How surreal does that sound?!
So today early morning we departed from the bustling road of Khao San and hit the road to Cambodian border. With all that we’ve read about annoying scams we were anxious not to overpay for everything. The boarder was indeed sketchy. We got hunted down by someone with a governmental ID card who led our way through the border just to put us in the “government approved safe and free” shuttle bus to the bus station in Poipet city. It was dodgy to take it with only 2 more people and them repeating constantly that it’s so safe and free made us very suspicious. At the bus station they seemed to have an eye on us so that we didn’t leave the premises but since they told us we have to wait 2 hours we said we’d go out and “discover the city and come back, yes, we will come back in 2 h” and got ourselves a taxi for half price and we got to drive with a very friendly driver who really tried to teach us some of Khmer language, but we just failed. The driving here is exactly the same as in the whole Asia. Crazy fast with no regard for the vehicles coming from the opposite direction, signaling overtaking with a honk and driving the imaginary lane between the regular ones. Anyways, we got to the lovely city of Battambang, checked-in and left to discover the whereabouts.
It’s nothing like I expected. Not a barely developed jungle village, but a very much developing town! There are construction sites everywhere, good roads and a decent infrastructure! Might be better than some of the same sized Polish cities!!
Money in Cambodia is crazy…I’ve never had few hundred thousand nominated bills in my hand. Everything seems to be very affordable here too. And those people, OMG are just sooo nice! We were just resting on a bench and one guy, medicine student came up to chat with us and practice his English! He gave us some insider tips and we ended up watching locals on their aerobics class in the middle of a park. So funny to see the instructor in his Nike’s and audio system, that he brought with him on a wheelbarrow!!
Another thing I noticed was how proud of their country they are. They always say “in my country” and “we” with such paternal pride – a thing rarely observed nowadays…
To end the day well after walking around a bit we found a very well equipped internet café, had a nice dinner and now at 10pm about to pass out… Time for Motorbike tour tomorrow!!
Oh and btw, I jumped into one of my Taiwan Uni co-exchange students:] Seems there are a bunch of us travelling around SEA and I might be bumping into some of them on the way. Love, how small is the world :]
I love the way you described us the local experience inside the country, your post are becoming an cultural-educational journey...., even to know the weakness of Poland...
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this post, sometimes I felt like i was there with you, feeling your experience ... so congratulation for makes your readers immerse in your stories!!..