Noah Runs a Petrol Station

---

We're moving onto Battambang today. It's the King's birthday, so the number of mini buses was reduced and the first one available was 2.30.
The travelling was more rugged than we've had before. A bumpy road, some wilder driving techniques, cramped and a bit too hot. The kids were great again and I smiled to myself when Ed said 'it's only a five hour journey' in quite a nonchalant voice.
The countryside has changed from both Indonesia and Malaysua. It's now drier and the bare earth is orange, it looks more like Africa. It could be that we're entering the fifty season here and that it happens earlier here than in the southern countries. Most of the land beside the road is farmland and there wasn't a paddy field in site. We also noticed that all the taditional Khmer houses are built on stilts and this is to protect them from the monsoon floods.
Around the halfway point we stopped at a petrol station for a 15 minute leg stretch and iced drink. Bizarrely, there were pairs of animals standing on some wasteland out back and they were really well painted. The only pair that didn't seem to go with the Noah story were the Tyranusarus Rex...
Hotel Battambang Resort picked us up from the bus stop and Hat was in bed within minutes. Ed and Cas had some food on our patios and they went for a cheeky swim.
There was a brilliant lightning storm which we watched whilst quofging the red wine that Cas purchased in the airport. It was very warm and the tastes were fab.
A few moths got in under the door and, given Cas' fear of them, I became rentokil man and set about catching in a glass and throwing them outside. It worked well until I broke the glass and then I had to deal with both the moths and blood dripping over the floor.

---