Our Big Explore: Battambang and Siem Reap

Sunday 15th Dec.

Next destination was Battambang, but first we had to try the delicious and recommended breakfast at "laughing fat man". Then we booked the bus to Battambang, leaving at 12pm.
We were the first ones getting picked up, so as usual we were driving around the city to fill up the minibus, before we got transfered to the busstation. The bus drive was only 6½ hour, and during those hours we had 3 stops, a little too much from our point of view. We just wanted to reach our destination. It was cloudy and rainy outside, and had been like that half of the way to Battambang.
So when we arrived, and the rain was still pouring down, we immediately agreed to take a tuk-tuk, lucky for us many of the tuk-tuk drivers knows cheap and good places to stay, and this time wasn’t an exception.
He drove us to a hotel near by the city center, and luckily they had TV in all rooms, just what we needed in this bad weather. The first night we got a room, that they usually charge 20$ for, but we got it for 10$, cause they didn’t have any rooms available for that price, which meant that we had to change into a smaller room the next day.
It was still raining, so we didn’t bother going out and eat, we shared a food pancake in the hotels restaurant, and relaxed in our room with a good conscience.

Spike tree

Monday 16th Dec.

We slept in for the first time in 7 days, and still we felt lazy. Weather was hot and humid, almost unbearable to walk around in. We were happy to have a day with no plans and just 100% relaxation.
Since we entered Cambodia it almost happens every day on the streets, that someone offers us marijuana or other drugs, and you can get happy herb pizzas at almost every pizzeria. Weird country.
Then the other thing is that cigarettes are extremely cheap (1$/5-6kr) for a package, I reckon that 99,9% of all asian men are smoking, and so far we haven’t seen any asian women smoke. If it wasn’t because of the fact that it’s so unhealthy I would be smoking like a chimney for that small amount of money.
Anyway, Battambang isn’t an exciting city to visit, we regretted that we didn’t use more time on the south coast, but too little research made us pick this wrong decision, so we only have ourselves to blame. We decided to see the small tourist attractions here anyway.
So at night time we went to a circus with young artists between 15-20 years. It was actually a really entertaining performance, and the artists were very talented, and they really loved what they were doing.
We had dinner at an excellent restaurant serving local food. I was amazed of how many different vegetables I got on my plate, I counted 11, absolutely one of the best fried noodle dishes I have had in Asia. Erik was happy with his fried rice as well, so we quickly decided to come back the day after for another great dinner. The only bad thing about the place was all the child beggars, that didn't take no for an answer, unless we said it loud and clear.

Battambang circus

Everyone can do that, if they want to..

Yummi food

Tuesday 17th Dec.

We started the day before sunrise, with a 7+ km jog and went straight home to bed again. We didn’t have any plans before 2pm. so that was really a nice start of the.

It was chilly and cloudy outside, and for the first time in 2½ month we were wearing long pants and long sleves. It actually felt nice and homely.

An arranged tuk-tuk picked us up and drove us 6km out of town, to a bamboo train. Even though it was 23 degrees, the short ride made us really cold. We’re getting use to the hot weather, and then we freeze easily. The bamboo train is rated (on tripadvisor) as no. 1 attraction in Battambang.. And God must know why.. Because I don’t.. It was very disappointing, expensive and a big (or actually small) tourist trap.

It was basically a big bamboo platform that took you on a trip along the old railway, the bushes around it are quite tall, so there’s no view, and you go 15 min. then you get dropped off in a little village where adults are trying to sell overpriced t-shirts, and kids showed us around a small factory where they once made bricks. Charming, but nothing special (or maybe we’re getting harder and harder to impress..!? Could be..!).

The train is owned by the village, and every day it’s a different family running the business, so prices vary. Next stop on our tuk-tuk tour was at a bat cave, where there should be millions of bats flying out of the cave, when the sun is setting.

We got there a little early, so we waited around for 1½ hour. Then finally the bats flew out of the cave. A really odd sight and no lie, there was millions of them. The smell of them was really strong, and awful. They’re good for the locals, because they eat all the bugs in the rice fields, and there's gotta be a lot of bugs, if they can feed that many bats every day. This was a great experience and should be rated higher than the dodgy bamboo train.

The drive back to town was freaking cold, and I started to remember how much I hate freezing. We went to white rose restaurant again, and had a excellent dinner. Went to bed with fingers crossed that the weather would be better in Siem Reap the next day.

