The boat to Battambang was meant to take 7 hours but ended up closer to 9 after we got stuck more than once in the reeds and the driver had to dive in to free us - now thats what i call service! The dely was welcomed (perhaps not so much by the diver) since cruising through the backwaters and floating towns was so much fun. It was a door to door service as we constantly stopped off on the front porches of floating huts to let families on and off. The Cambodians on board were having a ball too with a sing-a-long, not even letting their spirits dampen when the boatbanged onto the sides of their house a tad on the heavy side.

As we came to the end of the trip I was getting prepared for the hike into the city centreand a hunt for a hotel in the swealtering heat but was surprised and extremely confused to find some Cambodian dude with a piece of paper in his hand with DEIGHAN writen on it. My first guess was that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt who own a house not too far away couldn't wait to meet me and had sent someone to pick me up but unfortunately it was not the case. Apparently my hotel in Siem Reap had sold my name forward, and there was me thinking they were just wanting to know where I was heading next cause they cared. I ended up staying at the hotel anyway to applaude their cunning tactics. I managed to find a motorbike driver to take me to a few places out of town for the following day so could afford to have a fairly relaxed night wolfing down mango shakes like they were going out of fashion and joining a yoga class in the park.

The first stop with my driver the following morning was an hours drive to Phnom Sampeau sacred hill with a rather snazzy looking temple at the summit. To stop me from getting too lost on the climb up I was joined my a 10 yearold boy to help me but instantly regretted it when he started jogging up leaving me huffing behind, pretending I was taking photos in order to grab a breather. En route to the topwe stopped off at the Killing Cave, which was used by the Khmer Rouge to slaughter 100's of people. Inside you could still see the blod stains where people had landed after being pushed from a hole in the roof of the cave. The place had been turned into a sort of basic temple with the bones of the victims all placed i a glass case. I'd been reading a book about the experiences of a little girl during the revolution but this had been the first time since getting here that I'd seen anything connected with it all and really was quite upsetting. The 2nd stop of the day waas a cheerier affair at some wannabe smaller-scale Angkor Wat which was then followed by a bat colony.

I spent another day in the city which was surprisingly laid back for the second biggest city in the country, trying the local delicacies, until I realized that I was tucking into 'unusable soup,' - a soup made from everything that couldnt be used for anything else, and in Cambodia that's saying something! So with the taste of who knows what in my mouth I swiftly left for the capital, Phnom Penh.
James.