As expected I took the boat down to Battambang this morning. I was up at 445 and ready to go at 545 for the bus that would pick me up at 6, only the bus didn’t show until bout 7… gotta love it. The bus got to the dock about 730 and we boarded what I considered to be a smaller boat than expected, but I was just happy to get the ride started. In some ways I think I was just as happy to be leaving than anything.
The boat ride was interesting as we made the 100km journey (guessing on the distance), and just as foretold by all the articles, we broke down. It was kind of funny, the boat is chugging away and at the time we were in the winding part of the river, and we went around a corner and then straight into the bank. For some reason the boat couldn’t make right-hand turns. The first time it happened we hit the bank a little bit hard, afterwards the driver took it slower. The problem kept happening until we couldn’t make left turns, at that point we moored at the bank and waited for help to arrive. It took about two hours for another boat to arrive and the mechanics to fix the problem. It was fun though just floating on the river chatting to other passengers.
We pulled into Battambang at about 530 and there was someone waiting to take me to my hotel. Sure was nice not to have to figure out how much to pay, or to barter with a driver on where to take me. There is one thing that I don’t know if I should mention or not, but Cambodians are a strange group of people. I wrote about my experiences with the tuk-tuk drivers, but tonight was almost just as strange. I found a restaurant to eat at, so all good, I sit down and wait. The next thing I know is I’m being goosed in the ribs, it’s the waiter telling me hello, and asking if I remember him. How could I remember him I’d been in town for about thirty-minutes. Just weird. Then as I’m eating the waiter says something to me, I look up with food on my fork, and ask him what. He tells me I should be using my spoon instead. What? Another thing happened later on, but I think I made my point, Cambodians are some strange people.
I’m at the hotel right now and I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. I don’t want to stay, but I don’t want to do all the work to leave either. I’d have to get a bus ticket, get a place to stay, and then get up early in the morning… maybe I’ll stay over one more night. I still have a week before my tour starts.
