About the 7 Candles Guesthouse - what a lovely place and at AUD $35 per night an extreme bargain. The staff are friendly enough, the room has aircon, a ceiling fan, a small fridge, tea and coffee makings plus a wet room style bathroom with good water pressure. There are communal balconies on both levels with games and books to enjoy, plus free drinking water. It's a short walk into the old town, although a $2 tuk tuk ride is much easier. Breakfast is not included in the room rate, but you pay only $3 for a huge Cambodian pancake filled with minced beef, bean sprouts, herbs and other yummy stuff..plenty of other choices too.

The owners support several schools through the Ponheary Ly foundation. Today we visited the Knar school to do a food drop. At my feet in the tuk tuk were several plastic bags full of baguettes, behind us were boxes of bananas, and crates of soft drinks. Claudia is a Swiss woman, I guess early thirties, who offers support to the school via these food drops. She fund raises in Switzerland, and visits Cambodia twice a year to disperse the funds. Inspiring for someone so young.

Jane is an Aussie who is president of the charity in Australia and assisted our visit today. She's been supporting the cause for several years now, walked us through the school, and gave much information about how they tackle one problem at a time. Clean drinking water is one of the first requirements, then food, healthcare, and educating parents to allow their children to attend school.

Each child and teacher got 3 baguettes, a bunch of bananas and a can of soft drink. Nearly every child thanked me in perfect English.

It was interesting for me to compare the classrooms to those we recently visited in Myanmar. The Cambodian school while poor, was much better resourced. These are government run schools, the foundation supplements the teachers income which keeps them teaching rather than earning more money as a tour guide.

It's been a profound experience in the past 12 days. I wish we could do more to help these people surmount the issues they face as a developing country. We can, and we will.

This has been so much more than the standard trip report, and IMO your experience has been so much richer due to the personal connections you were able to make.

Out of curiosity, about how much did it cost you at the market to fill your tuk-tuk full of food?

Still following along...

Very much enjoying your report. The PLF is one of our favorite charities.

Just binge-read your report. Wonderful trip and great read. Reminds me why we travel.

Question: How did you originally meet up with the bride and groom?

julies, I don't know sorry, the tuk tuk was partly loaded when we joined in. We made one stop at a market, but I didn't see the money change hands.

It is so important to know that your charity dollars go to the source and don't get swallowed by admin. The PLF is one that's really making a difference. I'll be staying in touch with Jane in Australia and plan to contribute.

Crosscheck, we met the bride in Australia when she came on a teacher exchange program. We had never met the groom before. He is an engineer who works for a construction company. They're quite affluent by Myanmar standards.
I'm not sure how the teacher exchange program started, but there have now been a total of 10 teachers who have visited our home town. Rotary International sponsors the trips, paying for airfares and visas. Members of the Rotary club host the teachers, feed them and drive them to school each day. The school is St Stephens College. I'd never really used Facebook before, but it was the preferred way to stay in touch, so I joined, stayed in touch, and well, the rest is as above.

Last night we were invited to join Claudia and Jane for dinner at Il Forno, an Italian restaurant in Siem Reap old town. The food was okay, an excellent pizza margarita to start, but the main was but a bit too salty for my taste. We learned a lot more about the schools, so that was good.

Today a car to Battambang takes about 3 hours, cost $30 and I spent most of it sleeping in DHs lap. We are staying at Delux Villa, it's slightly more salubrious than 7 Candles, the cost is $145 for 3 nights. We arrive and check in, then I dive into the pool and float on my back for at least 30 minutes, there goes the hair wash....
We've been urged to take the bamboo train by several people now, it's on the agenda for tomorrow.

We have so much fun picking holes in the hotels. It's no biggie, we're easy to please and rarely complain, but why is the ceiling fan off centre by at least a meter in a recessed ceiling.? Why are there 4 light switches on the front of the bed side table ? There are huge "no smoking" signs on the air conditioner and the fridge. We get it, we laugh. There's a cute balcony with a power point in the ceiling, why is it there ?
The Cambodian way I guess.

<<<We've been urged to take the bamboo train by several people now, it's on the agenda for tomorrow.>>>

Do the Bamboo Train as part of a day out into the countryside by Tuk Tuk.

We had a quick tour to start with, of the main sights in town, the statue of the black Ta Dambong is a must-see and great photo opportunity, and the old railway station.

