Stuck In a Longtail Boat!

Imagine putting a 40 foot boat in a body of water that can be roughly classified at a flooded cornfield. Our trip to Battambang involved such an experience. Our two transportation options for the trip were either boat or bus. The boat was advertised as a beautiful way to see the countryside. Both options were to take the same amount of time, 5 hours, so we chose the boat.


The day started out in the early morning, catching a shuttle to the boat dock at 6:00am. We arrived at the boat around 7:00am for departure. As we made our way up the river we came upon numerous small floating and fishing villages. The flora and fauna along the way provided a picturesque backdrop to enjoy our boat ride. Around 11:00am I started to get excited about getting off the boat as we had already been on the boat for 4 1/2 hours. I soon realized when we stopped for a lunch break!, that our trip was going to be a little longer than the 5 hours explained to us by the travel agent. As we left the floating restaurant I overheard we had another 4 hours to go. This is when the driver decided to take a short cut. The short cut involved heading through some channels in which the tree branches scrapped the sides of the boat, scratching many of the passengers, and tearing the tarps on the side of the boat. I had seen bigger channels on the side of the road in the United States. The path required the boat to swerve its way through an overgrown swamp. It reminded me of a flooded corn field in many parts. The only place for the boat to go was lower areas of land that the water drained into. In places the water was only a few feet deep. These small rivers provided the perfect environment for our boat to grind its bottom. Hence the reason we got stuck. Along the way we somehow broke our steering cable making the boat inoperable. After 3 hours of drifting in a small clearing we got some help from the locals who provided the rudimentary tools to temporarily fix the problem. We arrived in Battambang around 5:30pm and headed for the nearest restaurant for dinner. This was our first real meal of the day and eating it at 6:00pm, one can image the "hangry" travelers we were.