Boat Ride to Siem Reap, Cambodia

15 December 2014

There are two ways to get to Siem Reap from Battambang...a bus that takes 4 hours and costs $15 USD or a boat that takes 8 hours and costs $25.  The obvious choice should have been the bus, but the guidebook convinced me that the boat was the way to go calling it "a rewarding trip down the Sangker River and across the Tonle Sap."  So, we showed up to the pier at 7:00 AM and saw our "home" for the next 8 hours:

The boat looked...uhm...interesting.  We are going to spend 8 hours on this thing.  Well...at least we have room since there doesn't seem to be too many people here.  And then the people started arriving.  By the time we left they had set up stools on the floor for people to sit on and a bunch of people sat on the roof.

That's a lot of people.

At least we have a seat to enjoy the cruise down the river.  The trip started out very enjoyable with some really cool scenery of fishing villages only accessible by water along with houseboats, fishing boats, and fields of rice paddies.  Here are some highlights:

Such interesting scenes...right?  Well, the boat ride wasn't all it was cracked up to be...at least in Tim's and another passenger's opinion.  You see...with all the people on board of which many were on the top along with everyone's luggage...whenever we went around a bend the boat would lean almost to the point that it felt like we were going to roll.  Tim just sat there mad, but the other passenger actually started crying and was quite panicked.  She actually went to talk to the captain who obviously told her that everything was fine.  She then went to the top and begged people to come downstairs to get some of the weight off the roof.  One people actually did oblige, but others probably looked at her like she was crazy.  

Needless to say, we made it to Siem Reap with no problems.  I actually did go on top for a little bit, but this was after many people have offloaded at stops along the river:

After 8 hours we finally pulled into port which looked nothing like what I was expecting.  Siem Reap is one of the most popular places in Cambodia visited by tourists.  I was expecting a bit more, but there was a pool hall at the port...what else do you need?!?

As soon as we got off the boat, there was a tuk-tuk driver with my name on a sign who was sent by our hotel to pick us up....NICE!  As soon as we got to the hotel we dropped our bags and went to grab something to eat...and drink $0.50 drafts...before our sunset visit to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world built over 900 years ago:

All we did today was take in Angkor Wat from a distance.  In the next 5 days we will be exploring more than 20 temple ruins.  These 5 days promises to be one of the highlights of our entire trip.