It's January, It Must Be Cambodia

So here we are in the ass end of January, already, and we find ourselves in the ass end of Cambodia.

Glorious Battambang, Cambodia, to be precise. This was one of the places I was determined to go to. I would like to say I wanted to come here because as a politicized savant, I knew Battambang was the gathering place for refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge into Thailand, but I have to be honest. I just really like the way it rolls off the tongue.

And it is a nice place. Very dusty and very friendly and with very, very little to do. Sadly, Chris is not well, so we are hiding out in our lovely $5 room with cable tv, and great $2 meals and riding out his cold. We have had a terrible start to the year, actually, as I was ill in Kuala Lumpur, so I pressed Chris to abandon me. He went off to Thailand on his own, I recovered, and we hooked up in Phnom Pehn - which is quickly becoming to feel very, very home-like to us both.

So we have both had a decidedly feeble launch into 2008, both choking down penicillin and anti-histamines, but I reckon leaving homely but stinky Phnom Pehn was a good start to our renewed lung health. The Tonle Sap river on the beautiful PP river front was shockingly low - probably eight or ten feet lower than last seen six weeks earlier - and the mud is quite aromatic, i must say.

We had a brilliant bus ride (scheduled 4, actual 6) from Phnom Pehn to Battambang. Frequent mini-breakdowns, mechanical bemusement, pee stops in the bushes, miles of barren, dry -season land with herds of the skinniest cows (almost enough to put you off ordering beef, the poor things) and patient, friendly fellow passengers.

Eventually we arrived in Cambodia's second largest city, glorious Battambang. And, well, there ain't much to see or do. It's got a few crumbling French colonial buildings and dusty cobbled together buildings clustered along a much dried river. But it's sweet and laid back and we like it despite it's real lack of any particular charms.

We are anxiously eyeballing said river, however, as this is our intended route to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. Tales abound of the 3 hour boat trip taking 14, so when we finally go, wish us luck....