Day 13 15.12.2014 After a last scrumptious buffet breakfast - with a great mixture of western and asian food - we were collected for our bus to Battambang. The Motherhome Inn has been highly commended on Tripadvisor - and I can only echo all the positive sentiments. This has definitely been the hotel with the very best customer service, that I have ever experienced. Service with lots of heart ...everyone is so friendly and gracious and really go out of their way to make your stay special. And this when one sees that they work very long hours every day, seem to be there 7 days a week at least 12 hours per day, and certainly are not paid huge wages. Very focused on getting their share of the tourist dollar. And we are happy to leave our dollars here. Fair trade and god equation. Well, after having read all the horror stories about bus travel in Cambodia and especially the Rith Monay bus company, I was mentally prepared for all eventualities. I was pleasantly surprised, that we were collected on time, that the bus was in relatively good shape (Clint was bowled over by the interior decor of the bus and wants to deck out the Vito with the velvet curtains, plastic flowers and pictures of Hindu gods....watch this space) and we even got the seats assigned to us. The trip took a bit longer than anticipated, but otherwise no curved balls at all. So happy to see a Heike Evans sign again - the TukTuks from our hotel coming to fetch us ! Yippee ...so much easier than trying to cope with the tuktuk touts blockading the door of the bus ! A sidenote about traffic and driving in Cambodia is essential at this stage. The traffic is mainly made up of scooters and tuktuks (the scooter taxis - scooter with a trailer with awning and seating for 4 people - in theory). Then you have the normal cars, busses and trucks and of course bicycles. Here traffic is on the right - as in France, whereas Thailand is on the left ...must be fun at the border posts. Scooters often tansport families of 5 or a whole stalls wares. Traffic police can be seen everywhere, yet traffic rules seem to be an optional extra at best. Helmets may or may not be worn. Driving on the wrong side of the road may be more convenient at times. If you need to turn, dont worry about oncoming traffic. Traffic lights are an indication of what should be happening. Pedestrians will walk anywhere at any time. Hooters are essential, replacing all indicators and those elusive traffic rules. In spite of al this , what we would call traffic chaos, we have not seen any accidents. There seem to be two main reasons for this. One is that the traffic mostly moves at about 30 - 40kms an hour due to congestion and bad road conditions. The most important one however is that people don't exhibit any aggressive road rage and certainly don't kinsist on their right of way. Everyone just gives way or drives around obstructing vehicles, lets others through and generally just makes the flow of traffic work. Very interesting indeed. Rather than strict rules, a non-aggressive mindset makes this environment work. We have learnt to cross the road ...wait for a slight gap and then just walk, everyone just drives around you. Odd concept, yet it seems to work. Battambang is a provinsional town towards the Thai border. This area was ravaged by the Khmer Rouge - during their reign and in the ensueing civil war. The area between The town and the Thai border was heavily landmined (at this stage there are still about 4 - 6 million unexploded landmines in the area) to keep the Khmer Rouge fighters that were stationed on the border of Thailand out of Cambodia. Scary thought ...so definitely no exploring off the beaten track ! This was also a capital of the region during the French colonial rule and the town is known for the French colonial buildings which can still be seen dotted around the town. Many Aid agencies and NGOs are active in this area. We saw several westerners around, but certainly not the volumes of Siem Reap. We ate our dinner on a rooftop (accessed by extremely steep narrow stairs ...in fact I think it should be classed a ladder) sitting on cushions and mats, and Clint reclining in a hammock. It is run by the Coconut Water NGO restaurant, which assists local women. The 3 young people cooking the food and serving us were friendly and enthusiastic. They should be commended not only for the quality of their foog, which was great, but also for their ability to bring it up those stairs !! On our way back to the hotel along the river we came across a night food market - got chatting to very friendly young locals and will make this our food stop for the next nights. No partying it up here or going out to eat late ...looks like the town closes at 10pm.