Seng Hout Hotel Battambang

After an incredibly early start, we got to Battambang at around lunchtime and, after checking into a hotel and dumping our bags, headed straight out to explore the sights. Mainly:<br><br>1. Bamboo train: This was brilliant! Cambodia doesn't really have a train network, as such. There&#8217;s a single line track from the Thai border down to the south coast but there are no passenger services. However, there is a section of the track where bamboo ...

... fresh meat and veggies. Back at the classroom, we chopped, minced, crushed, and fried the ingredients into three different dishes: fish amok (a classic Khmer dish), spicy basil beef, and hot and sour soup. It was great fun, we learned a lot, and the food was delicious!<br><br>That evening, in search of chocolate, we walked across the river and ended up at La Villa Hotel, an upscale touristy establishment. At their restaurant we ...

... looked at me, there was a pause and then he said it "you owe me for you bag, a dollar". Couldn't believe it, a dollar for literally a 20 meter walk with a backpack that I would have done had I known there was a charge! Baring in mind the average Cambodian wage is just over a dollar a day you can imagine how ****** I was at their cheek. He wouldn't even accept it in riel but took my 5 dollar note and gave me the change back in riel, cheers lazy ****! With frenchies in ...

... runs on a lawn mower engine. It goes surprisingly quick, and when a train approaches the one with the least passengers has to pack up its train and derail it to let it past, before quickly rebuilding it and carrying on with the journey.<br><br>After that, we found a nice little place which serves good fruit/chocolate shakes....thats pretty much our day.<br><br>Tomorrow we leave early for Bangkok for 4 days!

... Train aufmerksam geworden sind, haben wir uns entschieden, mitsamt dem Fahrrad aufzusteigen und auf diesem Weg zurueck in die Stadt zu fahren. Der Bamboo Train besteht aus einer Plattform aus Bambusstaeben, die auf zwei Achsen mit Rollen gelegt wird. Das Ganze wird durch einen Rasenmaehermotor angetrieben und faehrt mitten durch den Jungel :-) Man wuerde es kaum glauben, aber auf den selben Gleisen fahren auch die normalen Gueterzuege...wenn einer kommt, muss der Schwaechere weichen ...

... section and our plan for the night was formed - wine for $3.70 a bottle, by far the cheapest in 4 months. The guys who'd been in Oz really didn't understand what the fuss was about and said they were a bit 'over wine for the moment' but I couldn't contain my excitement. We found a bar with cheap beer, a YouTube request music system. Unfortunately the man didn't want us to drink our wine but grudgingly lent us a bottle opener, we were both too scared to ask him for glasses ...

... is made. It is made by fermenting rice with yeast and water in 25 litre pails (which used to have paint in them). Then boiling to distil the alcohol. The first two litres are about 80% then dropping down to 60% as time goes on. Finally we visited some fruit bats which live outside in a tree. The monks from the local temple protect the bats, because they are a delicate, for the local people.

We stopped at another small town by lake Tonle Sap. Battambang was lovely, with some hotels and just a few delicious little restaurants. We met two other couples, one Swedish and one Dutch/Korean, who we got on well with and spent two days here pootling about the countryside in a similar vein to Kampong Chhnang. On the first day we went on the ...

... Nu is het een restaurant vanwaar je de zo kunt zien onder gaan ene even de frisse,stofvrije, wind kunt voelen. Erg leuk! Vanochtend zaten we om 7 uur wederom in een bootje. Ditmaal om de reis te maken naar Battambang.In een bootje met alleen wat houten plankjes om op te zitten hebben we in 8 uur de 160 km afgelegd. Stel je voor hoe je kont voelt als jullie al die uren die jullie lekker in bed lagen, op een houten plankje zaten. We waren dus heel blij hier aan te komen. De rit ...

... had read and heard of many horror stories regarding the Cambodian side and as such were both apprehensive to leave our idyllic surroundings.<br><br><br><br>1st stage a songathew (local bus with two benches in the back) to one city then a government bus to the next then another bus to some god forsaken town an hour from the border then find the local taxi to take us to the border; then negotiate our way across without the need ...