From Battambang to Siem Reap, like traveling by boat in Cambodia, a slow but beautiful journey, a story and an adventure for those seeking the true essence of travel, even in Cambodia.
A Battambang, which I told you about in another post because it impressed me very much, I stayed at the Star Hotel for 12 dollars a night: a room without a window but clean and spacious. The same goes for the bathroom, one of the largest and cleanest I had during the whole trip, the laundry service I took advantage of and the possibility to book trips.
Breakfast on request but to be served in the hotel next door but I never tried it. The strength of this hotel is its location, as it is close to the bus station and the night market. I know that some tourists have complained that it is not close to the central street, since there is no real central street: as usual, everything is relative. For many it is a problem to walk thirty minutes, for some (myself included) thirty minutes on the other side of the world where every corner is to be discovered, they are nothing. The reception staff did not have excellent English, a lot depended on who was on duty, but everyone was able to give basic information.
How to reach Siem Reap from Battambang
You have two options: thebus, for a few dollars and fewer hours ($ 5 / 4-5 hours) or the boat ($ 20 / 7-8 hours). One of the reasons that pushed me to this city was precisely the possibility of going by rivers. So it is boat! Or better to say barge?
To my disadvantage I had: the thousand negative opinions found on the net; the awareness that traveling during the dry season (February) the water level would have been decidedly low and according to many, really difficult to navigate in some sections; the tourists I met in my walk who first said to me: "Do you know that it's a long journey and the water is shallow?“; "Do you know that the boat is ugly and the bathroom even worse?"; "Do you know that you will have to be very patient?"; "Do you know they don't give you food !?".
In short, based on the question on duty, like it or not, as much as I tried to dominate my mind, I classified the traveler / tourist I was in front of in a small box by type and my firm intention of wanting to reach Siem Reap by sailing was strengthened mindful of the two beautiful days of navigation spent on the Mekong a few years earlier.
Booked the ticket at the reception, which in the twenty dollars also includes the pick up at six the next morning, I left armed with water (no less than a liter and a half!), various snacks, dried and fresh fruit, a book against boredom, cream sunscreen 30 (and I still burned my feet), the inevitable toilet paper that you will really need here e the inseparable camera.
When you arrive at the pier, you will wait a few minutes before they load your backpack on the boat and you can take your place, not numbered. Is the boat bad? Yes. Is it a bagnarola? Sure. Are the seats uncomfortable? Absolutely yes and very hard. The bathroom? It's a hole that requires you have attended circus school or an acrobatics course for six months if you want to use it on the go. They give you neither food nor water, I confirm.
That said, this was it one of the most beautiful experiences of this trip! It may be because I live in a city on the river, Turin, but I feel a special bond with waterways. Maybe it's like for those who live by the sea? I do not know.
In any case, treat yourself to this experience and don't take the bus!
The boat is also used by locals to return home and as a means of supplying basic necessities for those who live on the water. We stopped several times just to get some people off or to unload supplies. For tourists instead it is carried out a single stop of twenty minutes: you can go down and stretch your legs in a very small bar that sells drinks and take-away food (rice and omelette).
Il engine noise it will be annoying throughout the journey until it becomes part of the whole; the only tip I can give you is that, if you are not going to get on the roof and staying below, it is better to sit on the opposite side to that of the driver and halfway between him and the engine.
That will be the side of the boat that will offer it best glimpse for your photographs and for your eyes.
This stretch of the Sangker River it is the most interesting to reach Siem Reap, before the boat arrives at Tonlè Sap lake which, fortunately, reaches when you are at the end of the navigation. You will find that you are sailing the lake because the landscape will become totally flat and you will begin to see other boats loaded with tourists leaving from Siem Reap for day trips on the lake.
Those who arrive in Siem Reap by bus and take this type of excursion on the lake, actually miss a lot of the authentic life that you have the opportunity to see on the river. Villages that have totally adapted to this perennial fluctuating condition, in which everything seems to be perfectly normal and everyone moves at ease as you do in your home, except that no one comes to photograph you on the balcony while you hang the clothes.
Once again I realize that cultural relativism does not teach you any book but only experience, the one you live on your skin and see with your eyes.
The river and the roof of the boat gave me indelible images: a blue church with a yellow cross, the children in uniform who went to school driving the boats themselves, the fishermen, the fish perfectly lined up to dry, a thousand hands and arms waving to greet you left and right, women washing clothes, the fishing nets everywhere that dot the landscape, the cages in which the crocodiles are raised and a particular vegetation that from a distance makes those that are actually roots tangled in dark skeins of surreal beauty look like huts.
The view from the roof is something exceptional, with the sun burning you everywhere but you just don't want to come back down, your legs dangling and blissful bliss.
