I woke up pretty early this morning; 6.45am, and although I still had at least half an hour left in bed I decided to get up anyway, leaving me with more time on the internet. I threw on some clothes, as always, and went to breakfast, which was as delicious as always!
I checked out, bought some water and snacks for the bus, and gave my bike back (thankfully they didn't inspect it closely enough to see the dents, although they were pretty obvious!)
I then was on the internet for a while, making good progress with my blog, until 8.30am, when the hotel asked if I was ready to go. I presumed they meant the bus was here, but it was actually their minibus, which I was a bit annoyed at. Especially as when I got to the bus station, the bus was half an hour late, so we only set off at 9.30am. I spent the hour reading my book, which was almost as enjoyable as blogging.
The bus journey was rather comfortable, the road wasn't in too bad a shape and so we made good progress with time. The frustrating part of it was that the horn's speakers seemed to be pointing inwards to the inside of the bus rather than the outside, and so the high pitched booming noise deafened me everytime it was used, which, being in Cambodia, was very frequent as he used it everytime he saw anyone else on the road!
I tried drowning out the sound with my ipod, but to no avail. We stopped once, for a mans toilet stop, and then again, where as soon as everyone got out the bus rolled off again, making me panic! I got reassurance from another lone traveller, who said she just presumed they'd come back for us, so I felt relaxed in that I wasn't totally alone! There were lots of people trying to sell fruit, breads, and crickets! A random combination! When I eventually found the bus; it was parked across the road in a kind of bus park; I boarded, and was followed by a group of children merchants trying to sell me fruit. One boy asked me why I didn't want a mango, and on the spur of the moment I said it was because I didn't like sweet things. Somehow I don't quite think he believed me! But it was a good enough reason and he moved on to the next person.
I think my anger may have built up had it not been for the driver having such a sweet smile; typical!
I was surprised when we stopped again shortly after 1pm. I was getting a bit fed up with the stopping, especially as we'd set off late. Yet again, we were given no indication of how long we were stopping for, but word got around that we'd arrived in Battambang! I was very relieved and happy, although wasn't too keen on being swamped by tuk tuk drivers, although be it not so severe as in Siem Reap. I studying my map for a while, and although I had found that the cheap accomodation was not too far away, the tuk tuk man was only asking for half a dollar, and for it I thought it would save me a few mls of sweat, so I agreed!
On arriving I found the room to be pleasant, and then keen to get as much done as possible in my rather short time in Battambang, I plotted with my tuk tuk driver to see everything within the day and a half. We decided that after I had eaten something and relaxed a bit, we would set off to see the Bamboo train, and then the following day we would conquor various Phnoms and Wats.
I went off, on his recommendation, although later I found it to be in the Lonely planet also, to the White Rose cafe. I thought I'd eat the cheapest things on the menu which was chips and an iced coffee; for $2! Bargain! I enjoyed them and was waiting to pay the bill when a man appeared at my feet proding my thigh and begging for money. I said to him 'no' but he kept prodding me and being annoying. The man was rather rude, and after I ignored him and then got up to pay the bill, to hurry things along a bit, he got up and wandered down the street. I hate people who want something for nothing, and who go about it in a way that is unpleasant. Someone being nice, or friendly is so much nicer and more reward worthy than someone being rude. He really dampened my day.
Then less than 5 minutes later, a dog came up and barked in seriously scary manor and had his nose right up to my ankles, I really thought he was going to bit me. Thankfully he didn't, but it made me think that I should have just spent the day in my hotel.
I continued to walk around, and saw the old train station, where as promised, the clock was stuck at 8.02. I couldn't really be bothered walking around anymore, so I decided to pop into a few shops, one of which was to get some more earphones as one of my 'ears' has stopped working, which makes it impossible to hear on the buses. I also got a memory card reader as I didn't bring my connection out here, and I thought it was time to upload some photos.
