Sisophon way from home

After a short panic about our trip to the bus station we were picked up by a hurried and rather elfish looking minibus driver, we'd thought time was getting on but gladly we were actually the first pick up. The vehicle soon filled and we set off.. As far as the junction at the top of town where a bus was waiting, unloading and re-loading our bags we got in - making sure to say we were heading to Sisophon, whereupon another tourist kindly informed me this was the bus to the station.. Oh well. Twenty minutes later we'd arrived and having repositioned our bags set off. The journey wasn't too bad, only one stop and on arrival we took up the option of a tuk as we had no clue where we were or where to go - then we noticed one of the shoes tied to the outside of a bag was missing.. Do we chase the bus in a tuk?! Bad idea methinks, we agreed to sort this out once we'd found somewhere - stopping first outside the one place we'd heard of although we weren't too impressed. Luckily before we bothered our driver offered to show us another so we ended up at Pyramid, for the same price and seemingly much better value for it. We checked the room then got straight to the shoe issue - back to the station the next day to wait for the bus, it was safe!
Sisophon or Svay for short is the main town in the province of Banteay Meanchay, set around the two main roads around Tonle Sap lake - one from Battambang and the other from Siem Reap heading out toward Thailand. It's roughly a triangle divided up into side streets and blocks of houses, flats, municipal buildings or charities - although for its size tourism isn't one of its key components, it is more or less an every day Cambodian town unaltered. We headed out to tackle our next problem, where to eat. We soon found one place - the menu presented linguistically 'fried rice or noodles?' though for the price we were happy to have found it. Heading back out we went for a walk - instantly faced with a park featuring the most delapidated fair ground rides I've seen, possibly ever will see. We carried on through to Phsar Meanchay the central market, it was a real melting pot of trades - from elaborately sequinne patterned tops and dresses to diamonte setting, nail painting and the usual food markets coating the outer walls. We picked up some fruit to save our tastebuds from blandness and make a good breakfast then that night ate at the first guesthouse we'd seen. We took the opportunity while there to start working out our method of getting to Banteay Chhmar as the initial price quote from our tuk driver was laughable.. This drop-by was enough to reassure us we'd stayed at the right place.
Next morning we set off for the bus station, hoping to collect the missing shoe.. Lets just say it didn't happen, two hours later we returned defeated and had to change room due to prebookings.. By the time we had, somehow the receptionists who'd been helping us to recover the shoe.. Did!! How they did can only be claimed as one of lifes great mysterys.
That night we went for 'restaurant' number 3, The Mirror. This was a kind of fast food joint, fried chicken, chips, ice cream.. With about two other choices it made for interesting eating, fine if you're travelling and not budgeting too hard and brilliant if you're local - a big party was dining alongside us that night eating what looked like an oversized poppadom stuffed with possibly fish.. So we'd investigated the three most obvious restaurants in town and felt we could get by with a supplemented diet.
Next day we set off for Banteay Chhmar - Banteay translates as barracks or fort and Chhmar to cat. This was also built under Jayavarman VII as testament to the conquest of the Cham people. It's currently being part restored by the Global Heritage Fund with the aim of achieving World Heritage Status, one of the main issues with this is likely the ease of access. We jumped aboard a tuk ready for a healthy 2 hour ride. Two hours later we were passing towns that I recognised from the map as being around half way there, so, a further two hours later we arrived. Our bodies had been shaken to the point of numbness but as promised there were so few people here that we could really get around and see some more bas reliefs and elements of the site with hardly a person in sight. The only people we did encounter were an English couple working with a charity in Sisophon who were on their way back as we arrived, two policemen patrolling the site and a gaggle of kids also 'patrolling' the site and playing. Most of the site is semi-dense woodland with most of the outer walls' structure intact, inside was slightly more broken but some parts were holding their form where sites at Angkor had not. Again the area had been heavily looted only a few decades ago - the most recent noted attempt to move one bas relief to Thailand was foiled at the border though it's now kept at the National Museum. During the initial looting the area was also heavily mined, now cleared thankfully, though the surrounding countryside is still prone to the savages of anti-personnel mechanicry. We set back off after long, knowing that too long and we'd be travelling in darkness. Passing again the vast fields, working farms, schools, wats and rivers - then as we got back toward Svay we slowed, just in front three columns of armed troops marching down the main street presumably toward the town. The area clearly still holds an important military standing..
That night we headed back to the Mirror where I tried the 'poppadom' which turned out to be filled with shredded chicken and bean sprouts, ripping sections off and adding salad before dipping it was certainly an interesting dinner though maybe not one i'd try again in a hurry. My stomach was full enough though and that was what counted. Our plan was now to spend a few more days here just til our visa expired and we could head to Bangkok without having to spend too much money there with the higher costs, so another few plates of fried rice, noodles, chicken and chips later we were back on the road and into Thailand.