On a Bus to Battambang

Monday  10/11

Finally a day we could sleep in. Very strange for a Monday morning! But heck it was nice!
However, Pedro was upset because he had some issues with his Garmin GPS cyclo computer. Since we had wifi we tried our best to find the solution online. With some button pressing we at least got it to turn on. Apparently there were some corrupt files. And we're still not able to access some of the day info. But the device is working now, and Pedro's happy. :D
After the technology problems we still had an hour to go up to the swimming pool and have some breakfast. But then noon came and it was time to checkout from the hotel.
We then cycled to the ticket office we were at yesterday. They still had seats for the last bus that goes to Battambang at 13:30. The price, luckily, had not changed over night. Which could easily happen. We asked where the bus station was, but the five people working there could not tell us. The truth is, we had a map the previous day, and one of the guys showed us where the bus station is, but today the map had magically disappeared. I was also very surprised that so many people where working at this one place. Customers didn't come so often, and most of the time they were doing their own things. 

Anyway, I asked the guy if he could tell me the password for internet, then I could load the map and find the station. So we did that. But finally Pedro decided that we'll wait for a car they provide for other people going from ticket office to the bus station, and follow it. This turned out to be a success. 

Now when we were there, we just needed to still buy tickets for the bicycles. Pedro took of the front wheels from the bikes and placed them in the baggage section of the bus. While I got on the bus he went to buy some water and snacks to munch on on the way. The ride was long, about four hours, odd considering the distance was roughly 150 km. The time was ten minutes passed the departure time when the bus finally left the station. It stopped in some other places still in the city. The bus was like any usual one, and it had good air conditioning. Everyone aside from us was sitting in long sleeves, some even in sweaters indicating with their body language that it's very cold for them.
We seized the time to chat and to blog a bit. 

Soon enough the bus arrived to it's final destination for this trip, Battambang. When it arrived in the station there were several tuktuk drivers waiving their prepared signs outside our window. They were offering a ride, a hotel, or both. When we went out of the bus, they literally attacked us with their services, trying to make us choose them. To have the right image, imagine a group of fans trying to get close to a famous musician that's getting out of his/her ride. I had to push to get through them. But then they got to see that we're with bicycles and one by one they disappeared. Now we had to find the guesthouse we booked earlier that day. At first we did not worry so much, because how hard could it be to find a guesthouse. We cycled about asking people if they knew the place, the street or at least which direction to go for that area of the town - nobody knew. One girl though said to go straight on the road we were on. We stopped at a pizza place, which supposedly had wifi, but turned out it was not working. But at least we had a dinner. The sun had gone down by now. We were glad that the girl serving us food spoke English and was able to tell us which way to go. Once we arrived to the correct area, a man on a scooter said that he would lead the way for us. But sadly this was the wrong place. We asked some young guy, he called out his friend to assist. Then we went inside a driveway where we thought the guesthouse could be. But it turned out to be some martial arts school, the teacher there was nice to call the guesthouse to ask them how to find them. The young lad then said that he knew the way and that he would show us, but again it turned out to be the wrong one. We cycled some more metres, then asked a street food seller if he knew where the place was. The young boy listens to instructions and lead the way again. BUT again this was not the right place. By now we were tired and upset! We know they all tried to help, but in the end we were nowhere. At the last hotel we were lead to we asked for wifi password so we could find the directions to our guesthouse. Turned out it was not far, in fact very close to the street food seller who directed us to the wrong direction.
We finally got to the place and the receptionist said that the place is full! How is this possible if we booked a room online??? We were now more upset!
The guy made some calls and finally said to follow him where we would have a place to stay. It was a hotel almost just across the street. And he also arranged for the price to be the same as on our reservation, so we stayed at a 12$ hotel for 6$. Ufff what a day it had been! We were glad to get to bed!!