From Battambang to Siem Reap by river boat

(Nov 1st)

From Battambang to Siem Reap we took a boat.  Sometimes billed as a "speedboat," "express boat" or "tourist boat", this boat was none of those.  To say this boat lived up to international standard in any capacity would be categorically false.  The best we can say is "it floated" and "the engine worked".  The 7 hour trip down the river provided amazing insight into rural Cambodian life along the river banks and floating in the river.  With a telephoto lens we were able to capture countless snapshots of real life in the area.  People's faces say it all.  Children enthusiastically waving and smiling at every turn.  A mother showing her two year old how to wave at our passing boat.  Fishermen with skin wrinkled from day after day of work in the sun.  The snapshots of Cambodian life we were able to capture far outweighed any discomfort from seven hours in a hard cramped seat. 

This post describes our boat the the  journey.  The next post will show nearly 100 snapshots in time of Cambodian life along the river.

The boat, of course, had a re-purposed car engine.  Lobster boats in Maine in the USA often have converted car engines too.  In Cambodia, however, they take a few other parts of the car too -- here you can see the steering column from a Toyota.  The captain's chair (or should I say "drivers seat") also came from a car or truck.

Luggage was stacked everywhere possible - under and between the seats, in an open area near the front, and on the roof.

In addition to tourists travelling from Battambang to Siem Reap, the boat also carried locals and supplies from Battambang to the villages along and in the river.  At our feet were bottles of fish oil (see the yellow caps) and baguettes in blue plastic bags.   Under our seat were boxes of canned beer.  At least if we got stranded we'd have food and drinks.

Looking backward in the boat from the front seat.  You can see the wooden bench seats on each side of the central aisle.  There did seem to be an adequate supply of orange lifejackets on the ceiling.  Many passengers chose to ride on the roof of the boat for a better view.  We stayed inside to avoid the sun.

Along the route we passed another boat travelling in the opposite direction.  The boat shown here is significantly more modern than ours.  Our boat was wood and slower but not quite as crowded.

Initially we travelled down the river, snaking our way through the countryside.  The river is quite windy though, so at times we took advantage of the high water in the rainy season to cut through the flooded rice fields, shaving many miles off our route.

Sometimes we plowed through floating reeds and shrubbery.  Fortunately our propeller never got tangled, although the driver would periodically reverse the engine to unwind the plants from the prop.

Sometimes the path through the shrubbery was extremely narrow.  Above, you can hardly see the waterway looking off the bow.  Below you can see the narrow passageway.  For a large portion of the journey, the boat squeezed through a pencil-thin slit in the brush with the branches (sometimes with thorns) brushing the side of the boat like a comb or rake.  We spent hours leaning in to the boat to avoid getting scraped.  Understandably we don't have pictures of the dicey parts.

Eventually we exited the river and were out on Tonle Sap Lake -- in its expanded footprint due to the wet season.  In the distance above you can see a phnom (mountain) near Siem Reap -- our destination.

C on the boat, with the lake and flooded rice fields in the background.

Once we crossed the lake, we again took a shortcut through an impossibly thin crevice in the vegetation.

Despite the seven hour ride and the resulting hungry tourists, no food is served on the boat so we got a boxed lunch from our hotel.  Of course the box was hand-woven from palm leaves.

After a long but beautiful and insightful ride we arrived safely in Siem Reap.  No wake zone at the end.

Landing at Siem Reap