Thursday 25th November 2004
I had a delicious breakfast this morning. On the menu it was described as steamed rice with fish. It turned out to be a large bowl of soup with chunks of fish and rice in it along with spring onions and ginger* along with a coffee all for 75 baht, about one £1. Checked out of the River Guesthouse about 8am and went to the minibus point. The guesthouse arranged for their moto driver to take me there, which only took a couple of minutes. I paid 100 baht for my ticket to the border and by 9.30am there were enough passengers for the bus to depart, so we all got in and set off for Pha khad. Of course, as has been the case for the last couple of days, I was the only western face around and that provided a great deal of entertainment for the Thais on the minibus pointing at me and laughing as they joked with each other. It was a little uncomfortable, but I got used to it pretty quickly. In Thailand it is a good sign if people are laughing at you because the reality is they are not actually laughing at your expense. It is more likely that they like you.
After about an hour and a quarter we arrived at the border post and one of my fellow passengers, who spoke a very small amount of English, helped direct me to the correct place to have my passport stamped as the Thais went through a different channel. I think they were crossing the border to go to a casino as Gambling is illegal in Thailand, but not in Cambodia. The border crossing was smooth as anything. I was the only one there. No queuing, no delays. A far cry from all the reports I read about the more commonly used crossing in Aranyaphrathet/Poipet.
After my passport was stamped and I took my first steps on Cambodian soil I went on to haggle a fare with the only taxi that was there. Not the strongest position from which to haggle I might add! I asked how much to Battambang. Not knowing the geography I thought I was in Pailin, but I was wrong. There was no town on the border post and Pailin is about 30mins away in a taxi, so the offer was $20 to Pailin! Well I think I haggled pretty well seeing as I had absolutely no other options available and I got the fare for $5 and the taxi was an absolute wreck which was no surprise after seeing what kind of terrain it has had to cover during it's many years of service. The bumpy road felt like riding the dodgems at the fairground as the car literally collided with the bumps and craters in the dusty road. The scenery however was incredible and I was amazed at how vastly different a place to Thailand it felt before I had even spent any time here.
On arrival at Pailin I was accosted by loads of taxi touts. They work in teams. One driver and a handful of guys who gather passengers like salesmen. This appears to be the normal mode of transport here. Taxis leave for their destination when they have enough passengers, so it can be a long wait to get going. After my taxi driver from the border crossing and all the other taxi guys had stopped laughing after he relayed the tale of how he charged me $5 for the ride, I negotiated a fare for the eighty Km trip to Battambang for $4 and then engaged in some banter with some of the taxi guys. One of them, Mr. Borey spoke very good English and one of the others wanted me to give him my sunglasses because he thought they were cool! They were a good laugh and we made one of the most popular cultural exchanges in existence; teaching each other swear words in each other's language and talking about the English Football Premiership!
It was two and a half hours before the taxi left for Battambang and there were a total of 8 people in the car, which was a really old, beat-up Toyota. There was so little room for everyone that the driver's seat was used to seat a passenger and the driver sat on his lap! The road was bumpier than the previous taxi ride and for 3 hours I had never felt quite so uncomfortable. It was a living hell of a journey, but at the same time a hilarious and un-missable experience! I arrived in Battambang and checked into the Royal Hotel which is where the taxi driver dropped me off. The Royal Hotel is an old colonial building, which is very typically French Indo China. It really reminded me of countless movies set in the past in the Far East. The room is clean, large and good value at $6 a night. I had dinner on the rooftop where there is a very basic, but nice restaurant where I got talking to a European couple. Heiko is from Holland and his girlfriend Katrien is from Belgium. They are really nice and it looks like we'll be heading to Siem Reap at the same time too, so we agreed to form a group when we visit Angkor Wat.
* I now know this lovely soup to be Kao tom- Rice soup. It is a wonderful way to start the day and a popular choice for breakfast in Thailand. My favourite is kao tom kung. Rice soup with shrimp. I swear that having this for breakfast did wonders for my waistline compared to croissants!