Then to the Bamboo Train, which isn't too far. Our Tuk Tuk driver took out the padded passenger seat, so that we had something to sit on while on the train. The seat was v.welcome! Hold on tight, sets off like a bullet, 0 to 30 in seconds!

After the train ride we followed dry unsurfaced, but flat, roads into the glorious surrounding countryside, and even visited a local small winery [tastings]. Lots of local life, even a muslim village, children smiling, waving, and swimming and bathing in a river and streams. Water buffalo wallowing.

On the way back to Battambang in the afternoon we passed road-side vendors, and were offered a local delicacy, rat kebabs. We politely declined!

Loved it, a great day out. Enjoy!

LL we went to a BBQ joint in Siem Reap where the specialty was whole frogs, we also politely declined.


The bamboo train.

Know thyself, it's an old adage, but a good one. I suspected that the train would be scary for me, and I was right. We were there for the first train of the day, paid $5 each, and hurtled off. It was 20 minutes of being mildly terrified (if that's not too much of an oxymoron). I clung to DH like a baby clings to its mother.

We were warned by a policeman at the first station to keep a close grip on our possessions at the second station, and to not buy anything from the many children who would swarm us. He also told us the driver would go slow, slow being a relative term where I had a very different interpretation from our driver. They have cushions now, so that was okay. When you see the rails, diverging and crooked, with some large gaps, one wonders how it manages to stay on the track. There were several bridges across streams too.

At the second station there is a shop that sells cold drinks and other items. Despite it only being 9.00 am, I thought a beer might give me some Dutch courage to make the return journey, there being no other option. The return was better, only for the fact that there was more traffic and we slowed at points where other trains had been moved off the rails to allow us through. We picked up a farmer at one stage who had been gathering fodder, he had a huge sack, and we dropped him off to some very healthy looking oxen.

A one off experience that will not be repeated.

For our fist night in Battambang we walked to the river and enjoyed some local food. A curried soup with two types of potato and chicken curry with rice, washed down with two beers it cost about $5.

Finding our way home was a little difficult, but eventually we found a tuk tuk who knew the hotel and took us there for a dollar. The hotel is called Delux Villa, has a large pool, a sauna (can you believe that ? - In this heat, jeez) and leafy tropical well maintained gardens. The room has a beautifully carved double door entrance, a carved wooden bed big enough to get lost in, and a giant bathroom with brass fittings. There's also a water hyacinth day bed, and two desks. Oddly, only one chair.

Today we've used the services of Mo ph 016537999, also recommended by a friend from home. He's a nice guy, big smile, good English and he owns a tuk tuk.

After the bamboo train (detailed above) we visited the fish market and learnt about the different fish, drying methods and the cooking thereof. Next up was a visit to a rice paper manufacturer, a family run business. We'd seen this before, but we're happy enough to see a slightly different technique. Then we're off to Wat Ek Phnom, with a giant and very photogenic Buddha statue, and many ruins. Cost here was $6 which goes towards the restoration. We stopped on the way back to our hotel for spring rolls at the rice paper place. It's hard to make a bad deep fried spring roll, and these were delicious.

We're lucky to be in town for the once a week Thursday night circus, although I believe you can visit and watch the acrobats practice on any day. That will be tomorrow. No animals are involved, a good thing.

Sounds like you are having a great time. I miss Battambang! Are you going to the bat caves?

If you go to the bat caves, then make sure rain isn't forecast, as the bats don't come out in the rain. It rained for us, we waited and waited, but the rain didn't want to stop!

I think we'll miss the bat caves, we have bats at home. They're noisy smelly things who steal our fruit. One of our dogs has caught two so far, we wrestled her off the first one who wasn't there in the morning so we think it survived, the second one didn't. Of course this is a 4.00 am activity. Grrr.

Having a fun journey with you.

Did your driver walk with you through the fish market to explain all about the market?

Speaking of the heat, how hot and humid is it?

Thanks.

Yes, our driver walked with us through the market. We also stopped at another family enterprise where they make the sweet sticky rice treat cooked in bamboo, which I forgot to mention earlier.

Temps are mid 90s during the day, cooler by about 20 degrees at night. I guess the humidity at about 50 %.

It's not walking around weather, and today saw us take a wrong turn. We walked for miles and ended up cursing each other on the street while amused Cambodians looked on. A tuk tuk soon sorted us out.

