Boat trip/caves

Trip Start Sep 05, 2006

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Cambodia Battambang, Cambodia
Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I opted to take the scenic route to Battambang, an unfortunate choice; the 'three to five' hour trip took nine hours. When the boat was full and ready to depart, another boatload of people and their luggage boarded. Then, when it felt like the weight might cause us to capsize, another boatload was ushered onto the roof. After leaving an hour late the crew decided less than thirty minutes into the journey that perhaps there were a few too many on board and called for another vessel to share the weight.

A combination of shallow rivers and a still overloaded boat caused us to frequently get stuck in mud. Eventually the river narrowed enough to warrant stopping and changing over, somehow, to an even smaller boat that chugged its way along the Sanker river to the town. The uncomfortable and, at times, worrying ride was redeemed by a blissful few hours spent on the roof, legs dangling over the edge as we passed small fishing villages in the morning sun

At the top of Phnom Sampean

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Evidence of Cambodia's awful recent history is everywhere. My driver Thean, who was himself born in a Thai refugee camp, took me to Phnom Sampean, a temple used as a prison by the Khmer Rouge. Next to it are eerie caves where Cambodians were tied up before being thrown to their deaths. At the bottom is a container of human bones gathered at the site. Thean was visibly distressed at being there. Actually, he is proof of the sorry state the country is still in; he had to stop every few steps to catch his breath because of a chest problem - possibly asthma. He's only 25 but struggles like an old man. The few doctors that are in the country are too expensive for him to visit. To cap it off, we narrowly missed a car and skidded off the road on his motorbike. I was unharmed but Thean was left with a limp that he struggled not to show, as he had attempted to do with his breathing, stopping every few paces to ostensibly talk about the local area.

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