Goodbye Thailand, Hello Cambodia

13 - 15 December 2014

Our hotel in Battambang, Cambodia.

We woke to our last Thailand beach scene and boarded the speedboat back to the mainland.  It was a bit sad to leave the beautiful beach, but it was time to head to Cambodia and continue our adventure.  Once back to the mainland we boarded a minivan to Chanthaburi, Thailand.  Our plan is to spend on night there and catch a van to the border of Cambodia the next day.  We arrived at the bus stop in Chanthaburi after about 3 hours.  

For some reason I didn't make a hotel reservation in this town, so we walked into town to look for a place to stay.  The travel guide mentioned a hotel right across from where we were to catch the van to Cambodia so we thought we'd check it out.  The price was right at $15 USD, but when we went to see the room we determined that the lumpy bed was not going to work.  The only good thing we got out of stopping here is that they were very familiar with the van to Cambodia and told us that the van leaves everyday at 9:45 AM.  We continued walking and found a pretty nice hotel for twice the price $30 USD, but it included breakfast and the bed was comfortable.  

Chanthaburi was a small city known for its gem market.  The nice part was that it were a lot of rivers running through it and the mountains in the distance:

We decided to be at the van station early since our Thailand visas expired today so we had to get to the border.  We got the the station at 8:45 AM and our "van" arrived at 11:00 AM.  Why is van in quotes?  Well...what pulled up looked like something that was not street-worthy and the inside was even worse with broken seats being held together with rope.  Luckily there were two seats in the back that looked somewhat decent so we climbed in.  We made another stop and picked up 2 locals that filled the van to capacity.  Why are we stopping again?  There is no room for anyone else.  Well...maybe there is.  The three seats in front of us is now holding 4 people.  What...we are stopping again?!?  Now there are two people sitting in the front passenger seat made for one.

Finally, after a very long 2 hours we arrived at the border.  Checking out of Thailand was easy.  We handed over our passports and they stamped us out.  Now what?  A woman told us that we need to pay her 1000 Baht ($30 USD) for a Cambodia stamp.  Luckily I had done research and knew about the scams at the border...this being one, so we walked past and continued toward the border.  When we reached what we thought was the border there was a man there asking for our stamp.  I said we didn't have and he pointed at the 1000 Baht woman...hum.  We went back to the window that we got stamped out and asked her where we go and she pointed to where we came from.  Ah...I get it now.  We walked past the dude at the desk and continued on to the actual border where we received our visa for $35 USD...only $5 over what we were supposed to pay, but it wasn't worth arguing.  We got in a taxi for $30 USD...pretty expensive trip, but it was our only option...and made it to Battambang by 2:30 PM...not too bad.

A typical street in Battambang, Cambodia

Our bamboo train conductor

A tuk-tuk driver in front of our hotel offered us a tour.  He said we had enough time today to take a bamboo train ride...lets go!

The history of the bamboo train is that the actual trains stopped running in Cambodia around 2009 due to neglect and the civil war.  Locals invented the bamboo train to get them up and down the train lines, especially where there are no roads.  This particular bamboo train is specifically set up for tourists, but there are many such trains running along the tracks for locals.

Notice that there is only one track, now notice the picture of a bamboo train coming right at us.  The basic rule is that the car with less people stop, get off the car, and remove it from the tracks to allow the other car to pass.  It works!

After the ride, our driver dropped us off and we agreed to meet him at 9:30 AM the next day for a tour outside the city.  We had some dinner and experienced our first beer in Cambodia.  We had a choice of Angkor and Anchor...both sounded the same to us.  We couldn't tell the difference between the two when they asked us what kind of beer we wanted, so we got one of each.

The next morning our driver picked us up and took us to see the sites.  First, a fishing village:

We then went over this cool single lane suspension bridge.  A sign said it cost $5,000 USD to build 6 years ago.

Next a visit to the first and only winery in Cambodia.  We did the tasting sample that included (from left to right) red wine, brandy, grape juice, and honey ginger juice.  The wine was gross, Tim thought the brandy was pretty good, the grape juice was nice, and the honey ginger juice burned and tasted like medicine.

Next was a visit to Wat Banan that required us to walk up 360 steps to reach the temple:

Lastly that day we visited Phenom Sampeu, a limestone mountain topped with temples and shrines.  However, it is now best known for its tragic association with the Khemer Rouge, who turned the buildings into a prison, many of whose inmates were executed.  This visit required another long climb of which our driver thought we were crazy to do when we could hire a motobike to ride us up to the top.  However, we decided to take the challenge and make the climb, which wound up being not that bad.

It is a long way up.

Great view from the top.

One of the many caves on the mountain.

Tim grabs a stick for defense against the reported monkeys at the top.

There really were monkeys up there, but they left us alone.

A german anti-aircraft gun left from the Khmer Rouge conflict.

Memorial filled with skulls of those that were killed.

During this day we must of rode around 40 miles in the back of a tuk-tuk.  During this time we drove by some really interesting looking villages, houses, fields, and people.  Here are some of the highlights:

Drying chili peppers.

Driving down a dirt road between sites.

Typical house along our route.

A great couple of days with our driver Thong.

After a full day we went back to the hotel, walked across the street to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner and went to sleep.  Tomorrow we board a boat for the 6 hour journey to Siem Reap...this should be an adventure.