23rd of August, 2024.
Hitchhiking in Cambodia: Tonle Bati
I walk to outside the town. Small walk. I think about buying a fresh coconut water, as there’s a lady selling by the spot where I stop to hitchhike. But I refrain myself believing that it will be expensive.
Mark and Ratna stop their SVR. They tell me they passed by me and came back. Thank you! Mark in from the UK, London, and Ratna is from Cambodia. They are together for about 10 years, since Mark moved here. She can speak English, of course, and I tell them both about my travels. She is so surprised! Mark gives me a pastry as soon as I enter the car. Wonderful, I am starving! It is with mushroom and it’s delicious! When I tell him I haven’t had any breakfast, he offers me a bag which contains apples and oat flakes’ bars. Awesome!
They are going to Phnom Penh, where they live, and we make a plan of where it’s best for them to drop me off. On the way, we talk about many different interesting topics, like how shitty it is that there are so many beer signs everywhere on the streets, but also governments and people’s principles.
When we stop for toilet, Mark tries to give me 100 USD. I am shocked! Calmly, I explain to him why I cannot accept, and after asking only one more time if I am sure, he understands and explain that, he used to be a backpacker in the past too, so he knows that sometimes it can be tough. How nice! Later on, I would realize that I could’ve kept that for the school where I was going, as they are very rural and depend a lot on donations and sponsors. Unfortunately the thought it came too late. Before I leave though, they offer me the bag with two more apples and a few cereal bars, plus a bottle of water. Perfect!
Outside Phnon Penh, in a highway but which is pretty much local too, I wait. Two workers, going to their construction site, take me to a small town / intersection, on the way to Kong Pisei, but already outside Phnon Penh. Great! They are very nice guys and drop me off in a very good spot for catching a car.
But I have a stop before going to the school. It is another temple, Tonle Bati. A very neat and smelling good couple, Lihem and her husband Dja, stop for me. They are very sweet but they cannot speak any English. They drop me off by the town called Bati, where the temple is located. She tries to give me 20 USD, which I kindly refuse, and I use the translate to explain to her that I only accept food. She gives me a bunch of huge cherries then. Thy are delicious! What a treat!
I am waiting under the shade of a tree, and there’s a family chilling in their home right by it. As I play a little with a young boy and also give him some cherries, the young mother comes and asks me where I’m trying to go. After a few minutes she offers to take me to the temple in her bike, which is lovely of her. It is a short ride, perhaps five minutes.
We pass straight by a cabin, which looks like a ticket office, but there’s nobody there. A few locals by the temple though. A young girl try to sell me some incense and flowers but I refuse. A very senior woman asks me for some money and I give her some of the cash which was given to me.
The temple is small but very beautiful. I walk around and spend sometime inside too. Even though I would like to spend more time here, the weather is killing me as it is too hot and sunny. I actually start feeling a bit dizzy, so I rest by the pagoda across the temple, where I also ask for some water. If it wasn’t quite far from the town, I would consider to spend the night here, but I would have to figure out a way to get food, so I just decide to carry on to my volunteer work today, as it is quite close to here.
When I first came to the temple, a foreigner tried to help me, saying that if I needed to go back to town he could take me. I though he was just a mototaxi guy so I said no, thank you. As I was leaving, he offered again, so I explained to him that a local lady brought me here and that I could not pay him for the lift, to what he responded that it was fine, he just wanted to help. He has moved here about eithg years ago and now he is married to a Cambodian woman. He drops me off in a road which leads, in a shorter way, to my destination.
The shortcut it sucks, as very few cars are taking this road. By the place where I am trying to hitchhike, a few locals are living, and when a guy in a motorbike stops and try to help me, everybody comes together and try to understand what’s going on. The guy in the bike calls his sister, who can speak English, and after a lot of talking and explanations, she tells me that her brother can take me to the highway in his motorbike.
I think it takes about fifteen minutes for us to reach the highway. It seems not much but the road is terrible, and I am terrified that I will fall of the motorbike, as I am not comfortable at all. By the time we arrive to the highway, I feel like I am about to die. Every muscle hurts. I must go a few more kilometres until a spot where my host can pick me up.
I finally take the courage to drink a coconut water and the price is the same as in Thailand 0.75 USD. I also get a big bottle of water. After eating the coconut too, I start hitchhiking. I make a new sign which reads the specific km where I must go. A small truck stops and I get in. Half way trough, he stops somewhere for a man to inspect the truck, which is quite funny, so I have to get out for a little. He truck is actually falling apart (laugh), so I don’t know the “inspector” let the driver carry on.
I buy a pastry in a bakery, and even though I would like to buy bread and something else, I am still uncertain if the prices are OK. I call my host from the phone of a pharmacist, and he comes to pick me up. Kosol arrives in about 10 minutes and we head to his home in his motorbike. Oh, no!
10 Years Around the World 