Last day in Battambang

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Friday morning we booked in for a ride on the bamboo train, a 30 minute drive out of town to the old (soon to be refurbished) train track where you ride a simple flat bed bamboo truck. Originally designed for track work along the train line, then used by the locals for carting goods.

It was super hot, but a fun experience. The truck picked up a lot of speed and we whizzed past a few small houses, rice paddies and scrappy vegetation. Being totally open air and about half a metre above the track really heightened the sense of speed, smells and the whack of the occasional vine. As always we held tight to the kids!

The small village we visited was sweet, the kids (who should have been in school) crowded around attempting to get us to pinky swear that we would only buy bracelets from them. We wandered off down the hill and an enterprising lad took Arnee on a tour of the brick making kilns, while Elsie was given a tour of someone's shop and introduced to the entire family. The big rounded kilns were beautiful, but apparently everyone who knows how to use them have gone to Thailand where the pay is better. Once the bamboo trains stop (because the rail is being reopened for freight) it's hard to imagine what will happen to this village.

After an airconditioned and delicious Khmer lunch it was time for the short and thankfully sensibly driven bus trip to Siam reap.

Our driver from Phnom Penh had passed our details on to his friend in Siam Reap who met us as we stepped off the bus and delivered us to our hotel, we are almost getting too good at this! We promptly booked him in for our first day of temples.

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