Battambang (Part 1)

I already mentioned my boat trip to Battambang, this time I will describe visiting the town.  After my unfortunate arrival in Battambang I got a good night's sleep and woke up refreshed the next day.  The sun was shining, the Sangkae River sparkled, and all was right with the world.  Well, it wasn't perfect but it was much nicer than the day before.

Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia, but it only has 180,000 people.  Cambodia really only has one city, Phnom Penh.  Other than that it has a few overgrown towns, and lots and lots of villages.  Battambang was definitely in the overgrown town category.  It had a number of traditional markets, but no malls, no department stores, and no supermarkets.  It is however a quite pleasant town, where life is lived in a fairly traditional manner.  Battambang makes its living as a trading hub between Thailand and Phnom Penh and the rest of Cambodia.  A lot of traders, but very little industry or even traffic (in town) so it has very clean air.  There are very few tourists in B-bang, so there isn't a lot to cater to them, a few guesthouses and hotels, a few restaurants run by expats, and rather more Khmer restaurants that boast an English menu. 

My Hotel, the Angkor Comfort Inn.  It was indeed comfortable, and cheap at 15 dollars a night.

I stayed in a nice hotel, the nicest I have stayed in in Cambodia.  The only problem it was it didn't have a restaurant, and was a bit of a walk from the cluster of restaurants near the Central Market.  In the evening venders would set up across the street, along the river front, but that didn't help me in the morning. I ate a mix of Khmer and western food while I was there.  In the evenings I would often eat ate the night market set up across from Central Market.

Locals exercising in the evening in the riverside park.

There isn't a terrible lot to do in Battambang, other than visiting Khmer sites nearby, people watching, or just touring the countryside to see life in the rice fields.  There is also the famous bamboo train, (yes, it is made out of bamboo, and it is powered by a motorcycle engine).  I just couldn't bring myself to ride it, that is just too touristy, kind of like going to Tiger Kingdom and petting a drugged tiger in Chiang Mai.

I did visit a local Angkorian site, Phnom Banan.  It was built on a hilltop in the tenth century and has five prangs, in various states of repair.  I took a tuk-tuk about 20 Km to the site.  To reach to top of the hill you have to climb a staircase that has 10,000 steps.  I didn't actually count them, but I'm sure there were at least 10,000.  I also noticed as I climbed up the steps that if I took my eyes off of the top of the hill and then looked back up, the hilltop would get farther away in just a couple of seconds.  I am certain the staircase was sliding back down the hill whenever I let my attention wander.  I didn't go up alone, however.  At the bottom of the hill a tour guide had attached herself to me.  I didn't ask for a tour guide, but apparently I wasn't to be given a choice.  My guide didn't speak English, didn't explain anything to me, and didn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the site.  In fact, it turned out that her entire job was to fan me as I climbed the 15,000 steps to the top.

Nit, my tour guide, fans me vigorously as we climb the hill.

I needed the help, believe me.  It was brutally hot and humid on the hillside, and her fanning saved me from a heatstroke.  So I was more than happy to tip her when we got back down.  The top wasn't spectacular, but it was worth the climb. 

This one looks ready to collapse at any second.

This one is held together with wooden posts and baling wire.

 I took a well deserved rest at the top and just sat on a stone cooling down.

We made it!

Coming down was quite a chore as well.  The 20,000 steps looked twice as steep going down.  On the first step going down I caught my shoe and swayed a bit.  Nit grabbed my elbow to steady me.  It was a nice thought, but if I had actually fallen there isn't a thing she could have done to stop me.  But she did as good a job fanning me on the way down as she did on the way up, by then it was even hotter, so I still needed it.  On the way back to town the tuk-tuk driver offered to stop at the one and only winery in Cambodia, but I just wanted to get out of the heat and take a shower.  

Next time I will talk a little more about the town itself, but this is getting long, so it is time to sign off.

