The Lonely Planet Recommends the Slow-Boat

March 5, 2010

Today I took the slow boat from Siem Riep to Battambang. It was a ridiculously overpriced ticket, $20 for the trip. I hadn’t bothered to ask how long the ride was until I got on the boat and was surprised when they said 6 hours. That meant I would be sitting on the boat for at least 7 hours.

The beginning of the ride was beautiful and interesting as we passed several floating villages in the mangroves of Konle Sap (Cambodia’s Great Lake). The entire lives of these people are conducted on the water. We passed their houses, shops, medical clinics, schools, police stations, and churches, all floating individually, accessed by personal canoe. Everyone on the boat eagerly took pictures. The locals seemed both bored and frustrated with the photography. Every day several boats filled with tourists pass from Siem Riep to Battambang through these towns thanks to the new review by the Lonely Planet that this route was well worthwhile (hence the ridiculous price). Here these people were living their day to day lives the way they knew and we passed surprisingly close. We could see straight into homes, people working, children playing, people bathing. Unlike taking a tour of a village or walking through, we didn’t have permission to be there, we couldn’t stop and say hello or ask permission to take a picture. These people happened to live on the main water route between two cities, a route which had just be greatly popularized by travel guides, attracting more and more foreigners to pass through their homes. Of course, I took photos too, but it did strike me as more invasive than a land trip, these people had given no permission for us to pass through and we passed so close and so slowly.

The rest of the nearly 8 hour trip was tedious. Our seats were uncomfortable; we were on benches facing the middle of the boat, knees almost touching the person on the other side facing inwards. As we got further inland the river became smaller and windy. It’s the dry season so we were actually lucky to be able to have enough water this time of year. It was extremely slow going. The driver carefully navigated around the bends, the boy at the bow sometimes had to use a large wooden pole to push us away from the approaching mud bank. And we had slowed to such a pace that we no longer had the relief of a breeze to cool us down.

Eventually we reached Battambang and my decision of whether to stay the night or continue to Pursat was made easy when I quickly found a bus leaving immediately for the direction I was headed. And so, I was on to Pursat where I hoped to find a way to enter the mysterious Cardamom Mountains.

I’m glad I got to see the floating villages; I would have otherwise missed this characteristic scene of Cambodia. The cost of bus transport to Battambang and a tour of the floating villages would definitely have added to more than $20, so I guess it was worth it? A bus to Battambang would have been a lot more comfortable and probably shorter. Perhaps if I had been more in the mindset of a long uncomfortable boat ride when I started the day I wouldn’t have been so uncomfortable…