6:30am Monday 8th December, we were supposed to be up and ready to catch our bus to Battambang, instead we were... asleep! Our alarm had either not gone off, or we'd slept through it. Either way, as transport is rarely on time in Cambodia, we awoke, ran straight for the bus, and hit the road at roughly 6:45am.
Half way through our journey we stopped by some roadside food stalls, for a quick bite to eat. We tried some 'krolan', which is sticky coconut rice with soya beans, steamed in a bamboo shoot. Simple yet tasty.
A 4 hour bus journey later and we had arrived in Battambang, a city, but you wouldn't think it with its laid back feel and lack of tourists. It was just what we needed after spending a week, in what is probably the tourist capital of Cambodia. We checked in to our hotel called 'Sovannphum' and decided to explore the area.
One of the main attractions in Battambang is the circus, Phare Ponleu Selpak, which has been setup by a local theatre school. Funds from the ticket sales allow local kids, and young adults, to better their lives by learning new skills in art, dance and drama. Some have even ended up performing in the Cirque de Soleil! The show was incredible, and at times heart stopping. People were being thrown meters in to the air and then caught centimetres from the floor, face down! We thoroughly enjoyed it, great entertainment at a reasonable cost whilst helping the local community too.

Another attraction in Battambang is the bamboo train, extremely popular with tourists and for some reason a must do?! We were picked up Tuesday afternoon by a Tuk tuk, after a long and bumpy journey on un-sealed roads, we arrived at the train station (if you can call it that). We thought we were finished with the back jarring bumps, until we embarked the rickety bamboo train. This 'train' is made from a few bits of bamboo tied together, placed on top of some rusty old axles, then balanced on a dodgy looking railway track, and powered along by an extremely noisy lawnmower engine. The experience lasted around an hour, there and back. It doesn't really take you anywhere, just to another station with locals trying to flog the usual touristy junk. Amelia did get lured in to buying some bracelets from a couple of the little girls, who basically bullied/guilt tripped her into it!
From here we went to the killing and bat caves (separate). It was too early to see the bats when we first got there, so we decided to go and see what we thought was going to be another run of the mill temple, and nothing compared to the temples we'd seen back in Siem Reap. Which it was. However, after hiking up the 300 odd steps, the views were breathtaking, which made the 'run of the mill' temple (Phnom Sampeau) look distinguished. Sadly there was a darker side to the top of this hilltop, the killing caves. These were used during the Khmer Rouge era, they would take people who didn't agree with the distorted views of the leader, Pol Pot, and throw them into these deep caves blind folded.
We made sure we had descended the 300 odd steps to see the bats leave their cave at 5:30pm. It seems the bats follow suit with the Cambodian time keeping, as it was half an hour later that the millions of bats appeared out of their cave. We didn't watch until the very end, as we hopped back on the Tuk tuk to watch them fly over the rice fields, but apparently it takes almost an hour for every last bat to leave the cave.
On our way back we asked our driver to drop us off at the night market to grab some much needed grub! The night markets are generally full of food stalls, with fold out tables and little plastic chairs you'd probably find in a nursery! Whilst waiting for our dinner a young boy stood next to our table. We could tell he was intrigued by our presence, so we said hello and before we knew it he was telling us all about his family, and the food stall they owned, which we were eating at. He laughed at us for eating the soup which was meant for pouring on the rice - we thought it was a complimentary starter! And Amelia managed to pick up some much needed tips on eating noodle soup with chopsticks!

The next morning we caught an 8 hour bus to Phnom Penh...