On the Buses.

On my list of things to do to be a traveller is a train ride across India, but as my travelling companions are not so keen and time is short it looks like I won't tick the box this time. To make up for this, although the taxi's are very cheap I opted to take the bus from Siem Reape to our next desination near Kampong Cham. Asking around came up with a time of everything from 3 hours to 6 hours and a lot of shaking heads about where it was and if it was worth going to. Always keen to please the bus was defiantely booked, you can have a 7.30am, 8.30am or 9.30am. Being on holiday it seemed a good idea to book the 9.30 and after a bit of confusion as the hotel had run out of tickets the bus arrived at 9.30. After a trip round Siem Reape we then arrived at the bus station where the 9.30 bus became the 10.30 bus that left at 11.10, loaded with sacks of fertilizer (I think), furniture and many children. After a stop for diesal we were off and I was congratulating myself on taking the scenic route, after many stops for water for the engine, the driver to buy sunglasses and dropping of sacks of various produce we stopped for lunch. This was possibly the dirtiest lunch stop with plastic everywhere. In the 'scare the tourist silly so they think it's a lonely planet' guide book it suggests that if you get took short don't leave the grass verge in case there are landmines and the cambodians certainly take this seriously. Even I declined to try any lunch. We finally banged and bumped into Kampong Cham around 4pm and gratefully relaxed in the comfort of a tuk tuk, that if driven flat out is better than any air conditioning. Too late to have the farm visit planned but having seen a snapshot of rural cambodia with a karyoke soundtrack all for $8. (To find out about cambodian rice farming see the Farming Ladder blog).

So what about the rubbish, it was everywhere. Plastic and glass bottles have a value to collect, they use very little tins, paper can be used for compost but plastic bags seem to be the favourite way of wrapping anything from cooked rice porridge (breakfast) to juices drunk with a straw. It would certainly improve the enviroment if a value could be found for carrier bags or if the plastic would compost.

For a second time I was amazed by the patience of the people that sat without complaining on the bus and still managed to keep smiling, i'm not sure that I was.