Battambang - Great trains, no bars

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11 hours worth of bouncy Cambodian buses later and i'm in Battambang, the countries second largest city.........with approximately 3 bars!!!! Found a really good hotel with HUGE rooms, massive, and only $4 each!!

It was already early evening, so we went straight out for food, and found a really good place. I ordered Beef Volcano. Basically really good raw beef, salad, rice & a chilli peanut sauce, oh and a cooking device, so again, i got to cook my own food!! Had a beer with the food, but failed to find any other bars to continue, so called it a night.

Up early next day and had a hearty breakfast of pho (noodle soup) with a brew and a chocolate & banana ice cream shake. A little street boy came up to the table and altho he couldn't speak english, made it clear he was really thirsty. He must have been, he sank my piping hot brew in one, good lad!

I noticed an advert for Cambodia's only winery, and saw it was nearby-ish, this i had to see. Royston wasn't too sure, but i convinced him it would be good! Negotiated with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to the winery, and act as our guide / translator, then take us to the World Famous (honestly) Bamboo Train, and wait for us while we had a go, then drop us back at the hotel.

The winery was great, got to try the red wine they produced, which was suprisingly drinkable, they had no rose wine left, but they did have their very own grape brandy, which was really nice.

The bamboo train was brilliant, for $5 each you get to ride along for about 25 mins, then you ride back. We arrived, and they basically built the train. Laid the wheels on the track, then put a small sheet of bamboo on top with a small motor..... that was it. And it was driven by 2 really young children, at breakneck speed, along a poorly constructed track. Like i said, it was great, so funny. And when a train comes the other way, which happened 3 times, you stop, they take the train apart, which takes 1 minute, let the other one past, rebuild, and off you go! Great fun, but apparently they are stopping it soon as they are trying to start a passenger train service, there are currently no passenger trains in Cambodia........

Had another good noodle soup that night on the hotels rooftop restaurant, and set off to find one of these few bars.... Over an hour later, after walking through a bizarre Khmer funfair, and getting strange intrested looks off the locals, we admitted defeat and went back to the hotel. Liverpool were playing Chelsea in the Champions League at 2am, so we thought we'd watch it on the telly in the room........but bizarrely the hotel shuts off the satellite TV signal overnight, so that wasn't to be....oh well Royston, you got battered 3-1 at home, not Cups for you this season!!

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Photos

Beef Volcano
nice........

My feet
Nice.....