I then popped into an internet cafe in the hope of uploading photos, although I couldn't get the machine to work, so then had to go back and get it checked, and it seemed to be working. Grh!
I was back in time to meet my tuk tuk driver, when I met a Danish girl who was interested in coming with me. Unfortunatly she seemed to have 'married' another tuk tuk driver who got angry at her wanting to not pay him to go there, when she could so easily have come with me. It was so frustrating. My tuk tuk driver said he couldn't take her as he was scared of the other tuk tuk driver. It all seemed really childish and stupid. We then met another two Danish girls who wanted to come, but out of principal the first Danish girl didn't want to mess about with tuk tuk drivers anymore. It was a bit of shame, but I'm sure they're the ones missing out as it was there last day in Battambang.
I felt even more down and generally annoyed, but eventually I cheered up as my tuk tuk driver was nice and I forgot about all the annoying things that had happened during the day. We waited beside the railway line, in the hope that others would come, making the journey less expensive. It took a while, in which time I tried learning some Khmer with the locals. After learning how to pronounce 'what is your name?' I'm pretty sure they started trying to teach me rude words or something, as they seemed to find something funny, maybe it was just my awful pronounciation!
I did however find out that Joy, when spoken in Scottish accent (thank god I don't have a Scottish accent!!) actually means 'fuck' (or similar type of swear word) in Khmer. That would have been an interesting one; 'Hello I'm fuck, What's your name?'
A couple of guys on a completely pink motorbike drove by, which made me smile, and when the guys smiled at me, I smiled back even more. It just looked so camp! They passed by again, and I asked, and was allowed to take a photo of them! Yay!
A train was approaching, and it had been for some time, but it travels slower than someone walking! So people were lying on the tracks, walking accross, and staying on their bamboo train until it was quite near! The French are investing in the railway and are going to be bringing high speed trains across, so soon there shall be no more bamboo trains.
The trains used to be moved by four or more people pushing sticks, sort of like they were skiing. Although now they are motorised. The track goes from Battambang to some smaller villages, usually for the transport of food and other materials.
Some French people arrived, who didn't speak much English. I managed to understand quite a bit of what they were saying which was quite cool! We all boarded the train. It was really good fun! I have never known such a noisey train, or one which runs on such a bendy track! It seemed to wiggle around quite a bit. There were lots of kids waving to us along the way, and there were chickens crossing the tracks, and then back again, they seemed to be a bit lost. Thankfully we didn't kill anyone! I was really glad I went.
On the way back, we passed several beautiful things. We passed the place where the important provence meetings take place; in a French Colonial building. I have no idea what the word colonial means; the driver asked me, and even though he and I both use the word, neither of us know the meaning! There were some Thai cannons outside, from when the Thai were in charge of Cambodia.
We then went to a statue in a park, that was a dragon and a (can't remember the name - 6 headed snake) - made out of the remains of lots of guns that had been kept illegally in villages, and when a certain agreement was signed to make the place safer, these guns were confiscated.
We then drove by some French Colonial buildings, the night market, the old market, and finally we were back at the hotel. With my guidebook in hand, I went in search of a couple of restaurants that it had mentioned. But despite following the map, and finding where they should have been; neither of the restaurants could be found.
Instead, a few doors away from my hotel, I went to the Lazy Gecko Cafe which was nice, and made me a very delicious fruit shake and then dinner. The rest of the evening was spent on the internet uploading photos, and listening to various music on the internet.
On arriving back at the hotel, on quite a dark night (I'm not surprised they warn lone females to stay clear of the streets at night!), I discovered tens of ants crawling all over my bed - great!
I took off the top sheet on which the ants were crawling, and threw it outside of my room. There still seemed to be ants wherever I looked, but at least they didn't have an unfair advantage on me in the bed! It took me ages to get to sleep, and I woke several times during the night. I'm not quite sure what was bothering me as I didn't have that much on my mind; maybe it was just my subconscious aware of all the ants.
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