Speedboat to Battambang

One of the boat's esteemed crew members

By Ken Jackson,
April 14, 2012
The San Diego Reader

Last rainy season, after a few days touring the temples of Ankgor, I decided to visit the former French capital of northwestern Cambodia – Battambang.

My guidebook explained that traveling to Battambang by speedboat was the best option because of the treacherous road conditions. So I paid about half of Cambodia’s average monthly wage for a “special-for-foreigner three-hour luxury speedboat ride.”

The next morning I arrived at the dock to be greeted by an army of hotel touts offering “best discount room” in Battambang. One of them showed me to a rough-hewn vessel that bore no resemblance to the speedboat pictured on my ticket.

In fact, this boat’s primary function was moving bananas, tires, tin sheeting and chickens over short distances. Most of my fellow passengers and I were curious about this development, but one seasoned traveler explained: “This is the transport boat to take us to the speedboat moored in deeper water.”

About this time our crew boarded and untied us, cranked up the engine and eased us off the muddy bank.

The seasoned traveler’s prophecy appeared to be true when a speedboat appeared in front of us and began chugging toward open water. We thought it strange, though, when the speedboat immediately gained 300 yards on us, and stranger still when she accelerated as she passed the last pier in the harbor. But when our own Cambodian Queen also passed the last pier and the crew revved her up from idle to really slow, we knew it would be a long day. Read the rest of the article at The San Diego Reader.