The boring bamboo train

A retired truck

We had to take the train off the track to pass other people.. So here we're waiting for people to pass us.

Erik finally got rid of his Nam hat, and our tuk-tuk driver seemed really happy about the gift

Battambang Video

Wednesday 18th Dec.

The bus to Siem Reap was leaving in the morning. After a few hours, the bus stopped and 90% of the passengers went out to get some fresh air. Luckily I got into the bus in time, before the driver closed the door and took off. Leaving most of the passengers behind, and made the few left in the bus nervous.

Some tried to tell the driver that their boy/girlfriend was missing, and that he needed to turn around. The driver didn’t speak english, but he only drove 300 meters away. None of us knew what was going on, and the people left behind must have been even more confused. Apparently the driver was having his lunch break on a bus station, such a strange behavior. And after that he drove back to pick people up again. Ohh Asia you keep surprising me!

The driver either couldn’t or wouldn’t turn off the air-con, it was very cold in the bus, and everybody was covering up, but he didn’t understand the fact that if it’s not 30-40 degrees outside, then air-con can seem quite cold. Oh well, the most important thing was, that we survived the trip without any damages, injuries or colds. So I guess you can say that he did a (good) job!

We didn’t make a lot of research about Siem Reap, which we really need to do a little more. We did it a lot in the beginning of the trip, before we would come to our next destination, but now we feel a little too comfortable and relaxed, so we kind of forget about it. Anyway, we sat down and enjoyed a great and filling Mexican lunch, while we could do some research on hotels and guesthouses.

The first place we went to check out afterwards, wasn’t nice, so we walked a little further on the street, but only to realize that there was nothing in that direction. After a while of walking without knowing exactly where to go, our patience (or mostly mine) was running out, so we jumped on a tuk-tuk, and he drove us to another area in the city. Luckily we found a place to stay after a few times, on different accommodations, asking for prices, hot water, wifi in the room etc. The weather was better again, but still not hot enough to wear shorts at night (at least not for me).

Siem Reap is the heart of Cambodia, with the temples of Angkor, the old French houses, shady boulevards, clean streets, and a beautiful and charming riverside. We were happy to see Christmas decorations on the streets (only to satisfy the tourists, but that still counts in my opinion). All bars and restaurants are located in the same little area, and it makes the city nice and cosy. We fell in love with this city immediately. We went out for dinner at the buzzing main street, but decided to have a quiet night, so we went home, before the big party street was getting too crazy.

Ready for a foot massage (2$ = 11 kr. for 30 min)

Here we go..

The pub street in Siem Reap

Thursday 19th Dec.

We enjoyed the sun and relaxed on the hotels terrace most of the day. First time we stepped out of the hotels, was when the sun was setting and we decided to go for a 6+km jog along the river. A nice decision and it went smoother, than it does for me in the mornings.

We wandered around all the markets in the city and again we had a quiet night (believe it or not). We rented bikes, for exploring the temples of Angkor early the next morning.

Christmas decorations and a happy clown

5 different ways to eat Amok..

Friday 20th Dec.

We hate waking up early, unless we're really excited for something, and this day we were both excited to see the temples of Angkor. We wanted to watch the sunrise, so that’s the reason for getting up so early.

We biked to Angkor Wat (the most famous), and realized that a lot of other people have had the same idea. The place was packed with people that wanted to catch a perfect picture of the sun rising over the temple. Sadly there was a lot of clouds this morning, but we still got some great shots.

Angkor Wat is the worlds largest religious building, and impressing with it's ultimate creative stone carvings and rural ancient buildings. It’s actually the 8th wonder of the world. The temples of Angkor are a source of inspiration and profound pride to all Khmers.

The temple area is huge, so we biked between the many beautiful temples, and were happy that we could stop where we wanted, to go explore them on our own (big guided tourists tours is not our thing).

We saw most of the big temples, and were back in town around 13pm. I really don’t know how people can use several days out there, but luckily we’re all different. We were knackered when we got back to our hotel, so we stole a nap in the afternoon.

We had been trying to find one particular top rated Indian restaurant the day before, but with no luck, so we tried again today, and with better luck. It’s always when you set your mind up for something special, you'll get disappointed.. When do we learn that! And when do we learn that as soon a restaurant/hotel/bar is top rated on trip advisor or mentioned in lonely planet, they higher the price and food/place/drinks looses it's value. So we got disappointed with the Indian food. Shame on us!