I rather liked this hotel Delux Villa, until this morning when there was no wifi. I tried to find a connection for a few hours, had several helpers trying to connect our iPads and two versions of "I'll get the manager, come back in 10 minutes" only to never return. They don't know how persistent I am, thinking maybe if they ignore this problem (me) it will go away.

Eventually even I gave up, we went out and walked the town. The wifi was fixed when we got back, apparently a problem with their internet provider, err, I said that several hours ago. I like the hotel again, so that's good.

Walking around in the cooler morning was great, the wet markets are fascinating and typical of so many in SE Asia, with every possible fish, bird, fruit and vegetable imaginable. There were snails, snake fish, and lots of birds I couldn't identify, all covered in flies, although the ducks were clearly ducks. We walked for miles, it started to heat up and shade was harder to find.

We had an argument about the way we were going and lost it a bit in the heat. DH insisted I was wrong, I insisted he was. Eventually we flagged down a tuk tuk, and it turned out the sign posts were wrong. We forgave each other. Then turned on the location function on the phone.

There's a cute little cafe called Wood House on 115 St where we had cool drinks and fruit salad. A friendly French man runs the place, they serve Western and Khmer food, have a gorgeous clean puppy and a cat that endures strangers with some panache.

Trivia - I've seen many cats with what look like docked tails. No, they're not docked, the majority of Buddhists would harm no animal, the short tails are genetic.

I headed out this arvo for a manicure, just cut, trim cuticles and file. Interesting that they used a cut lime to clean and polish the nails. The cost was 20,000 riel, about 50 cents. And I got a fantastic smiling photo of the proprietor, with a steep stainless steel ladder in the background which is used to access the second floor, bonus !

DH has ventured out to the blind massage school, $6 for one hour.

Tonight we are attempting the Khmer Architecural walking tour that we failed at this morning, but this time with our friendly tuk tuk driver Mo. Then it's circus time !

"Temps are mid 90s during the day, cooler by about 20 degrees at night. I guess the humidity at about 50 %."

I can understand why your tempers frayed in this kind of heat! Has it been this hot your entire trip, or just in this locale?

Last year in southern India we traveled in late February and first half of March and has such a miserable time in the horrid heat that we vowed no more tropical vacations for us, ever. So, now I am wondering if this area would be one we would really enjoy. We too love to just walk and wander, and last year very definitely identified with that old song with the refrain, "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun". We had to adjust our style so that we'd spend the time between about 11:00 and 5:00 sitting and reading and relaxing.

@julies - for current and historical weather I use http://www.wunderground.com

Highs in the 90s all this week in Battambang. Current humidity 94%... My two visits to Siem Reap, both December, it was very hot and humid. Two showers a day and cotton only weather... Battambang and the coast, not as bad.

I think you would be happier in Laos.

Yes, julies the whole trip will be fairly hot. Agree with Thursdaysd, Laos would be cooler, or perhaps hill stations in the north of Myanmar.

Our tour of colonial buildings with Mo was very interesting. He's a great source of information and happy to talk. The biggest threat to these charming buildings is developers, there's little in the way of town planning or protection of heritage.

We also visited Wat Pipetharam which is known as Battambang's killing fields. Mo is 41 years old, so was born during the Khmer Rouge era. His parents survived, but we're always starving, and forced to work very hard.

I invited him to join us for dinner, he suggested the White Rose Restaurant an institution that started in 1998. He did join us, but only had a fruit shake. We enjoyed a soup with pork and vegetables, fried rice with chicken and cashews, plus two beers to wash it down. Total cost was $5.25, incredibly cheap, and our leftover rice was packaged up and given to a beggar at Mo's suggestion.

So off to the circus we go. This is a school specialising in performing and visual arts. The idea was thought up by refugees in a Thai border camp in 1986, and came to fruition with French assistance in 1994. Cost is $14 pp, the show runs for about an hour and includes tumbling, juggling, balancing, acrobatics and some aerial tricks. Traditional Khmer musicians accompany the performance. We were told this particular show was the first live performance for these acrobats, they did well with only a few fails.

Mo waited for us and drove us home. He's a very safe and careful driver which I really appreciated when other tuk tuks went speeding past. We have a dinner invitation to his house to meet his family if we return to Battambang.
Trivia - correct pronunciation is Batdembong.

Did you get any photos of the revered Ta Dumbong and his magic stick?