Hello all, David and I are back in Battambang for a few days, staying with Chris. After leaving Phnom Penh we took a 2 hour taxi ride to a town called Kampot. Whenever you try and get a taxi or a moto over here there is always a big squable with all the drivers trying to get your custom - but when trying to get this taxi two drivers actually started fighting over us - punching each other and using their keys as weapons and pushing each other into the busy road....it was quite scary - fortunately chris had come to see us off and could speak in khmer to the tuk tuk driver who had driven us to the taxi rank who drove us a few hundred metres away from the fight where we quickly got in another taxi.... We wanted to do a trip to a national park the next day where the is the ruins of a colonial town which was abandoned during the Khmer Rouge era - but unfortunalty the raod was inpassable due to the rainy season - there had been a landslide - so wehad to change our plans.... We met a well travelled french couple in their 50's at our hotel who had also wanted to do the trip - so we teamed up with them to take a trip to an off-shore island for a night instead. It was a 30 min ride in a little wooden fishing boat to 'rabbit island'. We stayed in a really basic bamboo hut, there were a few people on the island who cooked simple meals and we shared a huge 2kg fish in the evening with the french couple on the beach! There was no running water and just a water but of collected rainwater to wash with. We spent the day on the beach - went for a walk and swam in the sea. We left the next day and spent another day at a seaside town before going back to phnom penh for a night. In Phnom Penh there are loads of garment factories - who make clothes for gap, H&M etc etc. As we were approaching Phnom Penh on our bus was saw dozens and dozens of pick up trucks leaving phnom penh- with literally 30 or 40 women crammed in standing up in the back - I would say like cattle - but i don't think even cattle are transported in such cramped conditions at home.... these are the workers from garment factories on their way home...which is one of Cambodia's most important export industries - i dread to think what the conditions are like within the factories - and i read an article that said workers are only paid about $45 a month (about 30 pounds!!) All the factories have barbed wires around them and guards outside and no-one is allowed to visit them. One of the factories in called 'Dai Young Garment Factory''- appropriate name???!! Another 5 or so hours on a bus and we were back in battambang - we spent the next morning doing a tour of the local area - including wine tasting at the only vinyard in cambodia, a Wat (budhist temple only reaches by about 600 stone steps on the top of a hill) and a tree full of hundreds of huge sleeping fruit bats!!! Then last night we went to a circus performance - which was amazing - lots of acrobatics of the highest standard! We're going to a party tonight at one of chris's friends before catching the 7am boat to Siem Reap tomorrow... Thanks for all you messages and emails - sorry this is really rushed and about any mistakes.... Take care, Helen x