Taking the Slow Boat to Battambang

Last month, before I got a job I traveled to Battambang.  Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia, although it is really just an overgrown trading and farming town.  In the next census I'm pretty sure Siem Reap will pass it to take the number two spot.

I went to Battambang by boat.  The boat leaves about 10 kilometers from Siem Reap center, goes down the Siem Reap river, cuts across the Tonle Saap, then goes up the Sangkae river to Battambang town.  Before the highway between Siem Reap and Battambang was paved, this was the main way to travel.

I rode to Battambang in a boat exactly like this one.

For some reason my boat was loaded down with smelly French tourists.  (Yes, some of them were quite aromatic).  I don't know if Frenchies have a nostalgic thing for old towns from the Empire, or they were all traveling to Battambang for some other reason.  After we got to Battambang most of them promptly disappeared, and I never saw them again during my stay.  Nowadays, the boat to Battambang is mostly used by tourists, although locals who live along the river also use it as a water taxi.  They pull out into the channel in small skiffs and climb on board when the boat stops for them.  They get off the same way.  The trip takes about 6-8 hours.

Dad was fishing on the Siem Reap river, while the kids fooled around on the boat.

My luck wasn't very good on this trip.  My mini-bus was one of the last to arrive so all the seats were filled.  I had to ride on the fantail, which has benches around the edge.  Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing, but the engine was overheating, so they propped the engine box open.  We in the back got a blast of diesel fumes and heat the whole way there.  In addition, the boat kept breaking down, altogether about six times in the first two hours.

This woman sells soup from her boat along the river.

Along the way we passed many villages.  Some people were fishing, others were just lazing about in the mid-day heat.

One village, stretching along the river bank.

They are showing their support for the ruling party here.

They finally got it fixed and it ran fine the rest of the way.  The water was high because of heavy rains the day before, which meant we were fighting a strong current the entire way.  So it took 9 hours to get to Battambang.  It was pouring down rain when we got there.  I looked around for a pier but I didn't see one.  Instead we pulled up along the bank.  Someone had laid a ladder down climbing up the bank.  We retrieved our baggage from the roof of the boat, then we had to jump down to the bank and scramble up the ladder while trying not to tip over from the weight of our backpacks.  No one fell in, amazingly enough. We got to the top and we were on a muddy track that didn't seem to lead anywhere.  There were a few shacks about but no city.  Fortunately there were a lot of tuk-tuk drivers, all ready to charge us exorbitant rates to drive us where we needed to go.  I caught a ride with a young American couple, and split the cost.  The driver explained that the river was too high for the boat to pass under the bridge, so we had been dumped off about six kilometers from the city.  Looking around in the fading light, with the rain pouring down, bouncing up a muddy track on what seemed like a trip to nowhere I decided that I hated Battambang.  I hadn't even seen it, but I already hated it.  Getting into town didn't much improve my opinion of the place.  Muddy streets, ugly storefronts, almost no street lights, I was sure this had all been a big mistake.  Then we arrived at my hotel, I took a shower, and went out and found something to eat.  After that I just collapsed into bed and wondered how quickly I could get out of town.  The next day, things started to look up, but that is a story for another day.

Life in Siem Reap

I have not had a good connection to the Internet for the last month, so I have not had an opportunity to make an update.

I am currently living in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  I tried living in Phnom Penh, but I found it was too chaotic, with crowds of people, terrible traffic, and lots of pollution.  I had been in PP seven years ago, but it has changed a lot in only a few years.  So for now, I am settled in Siem Reap, famous only for the fact that Angkor Wat is nearby. 

I have a job at a local language school.  I have been working part time for them, but a new term will start next week and I will be working semi-full time.  (I will be teaching three classes a day, they want me to teach four, but that would be thirty hours a week and that is more than I can really do.  For every hour you teach you spend at least an hour outside of class planning, marking papers and attending meetings.)

