Once more for old times sake!
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2010
1
169
171
Trip End
Ongoing
Kâmpóng Chhnăng, Kâmpóng Chhnăng, Cambodia
Friday, October 21, 2011
I left Sihanockville to head to Phnom Penh which was going to be my next visit. A long the journey I thought of a different plan and head to Kompong Chhnang instead. My main reason was because I spoke to Chloe and Roxanne just before I left and they told me they were going to Phnom Penh on the 22nd, so that gave me a chance to squeeze one more place in Cambodia.
I arrived in Phnom Penh at midnight then had to change to another bus which took two hours to finally get there. I couldn't get any sleep on the journey because of all the potholes. Just tried to wait until I found a hostel to get some sleep.
I finally arrived at 2am and the search began to try and find a hostel. I was just going to take anyone and not worry about the location or cost, but when I was walking into the centre on town I noticed I could see the moon on the ground. This whole town was flooded and I mean flooded. I tried to find alternative routes in the centre but found no way in. I could not bothered to carry my big luggage around to try and find a hostel so I slept on a park bench for old times sake.
At 6am I got woken up by the sunrise and thought I better find a hostel or even a hotel which could look after my luggage for me. I remembered seeing a hotel when the bus pulled in last night but it was a five minute walk. I ended up taking it here and then organised a motorbike to take me around the local area at around 9am.
One of the main things to do in this town is too visit the floating villages but because of the flooding it made it nearly impossible to get a boat out too them. Luckily there were more things too do in the town so it wasn't a complete wasted stop off.
The motorbike guy took me to a village out in the fields where they made pottery. This was actually a really good and really interesting. I got too see how they make them and what different products they make. Wouldn't of minded buying on but I think it will smash before I got it home.
All the people in this village were pretty poor but they were loving life. They were all so friendly and welcomed me in their property too show me what they have made and how they make it. One lady made a pot right in front of me. She had just finished a number of pots but left them on the grass in the sun too dry before burning them in a oven. Whilst she was making a new one several chickens and chicks walked straight over all of them. She didn't know wether to laugh or cry. I felt really bad, but it was pretty funny though I have too say.
The countryside was beautiful, was just nice cruising around on the back of this motorbike visiting different houses and watching people make pottery underneath there houses. All the families were potters. Made the little village have a nice feel to it.
After I had enough looking around we headed off to see more of the countryside. He asked me if I had ever tired Palm wine which I replied "no I haven't", so he stopped of to get my a glass. It smelt really bad and it looked like watery glue, but the taste was surprisingly really nice.
He then took me too see some temple which was under construction and underwater. This was a pretty wasted journey. He then said he would take me to the airport for some reason. We must of drove about half an hour and still didn't see the airport. Think he went the wrong way or something. Anyway we stopped off in the middle of no where to cool down the bikes tyres in the shade. He did stop off at a good place though because there were paddy fields all around me with a river running through it.
Whilst enjoying the scenery he noticed another guy with his motorbike in the shade cooling down his tyres as well. This guy sold ice-cream so we got one each but I had it in a baguette which he says is a Cambodian thing. I just thought it was weird and went along with it. It tasted really nice in a baguette, but I still think it's a little weird.
After the enjoyable ice-cream we headed back town where we stopped off again to see some guys garden which he has made really nice. The entrance fee was $2 and an extra $5 for a small camera. This guy must of been made thinking he could charge that much for a small camera or even a camera at all. If you had a medium it was $10 and $15 for a big. I thought fuck that and left.
We did one more stop before we got back to town which was to see a massive rock on too of a hill. Doesn't sound that impressive but the view from the top made it impressive I think. There was also an impressive looking temple in the same complex but I didn't go in it because I can finally say I'm templed out now.
We got back down town around 1pm and had a few hours to kill before my bus at 4pm. I couldn't do much else because the town was flooded to I went to take some pictures of that. I walked around town for a bit and visited the local market which was half flooded. It was a pain in the arse getting around. I liked seeing people on boats just going down the road dropping there kids off at school or going to he local market.
This killed about an hour or so but I spent the rest of the time at the hotel waiting for my pickup.
I enjoyed Kompkng Chhnang very much, it was just. Shame I couldn't visit the floating villages because I've heard they are pretty nice, but saying that I still enjoyed seeing yet another flooded town. My highlight of the day has too be the pottery village. It was just amazing to see. Not many travellers come here but I can say it was well worth sleeping rough for one night.
