Destination south!

There is really only one road from Siem Reap down to Battambang, the RN 6 / RN5. It’s a fairly wide, 2 lane, single carriageway, which carries quite a lot of traffic as it ultimately runs into Phnom Penh. The biggest problem is that all the cars, trucks and busses seem to think that it’s actually at least four lanes wide (and sometimes five!). So if you don’t want to end up splattered all over the front end of a bus (definitely the worst offenders) you really have to keep on your mettle! It matters not what is coming towards them, if they catch up with a slower moving vehicle they WILL overtake. They show no mercy! So as you can imagine it wasn’t the most pleasant ride or the most relaxed. I’m pleased to say that I managed to avoid them all without recourse to the ditch or the fields. Additionally the landscape isn’t much to shout about either, not that I could afford the luxury of removing my eyes from the road to look at it. But hey, ho, sometimes you just have to knuckle down and get the miles clocked off.

I’d heard good reports form friends about Battambang so we were looking forward to spending a couple of nights there. First impressions however weren’t too good and it took a bit of riding around before we found the river front; certainly the nicest part of town. Our hotel the Seng Hout was up a little side road just a few hundred yards from the river and even less from the local market, at $15 per night it was good value with a swimming pool and roof terrace (although we used neither!) It also had a restaurant which we spurned in favour of the nearby market  for breakfast and a local training establishment for dinner, one of many in Cambodia which are set up to train youngsters in restaurant work. The food was good and the prices reasonable; to say nothing of the attraction of Happy Hour (which seemed to last all night, every night!). Breakfast as I said, was taken in the market at a stall frequented only by locals. Without them speaking a single word of English we managed to procure two very nice bowls of egg fried rice topped with a well cooked chicken leg washed down with as many cups of green tea as you could drink… not your average greasy spoon breakfast and all for well under a fiver!

The highlight of our stay in Battambang however, was, without a doubt our visit to and ride on the Bamboo Railway. I’ve never seen anything quite like it! Two railway boggies are topped by a light bamboo platform onto which is dropped a large lawnmower engine. They toss you a couple of cushions to sit on, hook up a rubber drive belt and off you go. 

Rattling along the wobbliest, bumpiest railtrack you have ever seen in your life. Stop and go are provided by a large stick which simply pulls the motor back thus tensioning or loosening said drive belt but the really fun part comes when you meet another truck coming in the opposite direction. The one carrying the least people stops and you clamber off. After which the driver, aided by the driver of the other “train”, dismantle your “train” putting it at the side of the track. That done, and “train” passed it is reassembled and off you all go again on your respective journeys… 

Needless to say I didn’t ask to see their risk assessment before boarding and I didn’t see a single florescent coated health and safety official in attendance, however in spite of this we managed the entire two way trip without loss of life or limb (as did the dozens of others we met at either end). Even stranger is the fact that it doesn’t actually go anywhere. It just sort of ends after a 20 minute ride in the middle of the jungle where the enterprising locals have set up a few gift and refreshment stalls. Yes, it’s a bit kitsch and rather touristy, bit I have to admit that at the same time it’s great fun and puts a bit of money into the local economy at the same time. Even the Tuk Tuk ride there and back was a nice relaxed affair after the stress of the highway and we discovered a few places on the edge of town to which we could walk later in the day including a park and the inevitable temple!

The following morning it was up early and back on the road after a rather pathetic (and expensive) breakfast in the hotel; we should have gone to the market again! I was hoping to find a way to cut into the Cardamom mountains from the town of Pursat on a road that looked promising, anything to get of this damned main road. The problem was that is was probably going to turn into a dirt track, and with Allie still far less than comfortable on the back of the little Honda, dirt roads are, unfortunately a bit of a no no! So we pushed on a bit further to Krakor and the floating villages of Kampong Luang which was reached by… yes, you’ve guessed it, a dirt road!

 I got to stand in the naughty corner for that one, but then it was at the end of what had turned into quite a long day and I was soon forgiven!!!

We had spotted two Guest Houses, one on the main road at Krakor and the other on the road down to Kampong Luang before we hit the dirt. Reasoning that the main road would be noisy we enquired at the second and were shown an acceptable room for just $5 per night but no air-con which we though  would be OK as the temperature had dropped substantially over the previous 24 hours. The room was fine and even came with a couple of pet Geckos!

However, the peace and quiet were not to be. If it wasn’t lorries and motorbikes flying up and down it was what sounded like a huge pack of dogs outside our window barking and howling all night, you would have though we were staying at Baskerville Hall!!! And so it was another early start, in fact our earliest yet at around 7.30am, as there was no breakfast to be had locally to delay us.