Day 18 - 2, Saturday 8th May, Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

My tuk-tuk driver dekivered me and my bags to the bus station, a dusty area in the depths of the eastern suburbs, where I boarded the 13:30 Paramount Angkor Express after checking in my two bags, which were stored in the downstairs part of the bus, which also contained a toilet (for urinating only, which worried me a bit, but I did not need to use it) and in the front the driver. There were a couple of motorcycles in there too.

The no smoking sign had a interesting additional admonition:

Someone was sitting in my seat so I chose another, but when the conductor came he made everyone move to their proper seats. I had two to myself, the bus was not completely full, however I was almost surrounded by families with small children. At the last moment, 14:45, a minibus arrived with a group of about 15 people who were very cheerful and chatted, joked and laughed among themselves during most of the 6 hour journey.  They were not serious enough to be Japanese, not raucous and misbehaved enough to be Chinese, they turned out to be Cambodian, and having a great time on some group trip.

After 3 hours we stopped at a large restaurant with a high roof and open sides and front, with toilets at the back and food and drink stalls at the front. The driver and conductor sat down and ate a hot meal, as did the tourist group.
 

I looked for something edible and safe, and found some banana chips and a can of coke. Together with most of the rest of  the crackers and water, it kept me going til Phnom Penh.

Bus trips are accompanied by TV entertainment, and we were treated to a DVD with people singing and dancing, doing comedy sketches, and pursuing romantic love, this latter with conventionally attractive young women who were sulky or soulful, and extremely handsome young men who all looked barely 16 years old and behaved in a very gentlemanly and when necessary heroic way. A setback due to a misunderstanding was always followed by a happy end.

Luckily the music was of the inoffensive, relatively melodic or at worst tinkling variety, so this was not a big problem. Some of the little children made child noises now and then, but were soon pacified one way or another. Just across fom me, a bleary-eyed toddler of about 20 months kept getting mum's teat stuffed on his mouth, the boy in front of him, same age, was entertained by opening and closing a defunct ashtray non-stop for what seemed like hours on end. Sometimes, of course, they slept.

The scenery was  quite interesting, with plenty of villages, some rivers and towns, farming: parched and poor nearer Siem Reap, wetter and greener closer to Phnom Penh.
Many houses were separated from the road by a ditch containing water, mostly green and murky with more or less rubbish in and around them, which cows drank from.

 

The young family father behind me, who had taken his wife and son and notorbike to Siem Reap to do some biking, embarked on a conversation with me, in the course of which I learnt that the strange-looking arrangement of poles with sheets of plastic which we passed over a stretch of about 50 km were cricket traps, no idea how they worked.

Later in Phnom Penh I saw the results, big round pans of fried or roasted crickets, which were sold in small plastic bags, like the seashells in Siem Reap, people walking along munching on the crispy and presumably protein-rich snack. I did not try any myself. Another delicacy in Cambodia is a fat local spider, which they deep-fry.

The Cambodian Peoples Party is omnipresent throughout the country. Other parties, such as Fucinpec or the Human Rights Party are only occasionally viible, at least in English.

 
 Working rice paddies:

About an hour before Phnom Penh the sun went down, as we drove through a landscape dotted with round-topped palm trees.

Near the end of the trip all the children were awake, the TV was singing and dancing again, A Korean fellow was chatting to the guy behind me in English, talking about being able to earn 20 dollary an hour selling hot dogs in Perth, and the tour group at the front of the bus were regaling each other with hilarious stories.
I took a movie to record the noise level. It was not unpleasant really, just loud and lively and human. This Blog software does not want to upload my movie ...