Battambang (21.03.22 - 26.03.22)
Monday 21st March 2022
The journey to Battambang today was fab, no stops and the driver raced down the new roads so we arrived 15 minutes early. OMG, me and the 2 other passengers were mobbed by tuk-tuk drivers before we had even got out of the van, in the end I had to be quite rude and tell them go away and leave me alone, which they did and with smiles on their faces. However, one stayed and chatted to me while I had a fag, he said it was $1 to the hostel, it was a ten minute walk, but he was so lovely I got a lift and gave him $2.
My hostel room (Holiday Guest House) is disgusting, the room itself is acceptable but the bathroom makes my stomach churn, there is no lid on the toilet, the sink is blocked, a dribble of water comes out of the tap and the walls are so caked in grime I’m scared to touch them. I was so hot and sweaty I hosed down and brushed my teeth but that was all I could manage. Unfortunately it is pissing down with rain, I managed to get some food without getting too soaked, but will have to spend the evening in my room – I’m waiting for a film to download but the internet is so slow it is saying it will take 4 days to download – LMFHO.
Tuesday 22nd March 2022
This morning I woke with my legs covered in bedbug bites! needless to say, I found somewhere else just down the road and checked out immediately. I am now in Lucky Guest House, and I must admit it was a lucky find, so clean and fresh in comparison – I have hot water, a kettle and a balcony. The room smells clean and the first thing I did was take a shower. The people here are so nice, check in isn’t until 2pm but I turned up at 9:30 and only had to wait 15 minutes while the cleaner sorted the room for me. They also have a pool table and swimming pool here (with no water in it – lol) and the town center is literally at the end of the road. I am feeling so much happier and content than when I woke up – I didn’t even want to go to the loo I felt so sick – all I could do was think about getting out of that place. PS – the film took 3 hours to download, rain is due again tonight so I might watch it then
Wednesday 23rd March 2022
I met Glenn yesterday, I found him drinking Cambodia outside the hostel, and he knows Rory! Tis a small world. He if full of stories and never stops talking. Like Paul he was kicked out of Vietnam and is now living here, but unlike Paul, he was very positive about the place and my excitement for going has risen again and so has my enthusiasm for getting work there. He said that with a Masters’ degree I should get about $5000 a month, which sounds too amazing. We went for pizza in the evening at La Pizza, which is across the river and then onto another pizza place this side of the river, run by some Italians he knows. We had such a good laugh, and I went to bed very pissed, but so wish I was not drinking beer all the time, I feel so bloated from it and my belly is popping out. I went in search of a cheap bottle of vodka but have had no luck so far. The nearest western style supermarket is so so expensive, almost £10 for a large jar of Nescafe coffee! If it stops raining (it has just started) I will try a Cambodian supermarket, or even the local market which is absolutely amazing. I went for a walk around it yesterday, it reminded me of the Russian market in Phnom Penh with part of it indoors and part outside, and as seems typical here you can buy everything there, I even saw snake for sale at a meat store. I really want to go on the bamboo train and see the bats leaving their cave one evening but the rain seems relentless, I’ve been told that it shouldn’t be raining as it is the hot dry season – somebody please tell that to the clouds.
I have literally spent the day trying to catch up on this online diary, however I did venture out to Eden Café for breakfast and had eggs benedict – delicious. The moment I decided to go for a walk it decided to rain (again) – sods law as dad would say. But you know what, I went anyway, and came back wet, hot and wet! It was a worth while walk as I found a Cambodian supermarket and got a bottle of vodka for $5, compared to $40 in the international supermarket, and a jar of coffee for $5 compared to $35 – lol – I’d get cold wet for that saving, let alone hot wet. Glenn told me to buy a can of coke and soak my necklace and St Christopher in – so I have taken his advice – if that doesn’t work I’ll go to one of the silver shops in the market that I saw yesterday. Glenn was already pissed when I saw him about an hour ago (it’s now 5pm) and has suggested we go out for dinner again – I have explicitly stated that it needs to be cheap tonight as I can’t keep spending so much on food, especially considering if I eat Khmer food I can eat on less than $6 a day. Still, my budget is doing ok and I can always find work online if I need to, but I really don’t want to work, I am so enjoying this life of luxury, if I could I’d officially retire except I can’t afford to just yet – need to pay off that bloody mortgage first. I really do feel I’ve lead a charmed life, most things have gone my way, please let that continue, I’m happy with a few hiccups along the way, but not too many difficult ones please – if I can continue doing this for the rest of my days (with a little bit of work to tide me over) I will be so content, not that I’m not
content, in fact I am so content I can’t stop smiling, even when there’s no one around to see my smile – ok, time for a shower and another vodka. I do love the company I keep finding on my travels (even though I sometimes moan about it!), it’s so much nice eating with company. And I have been in contact with Rory, he is in Phnom Penh and said he is looking forward to showing me the sights I have probably not seen in my 2 visits there 😊 Rory, I look forward to seeing you too, I’m also looking forward to seeing Paul again 😊 And in case you are wondering why I’m going back to PP for a 3rd time, it’s so I can sort my Vietnamese visa and most buses (yes the land crossing are now open) leave from there, so it’s a no-brainer. PS – I loved the walk in the rain and the small of petrol from the car tire shop across the road from the hostel – lol
Thursday 24th March 2022
I was so pissed last night I really can’t remember going to a second bar, meeting Mark or even getting home. But I do remember having spaghetti for dinner and eating ice cream. Glenn said I was happy pissed and great company!