I rented a studio apartment this week in a new building near my work.  The apartment is nice and has a balcony with a pleasant view.  I do worry about the cost of electricity, which is quite expensive here in Cambodia.  I have to run the AC at least some of the time, due to the humidity.

The weather here is atrociously hot and humid.  It is supposed to be the rainy season, but due to the El Nino effect, it isn't raining very much.  There are plenty of western style restaurants, although they are expensive.  Coffee is very expensive, which makes life hard.  Khmer restaurants are much more reasonable, and the food is good, as long as they have an English menu to allow you to order.

Shopping is difficult, as a lot of things simply aren't available here, or are very expensive for someone on a teacher's salary (which is on the low side).  I have bought some things at local markets, but I don't think I will ever be able to find dress shirts or slacks in my size here.  Anything electronic is imported and very expensive, including for example, a coffee maker.

I will begin posting pictures and more stories as my life gets more settled. 

Heading to Cambodia

Welcome to my new blog.  For my friends who are unaware, I am heading off to Cambodia next month.  This is a move that has been a long time in the coming, and I thought I would explain a little about why I am moving to a new country.

I have lived in Chiang Mai Thailand for the last ten years.  I have been working at the AUA for nine years.  (The longest time I have ever worked anywhere.)  I have enjoyed my time in Chiang Mai, but I have become bored with what I'm doing over the last couple of years.  I have gotten in a rut, and I feel like I've been stagnating.  I haven't been trying new things, or having new experiences.  I first started thinking about moving two years ago, but I needed to get my finances in order and a friend of mine had a bad accident.  I felt like I needed to stick around until his situation was resolved (at least until his return to England).  It just wasn't the time to leave.  So I waited and paid of some debts and planned.

My original plan was to move down to Southern Thailand, near the sea and the islands.  I would also be closer to Bangkok, which would make international traveling a little cheaper.  I still think that in the future I will end up chilling on the beach in Prachuap, Chumpon, or Rayong.  But that will have to wait now.  The thing that caused me to start looking at moving to another country was the military coup that occurred here in May of 2014.  In most ways the coup and living under a military dictator does not affect my daily life too much.  I still get up and go to work the same, socialize with the same people, and can come and go the same. 

We have always had issues with free speech here in Thailand.  We have never been free to speak our minds on certain subjects, and that is even more true today.  Constantly having to censor your thoughts before speaking really grates on the mind after while.  In addition, it is depressing to see the country slip further and further backwards in terms of human rights, fair treatment of the poor, minorities, and the dispossessed.  The current government is proudly leaded the country on a charge back to the nineteenth century.  The economy is stagnating because of government mismanagement, and the promised reforms of education, the bureaucracy, and the police have gone nowhere.  The government has lowered its sights, and now its major reform agenda is making sure that in the weekly lottery, tickets sell for the correct price of 80 baht a pair.  Anyway, it really gets one down to see a country one loves brought so low. 

I considered moving to a number of countries including Indonesia and Taiwan.  I finally decided to move to Cambodia for a number of reasons.  I have been there before, in 2009 and really enjoyed it.  At the time I said to myself, "Cambodia is a great place to visit, but I don't think I could live there."  But both I and Cambodia have changed and I think I'm ready to give it a go.  I have also had a long time fascination with Cambodia, going back to the late seventies and early eighties, when the truth about the Khmer Rouge was coming out, and Cambodia was an incredibly exotic and dangerous destination.  I have continued to read about the country, its struggles, the government, the land and the people.  The final reason for moving to Cambodia is that long term visas are incredibly easy to secure and not really expensive.

I will be living in Phnom Penh (at least at first) and I will be looking for work as an English teacher.  In the long run I may look for some other kind of work (no, not running drugs), but until I get established I will stick with what I know. 

I will miss my friends here in Thailand, so if you consider yourself in that category, I'll say goodbye and I know I'll be back to visit at some point.  If you come to PP, feel free to look me up.