Battambang (meaning loss of stick) is a great stop if you want to break up the journey between Siem Reap in the north and Phnom Penh down south. It is a very slow paced town set by the riverside with some attractive French architecture and wide open streets.

In the centre of the town is the market, half indoor and half outside – be prepared to have your feet and splattered by fish and frog guts as the ladies sat on tiny plastic stools carve them up for the local customers. Into the butchery department and nothing goes to waste, chickens feet, trotters and a complete smiling pigs head staring back at us, all available for dinner!

 

From the town you are a short distance from the Nori (Bamboo train), it’s a good fun day out on a rickety single track railway line. If anything comes from the other way then one of the carriages has to be lifted off to allow the other to pass. At $5 it is mainly for the tourists, the far end of the line has nothing but a few stalls selling T-shirts and refreshments before you head back the other way. Top tip: on route be prepared to duck under cobwebs built by massive yellow and black spiders!

 

Sadly the other ‘attractions’ from the town date back to the Pol Pot era, the killing caves of Phnom Sampeau are a few miles outside Battambang. Here the Khmer Rouge murdered their victims at the cliff top and dropped the bodies down the shaft to dispose of the body. Inside the cave is now a memorial made up of the skulls found in the cave placed inside a glass case.

 

On a lighter note, lets finish with a colourful image of Battambang and that missing stick!