Not the best of journeys and thankfully only 3 hours. My seat had no padding and a spring sticking through. Thankfully I had a travel pillow that I used to sit on.
Our hotel in Battenbong was The Lux Guesthouse. Don’t be fooled by their literature and pictures of swimming pool. The swimming pool that you can use is down the street and yes definitely worth the walk.
Another niggle… no lifts. Thankfully the tuk tuk driver walked up with our very heavy backpacks.
We went for a walk along the river and back along the other side. Not much was happening but you always see something different.
We saw Tuktuk’s full of monks in their saffron robes. There were four and six monks in each Tuktuk and we lost count of how manly Tuktuks. There were certainly well over one hundred monks on the move. We learnt later that they are taken out into the community to beg for money and food.
That evening we ate on the street corner near to the hotel. Well I tried to eat but the upset tummy wouldn’t let me. We sat and watched as young people went into the building opposite advertising their ‘love room’. We still don’t know for sure what went on as single people went in and so did couples. There was a rooftop terrace and people sat around up there smoking. It entertained us for an hour or so guessing what sort of place it really was.
Its really common for Monks to go begging, when we went it was amazing to see how much they have (but where I was they shared it with the local orphan) cant wait to see your pictures! sound like fun x