Today was fantastic. I text messaged Glenn in the morning in the off chance that he would come on the Bamboo train with me and then go to the bat caves. He agreed to do the first but said the second would interfere with his drinking time – lol. Lizzy the tuk-tuk driver was amazing, he pointed out so many things on route and we even stopped at a wood carvers, he did the same on the way back, we stopped at a Watt and then he took us to the Ta Dumbong Kro Aung Statue roundabout, if you want to know about the legend behind this statue click on this link https://accidentalnomads.com/2015/06/12/battambang/
The bamboo train was so much fun, and it started off with me putting my foot through it! The driver told us that until the end Khmer Rouge era the trains were in full use, they are literally straight railway lines linking villages together and it used to be the main way of travel between them, although then they didn’t have engines and the riders would propel them along using wooden poles. As it one line that is used to go both way the trains are easily dismantled so one can be taken off the tracks to allow the other going the opposite way to pass, it was quite amazing to see how this was done and it was hard work. Due to the construction of a new highway that traverse the train line we had to get off the train and cross the road then get onto another train the other side, even though the line was still in the road. There was actually no traffic on the road but the lady driver insisted that it was too dangerous to ride across. We finally stopped at a station and had a beer and I bought some souvenirs for the grandsons while the driver turned the train around. I felt so sorry for the lady working at the station, she told us that before covid she would have over 100 visitors a day, but was now lucky to 10, and she didn’t stop sweating, even worse than me, I think she may have been menopausal. Anyway, it was halfway back that I realized I had left my phone at the station, OMG, the poor driver, he had to turn the train around and back we went and then yet again turn it around so we could head back again. Thank god I realized I had left my phone whilst we were still on the train and not when we were back at the hostel – I gave the driver a big fat tip, he must have been exhausted. I am so glad that we did the train in the morning as it was baking hot and poor old Glenn ended up using my sarong to protect the back of his neck. It also gave me some time to recover and prepare for Lizzy to pick me up in the late afternoon to take me to the bat caves.
On the journey to the bat caves Lizzy did his usual sight seeing tour for me. We went to two statue producing places, I can’t call them factories because they are made by hand. The first made huge, commissioned statues, they were in the process of making an octopus and I wanted to run away with the flying unicorn, it was so beautiful. The seconds made slightly smaller statues, using the same materials but this time from molds rather than formed mesh with clay placed on top of it. Obviously, the huge ones would be too heavy if they were solid. So now I know how of the statues and ornamentation on the buildings are made and they love a statue and ornamentation here that’s for sure. At one point Lizzy stopped and asked me if I knew what the bbq meat was on this stall, it turned out to be rat! I later found out that they are field rats and live on rice, but regardless I didn’t and do not want to try one, even if they do, like every other weird food I’ve come across, supposedly taste like chicken. After the rats we stopped at a tree that produced large pods of cotton, Lizzy said that it’s used to make mattresses, pillows and soft toys but the young Cambodians are lazy and this tradition is slowly being lost. Just before we got to caves we stopped at a watt, at first, due to their being so many children there, I thought it was an orphanage – lol. It was rather beautiful and had a plague with all the names of the people who donated to have it built. The sad thing, and not very Buddhist thing about this watt was the monks pet monkey chained to a tree – I really don’t like seeing things like this, it’s just cruel.
The bat cave was amazing, a mountain standing in the middle of no-where. It used to be a killing cave during the Khmer Rouge era but you cannot go into the cave due to bats, not that I would want to, I had enough of that at the S21 museum and killing fiends in Phnom Penh. You can climb to the top of the mountain but after the bamboo train earlier during the day I really didn’t have the energy to. So instead we sat and had a drink and Lizzy told me about his life and how to survive covid he and his family had to sell all of their jewelry and valuables. No furlough scheme, or any form of support from the government here. He also explained how families would all club together and help feed each other and those who had nothing – it’s amazing how people support each other during hard times but can be jealous of each other and the worst of enemies during good times. Being a fountain of information Lizzy explained that depending on the weather the bats leave the cave early if it has been dry and late if it has been wet, but always between 5:45 and 6:15pm. We have had weather recently and as predicted they came swarming out at 6:15. What an amazing sight and the first bats to leave decide on the direct of flight for the rest, which will be the driest direction where all the insects are. Naturally Cambodian farmers and people love the bats due to their diet. The main bulk of the bats take about 15 minutes to leave the cave ,but the spectacle continues for a whole hour before they have all left, and they return, randomly, before daybreak. It was awesome to watch, and I am so glad the weather held off today because it has been spectacular. And to top it off the sunset was amazing over the mountain and Lizzy kept stopping on the way back so I could take some pictures. Not only were the colours spectacular but the clouds formations were too. What a fantastic end to a fantastic day. I even got a phone call from Map, but we didn’t chat for long as I was busy!
Friday 25th March 2022
My last day in Battambang was fairly uneventful. Spent the afternoon drinking with Glenn and then in the evening we went to the Balcony bar. One of Glenn’s friends turned up and we had a good old chat until his Cambodian wife called him and said if he was not home in 10 minutes he would be sleeping outside – lol. From The balcony bar we went to Glenn’s favourite haunt, the Italian restaurant, but as I had already eaten at the Balcony bar, we only had drinks – off to Phnom Penh tomorrow, my last stop in Cambodia before hopefully going to Vietnam.
