Wednesday 19th March
I was up at 06.00, packed my stuff and we had breakfast before a mini-van picked us up at 08.00. It took us to the bus station where we boarded a public coach to Battambang, leaving at 09.00. The most scenic route to Battambang is down the Tonlé Sap river but the lack of water during the dry season means that it takes eight hours as opposed to four in the wet season between May and October, so we didn't really have to make a decision on how we were going to get there.
The bus was packed full of local people and we got the usual big smiles from them as we passed down the aisle to our seats towards the back of the bus. The journey itself proved to be an uncomfortable but strangely enjoyable one. The road was undergoing construction for the first half of the six hour trip; the surface was very uneven and the dry red dust that was being kicked up by the traffic was getting everywhere, including into the bus through a skylight that wouldn't close. There was so much of it blowing around the bus that I had to cover my mouth with my t-shirt so I could breathe properly and keep it out of my mouth. Thankfully it all calmed down after a few hours, but it made for an entertaining journey – bus trips aren't like this at home!
We got to Battambang around 14.00 and found some very good value rooms at the 'Royal Palace Hotel' (I paid $7 for a large room with a TV, bathroom and really comfortable beds). Shortly after, we took a walk around town to see what Battambang had to offer. We had been lead to believe that it was a rather quaint town with French colonial architecture and a relaxing atmosphere. It certainly looked old, but more in a run-down sort of way. There were some old colonial-era buildings about, but the town looked rather grimy in parts and it could have done with a bit of a clean-up. It was also on the quiet side and we soon realised that there wasn't really that much to see and do at all. So, in reality, it's just a normal, large town; there's nothing wrong with it but nothing to recommend it either, at least from what we could see.
After a relaxing lunch of some very nice fried rice, we took a look about the busy central market and here we got a glimpse of how a normal Cambodian town does its buying and selling. Everything is sold in one place, and every bit of space is taken up. There are no fancy stalls with well presented and packaged produce lined up for customers to peruse. The traders, who are mainly women, sit on mats on the ground with their raw produce laid out at their feet: still wriggling fish wait their turn to be gutted, slabs of meat and various cow limbs (usually with flies leaping off them) are sold beside a huge array of fruit and vegetables. There's not much in the way of cross-contamination prevention in these places but nobody seems too worried about that. Compared to one of these places, supermarkets at home appear more like hospitals!
After an afternoon siesta at the hotel, we went for dinner at the 'Smokin' Pot' restaurant, one of the few places that seemed to be open at that time of night. I had freshwater fish – possibly bought at the market that very afternoon – and it was delicious, the nicest fried fish I had eaten on my trip. Over dinner, we decided that there wasn't any reason to stay in Battambang any longer, and we would therefore move on to Phnom Penh the next day. Maria & Simon had enjoyed it there during their brief visit earlier in the week, so we thought we would make the most of it before Simon flew back home a few days later.
