Clark's Crazy Adventures: The Dengue Express

Sadly today we left Siem Reap. Our transportation for the 180km journey was by local bus. Although the advertised price for a ticket was $4.50 each the counter lady wanted to charge me more because I didn’t have my passport handy to show her. After a brief argument I called upon Sam who yelled at her in Khmer and walla we were only charged the advertised price.

I am quite an horrendous speller so I looked up the meaning of ‘walla’ – according to the urban dictionary in google, Walla is a word used by retarded Americans who don’t know any foreign languages and barley know their own – LOL

So back to our journey to Battambang. We boarded the bus and were immediately swarmed by mosquitos. I’m not talking one or two, the mosquitos had called all their mates to come over as well, they were friggin everywhere. As Dengue Fever is very prevalent in this area this was ‘not good’. I try to be prepared for any situation and just happened to have bushmans in my back pack. If anyone has ever used bushmans you will know that this stuff could strip paint, so I purchased it in the spray form rather than the gel. We immediately started spraying the stuff everywhere which didn’t go down to well in such an enclosed space – whoops! Once our journey began Cambodian music started playing. Emily was exceptionally thrilled with this, particularly as she had forgotten to put her headphones into the back pack, he he he. My head phones really made no difference, I was barely able to hear my music over the constant horn peeping, the Cambodian music blaring and people randomly clapping (to try and kill some of the ga-zillion mosquitos).

We stopped about 2 hours into the journey and everyone started departing the bus, but leaving their belongings on their seats. We concluded we must be at a rest stop so we hoped off as well. After a few minutes the bus just left – with us just standing there looking very perplexed. Fark! I desperately looked around for someone who might speak English. Luckily I had my bag with our passports and money but I couldn’t survive with only one pair of nickers of the next 26 days. A young lady must had recognised my distress and advised that ‘bus come back’. Phew, disaster adverted. Another 2 hour latter we arrived in Battambang.

Our hotel had arranged a Tuk Tuk to pick us up, which actually showed up this time, which was just lovely as we were accosted by drivers while still on the bus. I kind you not. The jumped on the bus before the locals even had time to get off asking if we needed a ride.

This hotel is like an oasis, it’s 10 minutes out of town, with a lovely pool and connecting rooms – they even made elephants out of the towels….. The kids have settled in very nicely and I’m worried they won’t leave. It’s even hotter here so we may die on our 30km bike ride tomorrow.