Border Security.
No upgrade this time and a packed flight to Bangkok meant we arrived quite tired. Found our hostel near the station easy enough and hit the hay. The humidity since that point has been stifling as you woud expect at this time of year. Pretty much a nothing day on Saturday - the weekend markets, lazing in the park, eating and lots of walking. We were both gearing up for the early start the next day.
And start early we did, rising at 5am to make sure we made it in time for our train to the border. We did so quite easily and sat down on our 3rd class wooden benches thinking we would have the 4 spots to ourselves for the next 6 hours. How wrong we were. Jeff had a ladyboy sit next to him who made a comment about some bloke called Peter Mc something...whilst Stacey had a dad and 2 kids squeeze in next to her as they ate some yummy looking food from one of the many vendors that go up and down th train squeezing past those standing up.
It was great mixing with the locals as they made their way to the market towns. One guy even got on with a large bowl/bucket full of freshly caught fish...still kicking and in water. Despite the excitement and entertainment, after the six hour mark had past we were ready to get off from the hard wooden bench.
Finally making it to the border town we were whisked off in a tuk tuk with an American couple living in HKG. Of course the tuk tuk driver tried to rip us off and sell us a visa to Cambodia but that is par for the course.
The lineup to exit Thailand was long but moved reasonably well. The same cannot be said about the Cambodian side. Long lines, slow and no aircon in 45 degree heat! To boot that border town is one of the sleaziest places we have experienced. Stacey blacked out just after being let into the country. We should have paid the bribe to go through quicker..the border guards were making a killing. With that in mind we hired a taxi through one of the dodgy touts and headed for Battambang in aircon comfort.
A couple of hours we made it to Battambang. This city is geat, with an old market at it's core and an air of french influence still around, particularly the archictecture. We stayed in the Royal Hotel which is in one of the old colonial buildings near the market and we would recommend this place to anyone.
Another high recommendation would be Mr Scorpio, a remork (tuk tuk) driver who drove us around on a tour on Monday and then off to the circus on Monday night. He was friendly, informative and always willing to help. No pressure at all. If you are ever in town, hunt the scorpio down! Just look for a remork driver that looks like Stacey's brother (or so Jeff says) and that has a scorpio tattoeed onto his rright hand!
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| Mr Scorpio! |
Sunday night consisted of a walk down by the river to a bar a few k''s away that was in a great spot and served up cold beer!
Monday we kicked off with breakfast across the road at Woodhouse Cafe. Food was cheap and very yum...run by a fernch expat. Then off to the day tour with Mr Scorpio.
We kicked off with the Bamboo Train. These trains are nothing more than a flat board made of bamboo sitting on a couple of wheels with a fan belt/drive belt and a 6hp engine. It runs on a disused line and used to transport rice...probably still does but tourists are the no. 1 cargo now! If 2 trains are approaching each other head on they stop and the train with the lightest load is disassembled and then reassembled and passengers piled back on after the other train has passed.
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| What a lovely couple! |
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| 4 people on the opposite train yet we didnt have to move...too many beers the night before weighing us down? |
We then hit up a temple - Wat Prhnom....all we remember about that one was the 358 steps up and the 358 steps back down...it was a killer! Or, a positive spin is to say it was excellent conditioning for us.
The big drawcard is Wat Sampeau, a collection of temples on a massive hill that you have to climb up - stairs or road take your pick! :) We took the road and stopped of to view the Killing Caves where the Khmer Rouge used to send people to their death by throwing them through "skylights"at the top of thecave. It was all quite surreal, particularly as you get to view the skulls and bones of the victims. Onwards and upwards to the temple itself, which is surrounded by monkeys anddrink vendors.
We were invited into a temple by the monk and sat down and had a chat with him, where he worked his charm, spun a story about orphaned kids, a school, capital works and how we can help with $20. The wallet is indeed lighter. We find out later it's a scam, but again, that's what a lot of this part of the world
We think we probably walked 10 ks that day...up and down steep hills as well...so we were pretty knackered. To see some phots ad quick run down of Monday night, watch this space. Should have post up by Thursday afternoon SYD time.
Hope we didnt bore you and thanks for reading!
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| The Killing Cave vault |
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| Yummy fruit - Psar Chat Market |
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| Pick a fish any fish - good price for you! |
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| Snack on some pippis and mango? |
