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Other entries in Battambang

Intimidation, potholes and dust

Waking early we had an average breakfast at a casino before trying to find a way out of Poipet. We watched Cambodian men and women pushing empty hand carts over the border and returning with them absolutely packed with food and supplies. Those without legs used hand cranks to pedal.

The lonely Planet had said that it should be about $5pp to Battambang but the cheapest we could get out of the touts by the border was $10. We were relieved when a trustworthy looking guy in a yellow shirt told us that there was a free bus to the real bus station where we could choose from all the bus and taxi companies. We waited for the bus and jumped on it when it came. On the bus it occurred to me that this could be a scam and sure enough we were dropped at a bu station that looked very much like a tourist office. The prices here were $12pp for a cab and not what we wanted to pay. Feeling annoyed we decided to walk down the road and talk to people. Unfortunately a 2 guys, one on a motorbike, from the tourist office scam followed us. Whenever we would talk to people they would be receptive at first but become quiet and refuse to help us when the two guys came over and intimidated them. We found out that the transport is effectively run by the mafia in conjunction with police and government officials. We just kept on walking in the hot midday sun with our two escorts getting very annoyed. We were about to stop and have a beer jus to wind them up further when they left. We then found a pickup truck that took Krysta, Steve, Caroline and Sven inside while Chelsea, Steen and I rode on the back. What more can you expect from a border town in a country as poor as Cambodia. Apparently people in government and police jobs have to pay to get their jobs as they are effectively licenses to print money in the form of scams and extortion.

The road was an amazing step down from the Thai roads and we were soon coated in dust. Also, the paint on the cheap sun glasses I had bought began to smear onto my face. As we drove along the pot hole filled road past vehicles with broken axles, people on bikes and funny vehicles I had never seen before we stopped and picked people up. At the maximum point we had 23 people in on the Toyota Hilux, 18 in the tray and 5 in the cab. All this as well as our gear which people were sitting on and these people were in turn sat on. Luckily Cambodians, especially the children, are small as we could not have fitted even 15 of us big fat whities! We reach the city of Battambang in the early afternoon and had a good lunch and fruit smoothie. I had a nap in the afternoon as I was exhausted while Krysta and Steve looked around the town and the others took motos to a hill and cave that were used as a killing field during the Kymer Rouge regime. While Sven and Caroline had a massage by blind massuses, Chelsea, Steen and I enjoyed a quiet drink before dinner and bed!

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