I’m not sure whether or not I’m meant to feel reassured or frightened in a country where hotels feel the need to remind me than guns and grenades are not wecome. At Hotel La Noria in Siem Reap I think I was safe. With its leafy garden and swimming pool it is a comfortable escape from the bustle on the street at a cost of $40 plus a night.
It is also reassuring that being a Childsafe hotel – one that does not allow the sexual exploitation of children – the whining and screaming I could hear from behind closed doors had more to do with scrape knees and tummy aches than burglary.
To say that weapons are tolerated at the Chayva hotel in Battambang is an understatement. All you have to do is declare them, along with your personal details, at check-in to this $5 a night joint. To save my blushes I smuggled a penknife in. The sheets were grubby and insects fell out of the ceiling onto the grubby sheets of our bed and to be quite honest it wasn’t worth it.
Apart from a string of charming French terraces along the river, a couple of Wats and a cooking school there isn’t too much to Battambang. It’s more of a chill out zone, stopover after the river journey from Siem Reap and a gateway to intrepid travelers who want to discover the real Cambodia.
Worth a visit is the Riverside Balcony Bar, a traditional style two storey wooden house overlooking the Stung Sangker (river). Apparently Angelina Jolie (I’d imagine without her brace of Dessert Eagles) visited here. It overlooks local allotments. We hogged a daybed and enjoyed a couple of drinks and copped-out by ordering omelette and chips.
Travel Tip: Outside our hotel we were offered $4 trips to the bus station, which seemed a little pricy considering it’s less than 1km away. Instead we bought tickets from the booth in the market (marked 34 in the Lonely Planet guide). At 6.30am we rocked up there as arranged, and free of charge two motorcycles ferried us to the bus station. Jak left behind the bottled water she bought. The stallholder brought the water to the bus station and also gave us a bag of sweets. I was quite taken with the stinky, slightly vomity durian chews.