We only live once, so we tasted a bit of the nightlife this night, and got home quite late.

Angkor.. What..!?

Angkor Wat Temple

Some used this as transportation around the temples

Beautiful biking trip around the temples

Bayon Temple

Angkor Thom

Ta Prohm Temple

Ta Prohm

Banteay Srei

Saturday 21st Dec.

No hangovers, but no reason to get out of bed before we got hungry. Luckily we stayed in a nice room, so no harm to hang there.

After our bad Indian food the day before, we still decided to check out another top rated restaurant, which apparently serves world class pizzas. This time was not a disappointment (but still expensive compared to other places). I had a special pizza with chicken, pumpkin (weird but good), sundried tomatoes, spinach and cashew nuts (even weirder but also great). Erik had a boring Hawaii pizza!

Time to spoil ourselves with a massage, each person 4$ (22kr) for an hour. We don’t expect a lot for that price, but sometimes we get surprised in a good way, and most of the time we walked away satisfied with the treatment. So everybody wins.

We read about a ladyboy show, that would take place at a bar at night, so we went to check that out. We figured out that the show was free, but then we had to buy some drinks. It was in a expensive winebar, and while everybody else was sipping wine and fancy drinks, we could only afford a water and a coke, which made us feel totally misplaced, between all the rich and gay guys. The show was basically just playback music, with some guys in different funny outfits, pretending they were the singers. Actually a really bad performance, but entertaining in its own special level.

Going home after the show, we thought about that we have to get use to see this, it’s even more common in Thailand. So now was the time to prepare ourselves for that.

Local kids

Garbage dump, on the side of a street

Cambodian ladyboy show

Sunday 22nd Dec.

We had our laundry done at our hotel, and in the morning before we left to the airport, I realized that I was missing a cardigan. We asked for a discount on the price, because they lost my cardigan.

The owner thought we were lying to him, and played a trick on him (to get a discount). So that’s when we started to make a scene. Opsii.. We got upset and so did the owner. In the end we ended up paying the full amount of our stay, and I really wish that he eventually will find the cardigan and realize that we were telling him the truth. Mmm, less to carry around, but still annoying to lose it.

We went to the airport and had a very short flight to Bangkok. We had to fly into Thailand (even though a bus from Siem Reap is only 6-7 hours and cheaper), but because we get 30 days visa for free when we arrive by air, and only 15 days if we cross the border by land, we had to do it like that, to have enough time here. We took the fancy skytrain from the airport into the city. Luckily we booked a place in the area where the trains are running (Sukhumvit road).

Apparently there are no developed transportation to the west side of the city, where Khao San road, the golden palace, Wat Pho etc. are located. Public busses drive between the areas, but they're in very bad conditions, and hard to find. So most tourists uses tuk-tuks or taxis to get around in the city, where the train isn’t going.

Considering Christmas and high season in Bangkok, we booked a room in advance, long time ago. We treated ourselves with a nice and decent room, a Christmas present to each other. Located down a small and quiet alley, we found the "little" woodhouse, with loads of decorations, it almost looked a little messy, but felt cosy and homely.

For the first time in ages we had a shower curtain, a very uncommon thing here in Asia (or maybe just the places where we live), but great, now we could shower without wetting the whole bathroom. Such a little thing made us feel really happy and spoiled. We also had clean sheets and DYNER, so amazing.

We took the train to check out the weekend market, just to browse around and get a feeling of it. We would come back on the upcoming friday, so we didn’t buy anything, but just checked out what they had, and to get a feeling of the prices. Bangkok has really got everything, it’s not an exaggeration, as we thought. It really haves everything you can imagine. And we got told that if we see something in the market that we like, we have to buy it, cause we will never find it in other places around the world.

On our way back we got off two stations before our station (Nana), to watch the protests against the goverment. It’s happening a lot of places in the city, and I think we found one of the bigger ones. The streets were packed with loud and yelling thai people. We watched it from a bridge, so we had a good distance to the crazy crowd, and a great view over the scene and the street. Funny to experience, but it didn’t took long before we got tired of listening to all the noise.

We walked back to Suk11, and in a supermarket we found Haribo candy (more expensive than at home), but we were in for a treat! Watched the movie "Hangover in Thailand", and prepared ourselves for buzzing and vibrating Bangkok.