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I think the lack of mixing drinks last night was a very wise move as we both didn't feel too bad today... Just stupidly tired! We packed up the rest of our gear and said our goodbyes and thanked the hostel for being wonderful hosts! We waited for our tuk tuk for ages then when he appeared he literally took us just around the corner to the bus which was waiting for us, a bit embarrassing considering the distance! We headed on to the bus which would obviously only take us as far as the bus station, wise considering it wasn't in the best state. This was confirmed by the air conditioning leaking water onto people during the ride to which the guy tied up the curtains so a towel could hang underneath the leak lol.
At the bus station there was the hordes trying to sell you food but we transferred straight into the bus which would take us to Battambang! Battambang is a small city which is located in the northwestern sector of Cambodia relatively close to the Thailand border! The bus ride was comfortable and uneventful although as usual look longer than expected. We did stop off halfway at the usual over priced eateries where we managed to get some cheap bananas and baguette...our favourite! Laura then went to the loo and I think that was an experience within itself... Especially as the door was propped up against the door frame. She climbed back on feeling dirtier for washing her hands. We set back off and a couple of ours later we pulled into the bus office in Battambang, where there was a rugby scum of tuk tuk drivers waiting for us. We managed to get our bags through the crowd and a driver took us to our hostel for a decent price. It was nice ride down the river which goes through the centre of Battambang although being dry season it was very low! After about 5 minutes we reached our hostel called 'Here be Dragons'.
On arrival we were met by Jen, one of the owners who seemed very pleasant and I would later find out was originally from Norfolk. We were shown our double room which was en suite, with two fans and a big window, not bad at all! We settled in and unpacked our stuff before Laura fell into a deep sleep... I had a short nap but soon my stomach was rumbling so I went for a little look around the local area. In the immediate vicinity there were no food stalls so I bought a Vietnamese soup from the hostel which was huge and very tasty!
Not long after getting back Laura awoke and the afternoon then consisted of chill out time with a couple of beers, we were then told of quiz night happening tonight. We eventually met Jen's partner Fergus, who was very pleasant and we got chatting to the gang around the bar! Prior to it starting we headed out under Fergus's instructions and found the night stalls where we got dragged into a stall by an over zealous owner who kept barking on about cheap beer. I ordered some average tasting beef fried rice and Laura the noodle soup complete with either congealed blood or liver... She literally turned green! after we had finished we wandered back to the hostel and took a seat at the bar.
Later in the evening as the quiz was about to start and we got teamed with two Canadian girls at the bar and our team was formed! The first round of general knowledge was a disaster for us as we only scored one point out of a possible ten which put us into last place. The next two general knowledge rounds were more successful and we clawed our way back to the rest of the pack! The music round was also average along with the 'name the flags' and in the end we secured joint last place which considering our start, we thought was a good effort! To be honest once we knew we weren't going to win we didn't care much as we knew the booby prize was chilli shots all round, which burnt the mouth for a long time afterwards but was better than nothing. Plus neither of us could face the winners ten pint tower anyway lol. I think we would have scored better had it not been for the muppet sitting next to us... Laura had taken an instant dislike him and to be fair her instincts normally serve her well, especially on this occasion. The guy was at least in his forties and was an absolute prat... He obviously came here a lot and was unfortunately marking our quiz and being particularly particular about the answers. That wasn't the reason we took a dislike to him though... It was just because he was just generally an absolute douche!
With the quiz long forgotten we were soon chatting with the locals propping up the bar... one of which was Fergus's brother who was visiting and called Barney. He was obviously quite intoxicated but an absolute hoot and provided quite a lot of entertainment. He was not walking on his heel although still dancing and Laura enquired what the problem was. He informed us he had stood on something which lacerated the bottom of the foot, most likely glass. Laura was in nurse mode and asking a few questions when he offered to show her... he had caught on to the fact she was an A&E nurse and had seen an opportunity. He whipped his sock off to reveal an open wound which was neither dressed or healthy looking. Of course she didn't like the look of it and told him to go to the doctors tomorrow as it was looking pretty infected. His foot was pretty swollen but he just laughed and said it was normal for him. He put his sock back on and carried on dancing to which we just rolled our eyes and laughed. I'm not sure how much of what she had said would've sunk in ... However we carried on drinking through the night having the occasional shot of the local Cambodian variety! This included some home made skittles vodka and some mekong whisky that lived in a bottle containing a snake and a scorpion. Soon we were quite drunk ourselves and happily chatting at the bar. randomly mid conversation Laura declared she needed the key and disappeared upstairs. I would later see that she felt the need to know our bathroom floor a little better ...she could never handle shots. Soon after arriving in the room I fell into bed and passed out very quickly.
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