Claire and I left for Battambang on Monday morning. The journey took about 6 hours and we arrived at 5pm. We stayed at a nice hotel in the centre of town. Battambang is Cambodia's 2nd largest city/town - but it's tiny! It was supposed to be picturesque with French shop houses - we were disappointed! On Tuesday we decided to take a short moto tour of the surrounding rural areas and then get the Bamboo train back. On the tour we saw lots of plantations, including a pineapple plantation - I'd always wondered how they grew - was very interesting to see the bushes! We then got the bamboo train from the village we were in back to a place near Battambang. It was a very funny experience. The bamboo train was made for us whilst we were there and consisted of a bamboo platform placed on top of 4 wheels and connected to a small engine. We then got onto it, with our moto drivers and our motos!! A few locals joined us as well. Just as we were about to leave another one was coming in the other direction, so we had to take the whole thing off the lines to let the other one pass. The other one was heavier, so it gets priority. We then embarked on our journey!! We went at a top speed of about 25km/hr which felt quit fast on our wooden plank! We had no brakes, so stopping relied on turning the engine off and hoping for the best! We picked up some hitch hikers on the way too - they jumped on whilst it was still moving, with a few bags of rice - Very amusing! The rails were laid during the French Colonization and had become very warped over time, during the heat (see the photos) Most of the stations had been destroyed during the Khmer Rouge time. There is a main train that runs along the line every 2 days to Phnom Penh - fortunately it runs in the early mornings along that bit of track, so we didn't have to worry about it. If it does run whilst you're there you all have to jump off the bamboo train and get it off the tracks! Must be quite an adrenaline rush. When we got near town we got off the train and our moto drivers drove us back to or hotel. In the afternoon we did a cooking course. It was really good. We went the day before to book it, and no-one at the restaurant spoke English, so they gave us this bit of paper to point at what we wanted to do (see the photo). Anyway - when we turned up they seemed to have understood our instructions and we were booked on the course. There were 7 of us on the course which involved going to the market to buy the ingredients and then each making (and eating!) 3 dishes. We made Fish Amok (Cambodian Curry - very nice) Pork and vegetable stir-fry (I put too much Chili in mine and couldn't eat it!) and a Cambodian sour soup (absolutely disgusting - would never make it again!) We had a really good time at the course though and we were given huge meat cleavers to do all the chopping - that was the best bit - I must get myself one of those - makes you feel like a real chef and like you own the kitchen!! I now have a recipie book too! Got the bus back to Phnom Penh this morning - watched them totally overload it and have to actually put stuff on the spare wheel to get it all in!! Claire left for Siem Reap on the boat - I'll meet her again in a couple of weeks in Vietnam. My visa expires on Saturday, so I'm heading to Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) on Thursday - doing some final Cambodian shopping tomorrow before I leave. Am also a bit dubious about my bus ticket to Vietnam - it's only costing $3.50 or there's another one that costs $13 - can't work out why there's such a price discrepancy - the only difference appears to be that the $3.50 involves a change of bus at the border. Could be interesting to find out why it's so cheap......wonder where I'll end up!? Next journal entry will be from Vietnam (if I get there)!